LAIzy Picture Phone: The Telephone game with a different twist | Mundo Indie

You’re probably familiar with the game "Telephone," or its newer digital version, Gartic Phone, which also uses tools from the Gartic game to enhance the traditional game. Now, Canvas Ink. Games, a Brazilian game development studio, is launching LAIzy Picture Phone, which takes concepts from its predecessors, adds the element of Artificial Intelligence in image creation, and forms a new way to play Telephone.

In LAIzy Picture Phone, you can create a game with up to eight people. At the beginning, each player types a phrase of three or more words for the AI to create an image. After a few seconds, the game will offer four AI-generated image options to choose from.

In the next stage of the game, each player views the image chosen by a friend and tries to guess the phrase sent to the AI. The new prompt is directed to other players, who will receive four new images to match the one that best fits the phrase. At the end of the rounds, a recap is shown to everyone, and it’s possible to see who got closest to the original intent of their friends.

The game has a structure very similar to Gartic Phone, with the addition of the Artificial Intelligence element. Eduardo Saffer, founder of Canvas Ink. and game designer of the project, talked about the idea of reimagining Telephone with AI.

“The idea came about at the beginning of last year when AI was booming. And, being fans of Gartic Phone, and even its predecessor, Broken Picture Phone, we played around generating images on the internet and validated it by playing sort of a prototype to see if it was fun and funny,” said Eduardo.

The game designer explains that the game development process involved understanding what would be fun within the idea of using AI, and how to make players understand the concept of LAIzy Picture.

“It’s not simply ‘I’m going to make Telephone with AI and it’s going to work.’ In the process of doing this, we understood that if I write ‘green tree’ and you get a green tree, it’s not going to be funny. It will just be a green tree. Teaching this to people when we’re playing, especially those who are not into the game, is also part of the process,” he explained.

Use of various AIs and different image styles

When creating a game, you can choose from five available Artificial Intelligences: DALL-E from OpenAI, Stability Diffusion from Stability AI, OctoAI, Leonardo.AI, and Bedrock from Amazon. Each will generate its own style of images, whether it leans more towards 3D, or makes photos in anime or hyper-realistic style.

According to Eduardo, the game is being designed to work well in any language, but it is especially polished in English and Portuguese.

Monetization and challenges

Telephone is a game that practically doesn’t require resources to play. Gartic Phone, despite being digital, is easily accessible and free for everyone. LAIzy Picture Phone, although following the model of its predecessors, required a significant investment from Canvas Ink. Games, especially for adopting image generation tools.

Because of this, the studio faces a big dilemma and challenges regarding how to distribute and monetize the game, which, after all, was not cheap to develop. Despite having a cost, the developers understand that people expect this type of game to be free or easily accessible.

Initially, LAIzy Picture Phone will be free for everyone. Over time, the developer will study the best ways to monetize the game, such as possibly selling keys to create games or partnering with image generation services.

“The biggest challenge is trying to make people understand that creating up to 50 images in a single game is not cheap. We understand that there is a whole community that plays drawing games who will only be able to see this product for free. Eventually, someone has to foot the bill. Whether it’s someone promoting their AI, or us selling keys. Fortunately, we managed to make some partnerships with some image generation services that granted us credits. So, we can keep the game free for a long time until it becomes popular. The biggest challenge is really monetizing,” explained the studio’s founder.

Controversies and reflections on the use of AIs in video games

In recent years, the debate on the use of Artificial Intelligence in various industries has grown exponentially along with the use of the tools. In the video game industry, controversies are constantly raised about the use of AIs, especially in the artistic part of games.

Although AI is not part of the development process of LAIzy Picture Phone, it is the crucial tool of the game’s design, and what differentiates it from other versions of Telephone.

Eduardo Saffer says that LAIzy Picture Phone does not come to "replace" other ways of playing Telephone, but as a different alternative to the dynamic. Moreover, the developer states that the studio will make the rules and laws they will follow for the use of Artificial Intelligence very clear.

“The important thing is to make it clear that there are laws, there is the company’s stance, and there are a series of rules that we will determine for the use. Every developer who wants to use it needs to make this clear and communicate it. I believe more than ever that the human ability to create art and to differentiate itself will never be replaced,” he pondered.

After a testing phase, LAIzy Picture Phone is officially available for PC and mobile at laizypp.com. Additionally, it is free for a limited time. In the future, Canvas Ink. Games intends to release the game on other platforms, such as consoles and TV.

The Philosophy of Canvas Ink. Games

Knowing that developing games is not an easy task, especially in Brazil, Canvas Ink. Games always seeks creative solutions for its games and directs its work towards producing games accessible to everyone.

With a team of seven people, Eduardo explains that the studio’s philosophy is "to try to make the person connect with a game with as few steps as possible and have the desire to play." Most of Canvas Ink’s games are free and focused on player fun.

In addition to developing their own games, Canvas Ink. Games worked on a game for another company, Lingo, available for Android and iPhone, which creates a simple structure for the player to guess a daily word, similar to the popular web game Termo. There’s also Music Rush, a rhythm game already available for Android and web browsers. Additionally, Inferno Manager and Anagram Arena are both in development.

“Our philosophy is to try to make the person connect with a game with as few steps as possible and have the desire to play. And when they play, they see that it may be easy to understand, but there’s depth to master. We try to use this philosophy even for scalability in marketing, which can be shared for being cool. This is a question we bring into our internal development philosophy,” Eduardo concluded.

Learn more about Canvas Ink. Games on their official website, Instagram, X, and YouTube.

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Authors: Guilherme Novais and Lucas Augusto de Souza