Victory’s Grave: Airborne started with the idea of extending the ethos of the Victory’s Grave TTRPG’s Mörk Borg hack fully into video games. This is not a game set in the 1980s Cold War. It is a game from the 1980s Cold War.
We knew this would be a niche product. Difficult, skill-dependent gameplay with zero hand-holding is rare in mass-market games. That niche focus made a full traditional art pipeline impractical, so we leaned on an AI workflow for certain assets in order to ship the game we actually wanted to make.
Gameplay and levels are entirely human-designed. Giga Joe’s character design started in sketchbooks. The vast majority of gameplay art assets were directed, selected, and heavily edited by the team. Transition screens and the opening cinematic make heavier use of AI. No AI was used in the writing, voiceover, or music.
We recognize that AI-generated art is not for everyone. The studio looks forward to working with our regular collaborators on future projects. Using AI here allowed us to keep the hardcore, chaotic soul of Victory’s Grave: Airborne intact.
Our goal for the player is simple, straightforward fun. With a nod to arcade games like Commando and Ikari Warriors, Airborne is the start of our Old School Arcade Revival.
[Early Giga Joe sketches]