The last AI placeholder for Silberheim ECG’s release is dead!

About half a year ago, some of you were probably quite shocked: we had the audacity to use AI-generated placeholders for our card illustrations – even if only for testing during our beta, and for reasons that cannot simply be put down to laziness, an obsession with efficiency or greed. We heard in all sorts of ways that this bothered many of you, understandably so. But the discontent was greatest on one side: our own. You can hardly imagine how much we hated those things.

That makes us all the happier to look ahead. As we promised back then, none of those AI creations will find a place in the release version of Silberheim Evolving Card Game.

It was on 19 March that we published our article about AI placeholders. One of its headings spoke of 152 pieces of evidence – evidence that we were serious about handmade art. As you can probably imagine, our position has not changed since then. If anything, after seeing so many AI-generated menus with their idealised, invariably similar pictures of food outside these office walls, I would say our view has become even firmer. We believe that handmade illustrations can endure, and that they must. Human creativity is worth more than any saving made in the name of efficiency. Ultimately, it is what makes us human.

Now we want to take stock again and, in true Silberheim fashion, be completely honest with you. First, a little primary-school maths to show you how hard we – or rather, our art team – have worked. Since the company was founded in 2020, we have worked with more than 100 artists from around the world to create illustrations for Silberheim. It took a while for that work to gather pace. In part, that was down to staffing: at first, we had no dedicated art director, while there was still a great deal of the game itself to design. You can read more about that in this article (though it is no longer entirely up to date either – the art department has grown considerably).

To make a fair comparison, let us look at where we stood for the alpha, the beta and, finally, the release version. In the roughly nine months between Silberheim ECG’s alpha and beta, a little over 40 new illustrations were created. They contributed to the 152 pieces of evidence we told you about in March. In other words, it took nine months to add around 40 new illustrations. Yet there are only six months between the beta and the upcoming release. So how on earth is that supposed to work? After all, we can tell you this much: you will be able to earn a total of 485 cards in the first edition available through Steam, “Daemonion” (what a coincidence – that is also the name of our first novel!).

Had we continued at the same pace, we would have had just 179 finished illustrations by the time Silberheim ECG was released. Put another way, at that rate we would need another six years and three months to illustrate all 485 cards. That would not be ideal. Fortunately, quite a lot has changed, and we can now look at around 370 finished works of art for our fragments. You are probably asking yourselves two questions: first, how did we suddenly manage that? And second, why are there “only” 370 rather than the 485 we mentioned?

Let us take those one at a time.

First, we want to talk about why our artwork production has suddenly become so much more efficient and effective – without anyone on the team having to spend the night in the art department (we only do that to the programmers in the basement, don’t worry).

Three things played a major part. We mentioned the first back in March: the art team has grown substantially and is now more than twice its former size. At the end of last year, there were just three creative minds in the art department wielding their brushes and digital pens for Silberheim. Now there are eight. Those five new positions have made a considerable difference.

But then we ran into a rather different problem: we started running out of external artists to commission. After all, once we give them a brief, they are busy with it for a few weeks. Thankfully, that obstacle did not last long. Our Artists Wanted call brought in more than 1,000 applications in a remarkably short time. We expected to find an artist or two that way, but we certainly did not expect such a response. So we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks once again to everyone who got in touch. Unfortunately, we cannot commission all 1,000 of you to make an illustration at once. Otherwise, the art team really would have to start working night shifts. Even so, the call has helped us enormously, and we have already been able to show the first works to come out of it. We should also mention the Token Contest, which attracted dozens of artists.

Finally, I simply have to thank my colleagues across the corridor for their tireless work. The whole Silberheim team has been working flat out for some time to make this the best release we can, but that push began earliest for the art team. Through hard work and unshakeable perseverance, those eight souls over there have made it possible for me to write this article at all and to say that we have done our best to keep our promise. Thank you.

Now we need to address the Modder’tzhiam in the room. Why, in Arak’s name, are we talking about 370 finished illustrations rather than 485? And what does that mean for the remaining fragments? Here comes the uncomfortable truth, stated plainly: we messed up. Not all 485 illustrations will be finished in time for the release on 30 October. That is disappointing for us, too. But whether you believe me or not, we – and especially the art team I just mentioned – really have given it everything, in some cases alongside degree dissertations and university studies. Ultimately, there were simply too many illustrations to finish them all in time.

Does that mean you will find AI-generated placeholders in Silberheim ECG after all? No. Absolutely not. That will only happen if someone in IT presses the wrong button and the Bug Wolby appears. Under no circumstances do we want to sell a game containing those dreadful AI images. Does that mean you will be faced with blank card art instead? Also no. That would be rather silly – how else would you recognise and tell apart your creatures and expansions on the board? Instead, we have come up with a creative solution. Illustrations that are still in progress will temporarily be represented by thumbnails, sketches or colour keys. What does this mean? We are including images that represent the current state of the respective projects. In most cases, these are concepts and rough ideas of what the final result might look like. One thing we can promise you, however, is that everything will be handmade - created by the brush of an in-house artist. You can identify these by the "Artists Wanted" note at the bottom of the card. The fully finished illustrations will then be added over time. So instead of destroying AI placeholders, you can look forward to watching handmade art develop – er, evolve.

We will see – or read – each other again, and we will keep you up to date as the painting continues. Thank you for your time, your patience and your trust in us.

The most attentive dear souls among you may remember more than just a vague mention of our article about generative AI in Silberheim. You may remember that we spoke of more than 1,000 cards and, accordingly, more than 1,000 illustrations needed. So you might now be wondering what happened to the remaining 515 cards. Let us take this opportunity to explain briefly.

Some of you have already seen some of these fragments if you took part in the previous beta. There was a similarly large number of cards to earn there. Have we simply removed the other 515? No, don’t worry. The first edition of Silberheim ECG, called Daemonion as mentioned above, will initially contain only 485 cards. Further, optional editions will then be added over time. That is how Fendiril’s Heirs, Skuhuks and Trandar’s Basin, along with the Stromläufer and Warrior Elite factions (and perhaps another faction or two), will join the Silberheim universe. You will need a little more patience for those.

There are several reasons for this approach. Here is the short version. First, there is the familiar artwork problem: handmade illustrations take a great deal of time, so some factions have a longer road to travel before they make it into the game. Second, we want to avoid microtransactions in Silberheim ECG for as long as we possibly can. Boosters are earned through play, as are decks. You cannot spend real money in the game – only to buy it in the first place. To make that approach work in the long term, however, we will need to offer new editions at a modest price.

But wait! If new editions are added over time, will the “old” cards included in the base game still be able to keep up? Yes, that is the plan. That is precisely why you could use all the planned cards during the beta test: it allowed us to carry out an initial round of balancing across all those fragments. So do not worry, fans of the Stromläufer and Warrior Elite, of Nyvil or… oh dear, the name of that other faction seems to have slipped my mind. Well then, dear souls. We hope this rather lengthy update has given you an idea of how much has happened in the art department over the past six months. And we remain grateful for your patience with us and with Silberheim. We promise to continue using handmade illustrations in the future and will do our best to put that promise into practice as quickly, but also as thoughtfully, as we can.

See you in Silberheim.