Release Date: Early 2025
Platforms: Steam: PC, Mac
Languages: EN / JA / CN (Simplified & Traditional)
Developer: Tomo Kihara, Daniel Coppen
Location: Tokyo, London
Publisher: other rules inc.
🔗 Links: Website Twitter Steam
Contacts: General/ Business: [email protected]
outdraw.AI — 日本語プレスリリース
Draw things humans can understand, but an image recognition AI can’t!
Deviation Game is a co-op party game for 2-6 players that pits human creativity against AI perception. Flipping Alan Turing’s revolutionary 1950 Imitation Game on its head, Deviation Game encourages players to fool the AI instead of the AI trying to fool them.
In each round, one player is the drawer and the others, plus an image recognition AI, will guess. With categories from objects to concepts, the game challenges players’ creativity to draw things that will baffle the AI’s image recognition, but not their fellow humans.
Game features:
The creators behind the game see AI not as a replacement for human creativity, but as a tool to enhance and challenge our creative expression. Through its simple yet fun mechanic, the game encourages players to push their creativity to deviate from what the AI has already learned, sometimes resulting in some truly unique drawings.
The original concept for the game was a collaborative effort between game designer Tomo Kihara and art-design duo Playfool (Daniel Coppen & Saki Maruyama). Based in both Tokyo and London, both of their practices centre around the notion of play to design tools that foster creativity and produce artistic interventions that engage with urban spaces and society. Their previous collaboration *How (not) to get hit by a self-driving car* received an Honorary Mention in the S+T+ARTS Prize 2024 at Ars Electronica. Deviation Game will be their first venture to produce and publish an indie game.
Tomo Kihara + Playfool (Daniel Coppen & Saki Maruyama)
Previous work: How (not) to get hit by a self-driving car
Amid various discussions surrounding generative AI, the developers have taken a careful approach to the use of AI technology in this game. Deviation Game employs Google Gemini API for image recognition, and according to Gemini API's paid version terms of service (last updated October 2024), it is stipulated that players' drawing data will not be used by Google.
Furthermore, the developers are committed to protecting player data and have explicitly stated that they will not sell or transfer any data to third parties for AI training purposes. For players' drawing data, a system requiring clear prior consent has been implemented for any use of the data in AI system training. The system will opt-out all players by default.
Deviation Game was initially showcased as an art installation at Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT] in 2022. The work has since been shown in globally renowned exhibitions, such as Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), Taipei Digital Art Festival (Taipei, Taiwan), and Now Play This (London, UK), engaging audiences of all ages and sparking critical discussions around AI and creativity.
Initial showcase at CCBT, 2022
Exhibition at Taipei Digital Art Festival, 2024
Download all trailers here.