Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone would never use AI, instead wants to rely on human creativity—'I feel like that should take priority over a soulless machine'

Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone, creator of Stardew Valley, one of the most impactful indie games of the last decade and dev behind the upcoming highly anticipated Haunted Chocolatier, knows a thing or two about being creative. And like many other creatives he's recently been touting the importance of human-made art and listening to your gut instead of relying on a machine to drop prompts in your lap.

"I think anything’s lost when you use AI for any creative thing, any step of the way—unless it’s being used for very specific zoomed-in cases, maybe," Barone says in an interview with GameInformer. "You’re offloading creativity to an algorithm, which I think is always gonna undermine the pure and authentic human element of what you’re doing."

(Image credit: ConcernedApe)

AI being used as a creative tool is an unfortunate yet all too common development we've seen in this industry—whether it be in benign AI video contests, Sony using it to "augment artist capabilities, or a as glorified yassification tool. But even still there are even more artists holding steadfast in their own creative capabilities by demonstrating just how valuable human-made art is.

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"For me, as someone who wants to express myself in an artistic way, I wouldn’t ever want to use AI for any sort of creative thing, because it’s beside the point of what I’m doing," Barone continues. "My goal is to express myself in a creative way. Why would I let an AI do that for me?

"At the very least, let another human being express themselves if you need help. That’s probably what I would say. There are plenty of humans out there that would like an opportunity to express themselves. I feel like that should take priority over a soulless machine."

But Barone isn't the only creative to warn against the lacklustre beast that is AI:

As Barone hints at, some studios can use machine learning to actually improve the work load of their creatives, such as Warcraft using it to cut out the busywork, leaving them more time to get on with the good stuff. That's not what concerns me. I care more for retaining the complexities, imperfections, and astounding creativity of art made by fellow human beings—I enjoy playing games that have clearly been made with a passion and dedication that only a human is capable of.

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