Hooded Horse has formalized what many indie developers suspected was coming. The strategy game publisher added an explicit “no generative AI assets” clause to its publishing contracts about a year ago, and CEO Tim Bender recently explained the policy while detailing a specific case where AI-generated icons made it into a shipped game.
The policy covers any AI-generated audiovisual content in games Hooded Horse publishes. That means no AI art, no AI audio, and no AI-written dialogue or story text. Bender clarified the contract language isn’t limited to visuals despite the “audiovisual” wording, he added that phrasing mainly to ensure AI-generated audio was clearly included.
The clause got tested when Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic shipped with AI-generated images. Bender said an art outsourcing vendor’s employee used generative AI tools despite explicit instructions and contractual requirements forbidding it. The publisher rushed out a patch immediately after discovering the issue to strip the AI assets from the game.
Bender described generative AI assets as “cancerous” and framed the policy as a shared commitment rather than a gotcha mechanism. If a studio wants to use AI-generated content, Hooded Horse simply won’t sign them. The contract exists to formalize expectations everyone already agreed to.
The real enforcement challenge isn’t catching developers who openly use AI tools. It’s preventing assets from sneaking in through external vendors and contractors. Game studios routinely outsource UI work, icons, promotional art, and audio to third-party firms. Those firms might have individual artists using AI tools without proper oversight.
