An indie dev who was skeptical about AI has come around to the use of the tech, not for game development but to allow him to expand his IP into other media. HaZ Dulull, who previously used Unreal Engine to make the CG animated film Max Beyond, used Nura Studios' Showcraft platform to produce an animation mini series based on his pixel art game Astro Burn.
The Montreal and LA-based AI company reimagined the game’s characters and world for 10 short vertical video episodes for TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram (see the first episode below.
HaZ, who's based in London, said protecting the game’s visual identity was a priority.
“I wanted complete control over a locked-down model trained exclusively on my assets," he says.
He worked with Nura Studios writer-director Abe Scheuermann, who developed and produced each episode in approximately one working week. This included scripting, animation, sound design, voice recording, music, cleanup and final delivery.
“The first test frames were trained exclusively on the original character sprites, animation and artwork I provided,” HaZ says. “I could send annotated notes and receive updates within hours, sometimes less, with the feedback addressed exactly. That level of responsiveness is rare for a director.”
Nura says the production remained firmly human-led. That included the voice cast. Graziela Larroca voices Astro, Elvis Deane voices AL, and Brian Ulrich performs a rotating cast of supporting characters. The music is by human composers, licensed through Epidemic Sound and edited to picture.
“I strongly prefer human voice artists because they bring nuances to a performance that are almost entirely absent from AI-generated voices,” Abe says. “The same philosophy applies to music.”
HaZ argues that rather than replacing a traditional creative team, Showcraft enabled a solo IP owner, one writer-director and three voice actors to complete a project that might otherwise have required months of production and significantly greater resources.
“AI can’t and won’t tell your story. That’s your job,” he says. “This works because the technology supports a clear creative vision, it isn’t about prompting random ideas to generate random shots.”
Astro Burn the game is available via Steam.
