The short answer
According to Mandragora’s official August 11 statement, the game itself does not use generative AI. The controversy concerned background artwork supplied for Steam community assets by an outside artist. The team says it did not know AI had been used, stopped working with that artist, reviewed the other assets, and started replacing the affected backgrounds.
This distinction answers two different questions:
| Question | What the developer says | |---|---| | Does the shipped game use generative AI? | No generative AI was used in the game itself | | Did AI imagery appear around the game on Steam? | An outsourced artist used it in community-page backgrounds without the team's knowledge |
Step by step
1. Separate the game from its community-page artwork
The official statement appears in the v1.0.009r Steam update. It distinguishes assets inside ReStory from promotional or background assets made for the Steam community area.
That means a screenshot of an affected Steam background does not by itself prove that the game’s characters, repair devices, writing, or in-game art were generated by AI.
2. Read the studio’s response accurately
The studio says it was disappointed to discover the external artist’s use of AI, ended the relationship, reviewed the other material from that artist, and was replacing the backgrounds.
The statement does not ask players to accept the outsourced image as intentional studio policy. It presents the event as an undisclosed action by a contractor and describes corrective steps.
3. Keep the evidence boundary visible
An official developer statement is the strongest public source for the team’s own production policy, but it is still a statement. We have not independently audited source files, contracts, art layers, or every internal tool used during development.
For that reason, the accurate wording is “the developer says no generative AI was used in the game”, not an unqualified technical certification covering every part of production.
4. What about AI-generated code?
The official post addresses generative AI in the game and the outsourced visual assets. It does not publish a separate forensic audit of code-assistance tools. We found no official disclosure supporting the claim that ReStory’s code was AI-generated, so this page does not repeat that claim.
What not to assume
- Outsourced Steam backgrounds and assets shipped inside the game are not the same thing.
- A developer statement is not an independent forensic audit.
- The post does not provide evidence for broad claims about every internal software-development tool.
- Repeating an uncited social post does not strengthen the evidence.
- The AI statement and the v1.0.009r bug fixes share a post but answer separate questions.
Sources
- Official v1.0.009r update and AI statement — the studio’s full public explanation and corrective action.
- Earlier developer reply on Steam — additional first-party context for the studio’s stated position.