Mind Control Comics Forum

We're still hard at work on Lessirova. It has an entirely new engine under the hood compared to Starter Marriage (let's just say I learned a lot from SM), so that's taking more time than I realized.

And then, there's the art.

Right now, we do not have an artist assigned to it. Art for a multipath game is a hard assignment: you have to be fast, good, and extremely reliable, and there aren't that many artists who hit all three. (Hi, PK!)

We are considering using AI assist for the artwork. We know that this is a hot-button topic, and we'd like to get some feedback about it here.

When I see an AI-generated image that I recognize as being by AI, it massively cheapens and diminishes the image and whatever it's attached to, in my mind. I don't actually have a philosophical objection to AI images, it just triggers a 'this is garbage' emotional response which makes it very difficult to engage with. They call it slop for a reason: it communicates haste and laziness and lack of effort. That said, if I couldn't tell that something was AI-generated or looked AI-generated, I wouldn't feel cheated if I found out it was. After a certain point it's just another artistic tool. And for all I know I see AI-generated images all the time without realizing it, alongside the ones I do recognize.

I agree with jwik. I guess if I can’t tell (and you don’t admit it) all’s fair in erotic comics, but part of what I imagine myself paying for here is art made by humans. I can go prompt stable diffusion myself, and for a lot less than a MCC membership…

I've always been somewhat indifferent toward AI-generated images, and based on most of the material I've seen, I don't think the technology is quite there yet.

If a project plans to rely fully on AI images, the quality needs to come close to the consistency and detail in Gossip Goblin's videos, otherwise, I'm not interested. That level of polish is genuinely impressive, but it's clearly difficult to achieve.

For me, the best middle ground is using AI images purely as placeholders for the Multipath Story projects. That way we could get our hands on the next version (or an early build) of SM and Lessirova as soon as possible, while the real artwork is still being drawn and later swapped in by real artists. It would also mean the team wouldn't have to prioritize the games over other comics they're working on, such as SJI.

If we went the AI route, our target would be something like this: https://www.instagram.com/watch.null.tv/

I think same as others have said, I would be happy with AI as placeholder images to ease the pressure on the artists for the multipath stories. Then just replace them when the real artwork is ready.

Those look pretty good! The algorithm seems to work a lot better when it's constrained to a particular style. 99% of the slop I notice as being AI is either 'photo with a lot of artifacting' or 'generic Pixar-esque cartoon,' so if you can avoid that...

I think there should be a poll for choosing which AI styles to go with. Looking at the example you provided, they use a lot of different styles, and I do not like most of them at all. Please also avoid the ones used in Rapid Induction, they're awful. I'd much prefer something more realistic, or stylized in a more Western comic way, and less anime inspired.

The vast majority of AI created porn, especially in the mc world, is really bad, and complete slop. But there are some I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and these look nice.

I really disagree with LLM-created images (they aren't art) and think the site shouldn't use them.

I personally strongly disagree with any of the use cases for LLMs, particularly for art.

I'll also take the hits for not being a strong fan of the multi-path stories, and even less so as it has seemed that those are pulling the resources away from everything else being created.

The substantial use of genai images (they are not and can never be art) would mean I would unsubscribe and probably not be back.

I also really dislike AI art and would not read/play Lessirova if that's what it was.

My opinion of AI imagery is that Pandoras box has been opened and not making use of the technology is a fruitless resistance. The artists that were gonna be fucked by it, have been, and so long as people are responsible with it moving forward it greatly diminishes the negative stigma associated with it. That said... I would still prefer no art and inserting human made artwork later over the use of AI at all, even for temporary imagery.

It feels sad that despite years of direct financial support to this site it's still not enough to fund such a project properly.

Would people be willing to have things like... idk just lineart and it gets colored later kinda deal? I understand thats a less finished product but I dont need it to be a full color spread to find it enticing. Take a page out of the Manga industry standards? I suppose thats a poor comparison as they are razor thin profit margins.

Just my two cents

I've updated the Lessirova Coming Soon (http://lessirova.com) page with an example of what the art might look like.

Yeah, totally agree. It’s pretty much the same thing RawlyRawls does. They put out the text version first, then the sketch, and finally the fully illustrated comic.
Not only does that give you extra content to enjoy, but it also works like progress updates on the project, which is always a big plus for me. I love getting as much info as possible about any ongoing project I’m into.

im not against ai but also not for it. Like others have said im ok if it is used as a place holder and replaced later. Im also in favor of the idea benhur over said.

This is much better than the old one.

As somebody who said "I only object to AI images if they look like AI images to me" my response to this sample art is "I dunno."  There's a lot of ways to get a face wrong, not to mention a series of images of the same face with different expressions. Not to mention constructed objects and locations, buildings and furniture and such that need to look correct. This piece here I find unobjectionable (I completely respect the opinions of those who disagree) but it doesn't totally sell me on the concept.

I can definitely see the appeal of wanting to be able to use AI images as they are/were sold to us, for a project like this. Lots of pictures of women in various outfits, various poses, various sex acts, various expressions, and the AI generating a bank of twelve options to choose from in moments instead of an actual flesh-and-blood artist with other priorities doing their best to get back to you before the end of the month. There doesn't seem to be a large pool of artists whose work this would be replacing, the opposite in fact. Maybe this type of software will be capable of doing it, maybe soon, maybe it already is? Maybe it's a technological dead end and any attempt to improve issues inevitably worsens other issues. I dunno!

When the site loads, I briefly see some blue text. What is that for? Am I supposed to see it?
It reads:
"Poster for Lessirova, a multipath story. A nude woman stands with her back to the viewer on a coastal rock ledge, both arms raised, facing a sunset over the Pacific. The lettering reads: Lessirova, A Multipath Story, Coming 2026. Script and code by Daphne, art by Zen. mindcontrolcomics.com"

It's the alt text. It's for search engine indexing and screen readers. Basic part of the web. Some browsers display it while the image is loading.

That updated image does seem like a vast improvement over the old one. Looking at it I'm really curious about the model and process involved, and I wonder how well faces and varied expressions would turn out, as another mentioned. Personally I've always been a bit baffled by the degree of general animosity towards gen AI when I see so much potential for niche and even personalized content being released significantly more often than it otherwise would be, across all types of media, but figured most people would come around once the output progressed to being undeniably as good or better than most traditionally made content. I've experimented on and off with LLMs and image generators mostly just to periodically get a sense of the pace of improvements in their capability, and I've grown increasingly convinced that they will get there eventually, but the wait for them to get good enough for my taste has been excruciating. I wasn't sure there was anything that I would consider ready for this sort of project at this point. There's also the obvious annoyance of tiptoeing around guardrails in the censored corporate models to consider, and that's another thing that has me curious about the process behind this output. Also, I'm not normally one to comment on this sort of thing publicly, but the fact that I see almost nobody voicing my perspective on this openly for the past few years has kind of made me feel like either I'm taking crazy pills or most everyone else is :-\.

would rather a purely text-based multi-path story than the alternative, as i try my best to avoid playing anything that relies on AI visual assets. your writing is good enough on its own merit to justify a great text adventure!!!

That's an interesting enough idea that I've started a poll. (https://forum.mindcontrolcomics.com/index.php?topic=4897.0)