{"id":2088090,"date":"2026-08-11T15:54:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T12:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2088090"},"modified":"2026-08-11T15:54:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T12:54:22","slug":"we-live-in-a-world-full-of-ai-lets-be-honest-with-ourselves-1666-amsterdam-developer-still-using-ai-tools-despite-recent-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2088090","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;We live in a world full of AI, let&#8217;s be honest with ourselves&#8221; &#8211; 1666: Amsterdam developer still using AI tools despite recent controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/1666-amsterdam\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      1666: Amsterdam<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">&#8220;We live in a world full of AI, let&#8217;s be honest with ourselves&#8221; &#8211; 1666: Amsterdam developer still using AI tools despite recent controversy<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">&#8220;It won&#8217;t be in the final product.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/1666-amsterdam-header.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"A woman veiled in red gauze and hidden by an ornately stitched red hood stares at the camera. There is darkness all around.\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"1666-amsterdam-header.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Panache Digital<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/robert-purchese\">Robert Purchese<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Associate Editor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\n<p>Published on   <time datetime=\"2026-08-11T15:54:22+00:00\" data-auto-time-zone=\"true\" data-year=\"numeric\" data-month=\"short\" data-day=\"numeric\" data-hour=\"numeric\" data-minute=\"numeric\">Aug. 11, 2026, 3:54 p.m.<\/time>\n              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"cd83042f-c8bc-475d-939f-807051a65dde\" data-name=\"1666: Amsterdam\" data-follow-text=\"Follow 1666: Amsterdam\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following 1666: Amsterdam\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow 1666: Amsterdam\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following 1666: Amsterdam\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow 1666: Amsterdam\" title=\"Follow 1666: Amsterdam\"><br \/>\n  Follow 1666: Amsterdam<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Canadian developer Panache Digital, co-founded by Assassin&#8217;s Creed creator Patrice D\u00e9silets, has said it is still using AI tools to help develop its witchy action game 1666: Amsterdam, albeit &#8220;less and less&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The studio was speaking after controversy arose earlier this year around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/1666-amsterdam-demo-patrice-desilets\">1666: Amsterdam&#8217;s playable prologue<\/a>, in which players spotted the tell-tale signs of generative AI use on in-game paintings and in associated marketing materials. The backlash prompted <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PanacheDGames\/status\/2064464778723008537\">an apology from Panache<\/a> and a declaration that AI use wouldn&#8217;t find its way into the full game.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a preview event I recently attended in Amsterdam, Patrice D\u00e9silets shed more light on the issue. &#8220;It won&#8217;t be in the final product,&#8221; he began, answering a question about AI from a small group of press during a gameplay presentation. &#8220;We live in a world full of AI &#8211; let&#8217;s be honest between ourselves &#8211; but there were some [assets] we didn&#8217;t retouch enough in the pipeline, and since then we made sure that there will not be any use of AI anywhere in the game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"1666: Amsterdam - Official Day &amp; Night Cycle: Game Feature Video #3\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bKKTY3O6TyU?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/bKKTY3O6TyU\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">1666: Amsterdam &#8211; Official Day &amp; Night Cycle: Game Feature Video #3<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"button video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bKKTY3O6TyU\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figure>\n<p>Expanding on the issue, D\u00e9silets said: &#8220;Then in the pipeline, there&#8217;s again an issue. I can ask the AI to give me 75 different variations of one thing, but I cannot have 75 different illustrators come up with a variation in three seconds. This is the world in which we&#8217;re living, and while we were this small team and building [the game], we put it in. We didn&#8217;t even realise it was AI any more because we were used to seeing it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m really sorry about that,&#8221; he reiterated. &#8220;But being honest, when we were doing it two, three years ago by ourselves, and when we shipped [the demo], some slipped. That would not be the case any more.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Here, I asked for clarification about the ongoing use of AI in development, because it sounded to me as though it was still being used. &#8220;Exactly,&#8221; D\u00e9silets responded. &#8220;And now we&#8217;re using less and less because we don&#8217;t need them, because it&#8217;s not about &#8216;okay, I need something quick&#8217;. It&#8217;s true: this is the main [advantage or use of it].&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote right\"><p><em>&#8220;We can have a big discussion about AI as human beings, but right now it&#8217;s tough to have the discussion&#8221; -Patrice D\u00e9silets<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He continued: &#8220;We can have a big discussion about AI as human beings, but right now it&#8217;s tough to have the discussion.&#8221; At this, another member of the press and a creator said they didn&#8217;t need this discussion because it was just another tool to be used. To which D\u00e9silets added: &#8220;And it&#8217;s everywhere: trying to find something on Google without AI&#8230;&#8221; But with a laugh he said he didn&#8217;t want to have this discussion in front of a room of journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Panache Digital is an approximately 70-person team that&#8217;s been working on 1666: Amsterdam since 2020. Its early years were spent concepting during Covid lockdown when D\u00e9silets overhauled the game&#8217;s premise &#8211; to be less about a devil&#8217;s apprentice and more about a witch instead. It&#8217;s now been in production for several years, funded mostly by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/1666-amsterdam-was-originally-going-to-be-an-xbox-published-game\/\">a secret party rumoured to be Xbox<\/a>, though D\u00e9silets wouldn&#8217;t confirm or deny this. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know who it was but they&#8217;re not there any more,&#8221; he told me in a separate interview, with a knowing smile.