The strongest public evidence is the developer's August 11 update: the studio states that no generative AI was used in the game itself. The same post says separate Steam community background artwork came from an external artist, was not adequately reviewed, and would be replaced. The post now carries an update saying all backgrounds were replaced.
Short answer
The strongest public evidence is the developer's August 11 update: the studio states that no generative AI was used in the game itself. The same post says separate Steam community background artwork came from an external artist, was not adequately reviewed, and would be replaced. The post now carries an update saying all backgrounds were replaced.
Story progress can depend on a completed repair, a To-Do, and the next conversation. Check all three before treating a quiet shop as a softlock.
What the official statement confirms
It confirms the studio's position, the external-artist workflow for those community items, a review of related promotional assets, and replacement of the backgrounds. It does not publish production files, model logs, contracts, or a third-party forensic audit, so this page describes the statement accurately without expanding it into proof the source cannot supply.
Why players saw conflicting claims
Screenshots of community-profile assets circulated alongside discussion of the game. Treating every asset on a Steam product hub as part of the executable collapses two different production paths. The developer post explicitly draws that boundary, while also accepting responsibility for insufficient review of the outsourced work.
How to evaluate later claims
Check the date, identify the exact asset, distinguish in-game content from store or community material, and prefer a direct developer or platform source over cropped reposts. If new first-party evidence appears, update the conclusion and preserve the older statement as dated history.
Research links
These are the primary pages used to check the facts and current release context in this guide.
Official information, observable release behavior, and community reports are deliberately separated. A community report is not presented as a universal fix until it can be reproduced or supported by current patch notes.