Great writing. Gets you hooked and doesn't meander. The art-direction is lovely and cohesive. I love the way you used highlighted words and sound effects to aid the horror elements in this game.
After seeing the announcement I became sad and angry. It's easy for me to say to ignore the Ai art accusers, but you and the people who point fingers will have to understand something:
They feel it is their morally righteous duty to hound developers + artists they think are using AI. I saw that happen on steam game forums plenty of times. What they don't get its that certain popular artstyles got copied, because they ARE popular. So everyone that made this style their own gets accused. The Ai Inquisition would burn down a village to even get to one AI user and people who use Ai tend not to be bothered about using it. It doesn't matter what the artist will do. The inquisition will never be happy, no matter what proof the poor artist will bring forth.
The box got opened, it cannot be closed. By screaming about advocating for real artist and creative people with dog-piling and finger-pointing they will burn theses creative peeps down in the process. They aren't helping. AI user will continue using AI. They will not stop. What's more ironic is that the majority of Ai - "inquisitors" aren't even artist or even creative people.
All I can hope is that you and your sparkle can preserve. It's your art. It's you.Your way of expression.