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>1666: Amsterdam is a game about a witch called Noa living in Amsterdam in 1666, perhaps obviously. But it&#8217;s also about a man called Aaron living in 1999, and about Aaron&#8217;s descendent Clio living in the present day. Their timelines overlap to tell a story about a Collector, who the devil charges with tracking down and &#8216;collecting&#8217; the souls of powerful people known as Originals, living across Amsterdam. It&#8217;s a refreshingly unique concept, as I wrote in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/1666-amsterdam-impressions-patrice-desilets\">my 1666: Amsterdam preview<\/a>, though its implementation is sometimes scruffy right now.<\/p>\n<p>1666: Amsterdam launches into PC early access (via Steam and the Epic Games Store) on 25th August priced $30.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Canadian developer Panache Digital, co-founded by Assassin&#8217;s Creed creator Patrice D\u00e9silets, has said it is still using AI tools to help develop its witchy action game 1666: Amsterdam, albeit &#8220;less and less&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The studio was speaking after controversy arose earlier this year around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/1666-amsterdam-demo-patrice-desilets\">1666: Amsterdam&#8217;s playable prologue<\/a>, in which players spotted the tell-tale signs of generative AI use on in-game paintings and in associated marketing materials. The backlash prompted <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PanacheDGames\/status\/2064464778723008537\">an apology from Panache<\/a> and a declaration that AI use wouldn&#8217;t find its way into the full game.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a preview event I recently attended in Amsterdam, Patrice D\u00e9silets shed more light on the issue. &#8220;It won&#8217;t be in the final product,&#8221; he began, answering a question about AI from a small group of press during a gameplay presentation. &#8220;We live in a world full of AI &#8211; let&#8217;s be honest between ourselves &#8211; but there were some [assets] we didn&#8217;t retouch enough in the pipeline, and since then we made sure that there will not be any use of AI anywhere in the game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"1666: Amsterdam - Official Day &amp; Night Cycle: Game Feature Video #3\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bKKTY3O6TyU?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/bKKTY3O6TyU\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">1666: Amsterdam &#8211; Official Day &amp; Night Cycle: Game Feature Video #3<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"button video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bKKTY3O6TyU\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figure>\n<p>Expanding on the issue, D\u00e9silets said: &#8220;Then in the pipeline, there&#8217;s again an issue. I can ask the AI to give me 75 different variations of one thing, but I cannot have 75 different illustrators come up with a variation in three seconds. This is the world in which we&#8217;re living, and while we were this small team and building [the game], we put it in. We didn&#8217;t even realise it was AI any more because we were used to seeing it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m really sorry about that,&#8221; he reiterated. &#8220;But being honest, when we were doing it two, three years ago by ourselves, and when we shipped [the demo], some slipped. That would not be the case any more.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Here, I asked for clarification about the ongoing use of AI in development, because it sounded to me as though it was still being used. &#8220;Exactly,&#8221; D\u00e9silets responded. &#8220;And now we&#8217;re using less and less because we don&#8217;t need them, because it&#8217;s not about &#8216;okay, I need something quick&#8217;. It&#8217;s true: this is the main [advantage or use of it].&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote right\"><p><em>&#8220;We can have a big discussion about AI as human beings, but right now it&#8217;s tough to have the discussion&#8221; -Patrice D\u00e9silets<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He continued: &#8220;We can have a big discussion about AI as human beings, but right now it&#8217;s tough to have the discussion.&#8221; At this, another member of the press and a creator said they didn&#8217;t need this discussion because it was just another tool to be used. To which D\u00e9silets added: &#8220;And it&#8217;s everywhere: trying to find something on Google without AI&#8230;&#8221; But with a laugh he said he didn&#8217;t want to have this discussion in front of a room of journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Panache Digital is an approximately 70-person team that&#8217;s been working on 1666: Amsterdam since 2020. Its early years were spent concepting during Covid lockdown when D\u00e9silets overhauled the game&#8217;s premise &#8211; to be less about a devil&#8217;s apprentice and more about a witch instead. It&#8217;s now been in production for several years, funded mostly by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/1666-amsterdam-was-originally-going-to-be-an-xbox-published-game\/\">a secret party rumoured to be Xbox<\/a>, though D\u00e9silets wouldn&#8217;t confirm or deny this. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know who it was but they&#8217;re not there any more,&#8221; he told me in a separate interview, with a knowing smile.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>1666: Amsterdam is a game about a witch called Noa living in Amsterdam in 1666, perhaps obviously. But it&#8217;s also about a man called Aaron living in 1999, and about Aaron&#8217;s descendent Clio living in the present day. Their timelines overlap to tell a story about a Collector, who the devil charges with tracking down and &#8216;collecting&#8217; the souls of powerful people known as Originals, living across Amsterdam. It&#8217;s a refreshingly unique concept, as I wrote in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/1666-amsterdam-impressions-patrice-desilets\">my 1666: Amsterdam preview<\/a>, though its implementation is sometimes scruffy right now.<\/p>\n<p>1666: Amsterdam launches into PC early access (via Steam and the Epic Games Store) on 25th August priced $30.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News 1666: Amsterdam &#8220;We live in a world full of AI, let&#8217;s be honest with ourselves&#8221; &#8211; 1666: Amsterdam developer still using AI tools despite recent controversy &#8220;It won&#8217;t be in the final product.&#8221; Image credit: Panache Digital News by Robert Purchese Associate Editor Published on Aug. 11, 2026, 3:54 p.m. Follow 1666: Amsterdam [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-2088090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2088090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2088090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2088090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2088090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}