AI Policy
Last Updated: June 27, 2026
Our Philosophy
Wayward Thoughts Interactive believes that players, publishers, collaborators, and fellow developers deserve an honest understanding of how our games are made.
This page explains how artificial intelligence is used during development and where human authorship begins and ends. It is intended to provide transparency regarding our development process and will be updated as our workflow evolves.
Guiding Principles
Artificial intelligence is used at Wayward Thoughts Interactive as an assistive development tool.
Its purpose is to improve development efficiency, organization, accessibility, and iteration—not to replace human creativity or creative responsibility.
Every released game remains the responsibility of Wayward Thoughts Interactive. Final creative decisions are always made by the developer.
How AI Is Used
Current uses include:
- Brainstorming and creative discussion
- Idea organization and recording
- Design iteration and systems analysis
- Coding assistance and debugging
- Summarization of long development discussions
- Research assistance
- Accessibility support, including assistance evaluating color palettes and contrast due to the developer’s colorblindness
AI serves as a collaborative sounding board that helps organize information, explore alternatives, identify inconsistencies, and accelerate iteration throughout development.
Human Authorship
Wayward Thoughts Interactive retains creative responsibility for every project.
This includes, but is not limited to:
- Creative direction
- Game design
- Programming and implementation
- Narrative design and writing
- Character design
- Worldbuilding
- Gameplay mechanics
- User interface design
- Animation
- Art direction
- Audio direction
- Marketing
- Final editorial review
Every feature, design decision, gameplay system, line of dialogue, and production asset included in a released Wayward Thoughts Interactive title is subject to human review before publication.
Artwork & Visual Assets
Maintaining a consistent artistic identity is a core part of every Wayward Thoughts Interactive project.
During early development, rough visual references may occasionally be explored as part of the ideation process. These references are never considered finished production assets.
Artwork appearing in released games is reviewed, edited, refined, or created by the developer to ensure it matches each project’s established visual language and artistic direction.
Accessibility
Artificial intelligence also serves as an accessibility tool during development.
As the developer is colorblind, AI is used to help evaluate color palettes, distinguish visually similar colors, verify contrast, and identify visual issues that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Why We Use AI
Independent game development requires balancing programming, writing, illustration, animation, design, production, marketing, and business management.
AI helps reduce time spent organizing information, summarizing discussions, debugging code, and exploring ideas so that more development time can be dedicated to building and polishing the game itself.
Its role is to assist the creative process—not replace it.
Our Commitment
Wayward Thoughts Interactive is committed to:
- Being transparent about our development workflow.
- Clearly communicating meaningful changes to that workflow.
- Maintaining human creative direction and editorial control.
- Taking responsibility for every game we release.
Whether a tool is traditional or modern, the final responsibility for every released project rests with Wayward Thoughts Interactive.
Questions
Questions regarding this policy or our development workflow are always welcome.
If our workflow changes in a meaningful way, this page will be updated accordingly.