At NUELOW Games, we've been using AI to generate illustrations in our releases for approaching two years, Yet, somehow, a "vast proportion" of our audience hasn't "completely shunned" us. In fact, one of our most-heavily AI-illustrated products, Chainmail Bikinis, was an immediate best-seller. Either NUELOW's core audience are less prone to hysterical fits than a "vast proportion of gamers", or they are a cut above that alleged mass of silly people... or maybe products featuring AI aren't "shunned" as is claimed.
"But, but, Miller," I imagine someone out there saying, "you're dishonest and you've not told your audience about the AI Slop in your products! If you had, you BET they'd shun you!"
No, it seems that they wouldn't.
The fact is that we've been very open about the use of AI in our products. It's right there on the credits page of every release for the past year or two (well, except for the ones that didn't feature any AI illustrations--and the recent release where the editor left out the main credit line entirely). Whether it's just the cover and all interior illustrations are from the vast clipart archive we're sitting on, or it's all AI, the credits page have contained some from of this statement: "Illustrations by Karl M. (using tools at OpenArt.ai and Photoshop)." We've been open and transparent about our AI use since it graduated from being my favorite new toy to another tool in the kit.
Although I have to wonder: Did we miss the outrage that this same "vast proportion of gamers" must have shown when I was using Photoshop extensively to make covers and interior illustrations for releases in the ROLF! line? Where's the difference, if not? Weren't artists behind "harmed" in both cases? (The answer is, no, they were/art not.)
Right before I went all-in using AI in NUELOW Games releases, I was ghosted by two different artists who had initially agreed to draw covers for some releases. I can't fault them, as the pay offered by us is really low--when I jokingly say that our sales number in the dozens, I'm also being truthful. NUELOW Games is a passion project with every release happening because one or both of us think the idea behind is fun and/or interesting, or the subject is one that deserves more attention that we think it's gotten. That's been the motivation behind this endevour since it began 15 years ago, and it will continue to be just that. I am resolved to keep going as long as I can.
Do we like it when our releases sell well? Of course, since it puts gas in the cars and buys cat food and most of the time, all we have to go by to measure the success of a release are those sales numbers. We get very little feedback from our audience, so all we can look at is what's selling and what's not to determine if anyone likes a release as much as we do.
So far, in 2025/2026 the only disappointment we've had sales-wise was the Last Laugh and Other Stories; it's a flop that stung because I am really fond of both Detective Sarai Chen and Stripper Magician Angie Hale, the stars of that anthology. Wouldn't everything be failing to even sell one dozen copies if we were being "completely shunned by a vast proportion of gamers"?
I am full aware that NUELOW Games operates in a tiny niche within a niche in the marketplace. Maybe that is protecting us from the outrage (OUTRAGE!) of that vast mob out here? We're too small to warrant their attention, and our audience is too smart to fall for group-think nonsense?
I am resolved to continue publishing what I (and my audience) find worthwhile. So far, so good, AI-generated illustrations or not... or maybe BECAUSE of AI-generated illustrations? It's a lot simpler to get what I need for a product when I can pick a "model" and type out and refine a "prompt" until I get what I'm looking for than to comb through the hundreds of thousands of stock photos and artwork in the NUELOW archives. And frankly, the generated illustrations can be spot-on instead of just generally applicable to the subject at hand.
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