The publisher Heart Abyss preferred neuroart over the artist's work—it turned out to be more clickable

The developers of the action-platformer Heart Abyss revealed that the publisher decided to keep an AI-generated image on the main page of the game in Steam, even though the team had an alternative drawn by an artist. The decision was due to advertising results: the AI art proved to be more clickable.

The team announced this in their Telegram channel, publishing the illustration they wanted to use for the game's page design.

“Such art could have been on the main page in Steam, but since the publisher's acquisition showed that the neural image is more clickable, it remains,” explained the developers.

The situation was highlighted by Balancy service CTO Andrey Apanasik. His post sparked a discussion about whether the use of AI images instead of artists' work in game marketing is justified.

Opinions among commenters were divided. Some lamented that publishers increasingly favor clickability over artistic value. Others pointed out that the main purpose of an image in a store is to attract the attention of potential buyers, so choosing the more commercially effective option is quite understandable.

Heart Abyss is a 2D pixel action-platformer by the studio DEADMAP, inspired by Japanese folklore. The game's publishers are HeroCraft PC and Gamersky Games. Its release on Steam is scheduled for November 3, 2026.