Ruslan Zelenskyi, is the founder of Gamepack – a full-cycle outsourcing video game development studio. Having successfully shipped 105 titles and collaborated with over 50 developers, Gamepack has recently begun integrating Leonardo.Ai into their creative workflow, marking a significant leap forward in how AI can augment game development and design. Leonardo.Ai sat down with Ruslan to discuss his studio’s firsthand experience with the platform.
Leonardo: Can you tell us a bit about Gamepack?
Ruslan: Sure, I’m the founder of GamePack, originally from Ukraine. We started as an outsourcing company for game developers, focusing on art, and then expanded into developing our own games about 4 years ago. Now, we have 150 people, mostly Ukrainians, on board.
Leonardo: How did Gamepack get started using Leonardo.Ai?
Ruslan: As a designer myself, Initially I was sceptical about AI, but was amazed by the progress in AI art generation, and knew we needed to add it to our workflow.
We wanted a tool that was efficient and artist-friendly and we were originally going to build our own. Discovering Leonardo was a game-changer that meant we didn’t need to, offering quick, quality results that perfectly matched our needs.
Leonardo: What was your initial process like using our platform?
Ruslan: Starting with Leonardo was really straightforward. We uploaded sketches of our design concepts and were impressed by the quick, high-quality results, significantly outperforming other tools we tried that required a lot of editing. It streamlined our workflow and cut down production costs remarkably – I would say by around 50%.
Leonardo: In what ways does the team use the Leonardo in your workflow?
Ruslan: We use Leonardo in three main ways: generating concept art, rendering final designs from sketches, and enhancing art quality through upscaling – with upscaling being another way Leonardo has really impressed me. It all just works really well together.
Leonardo: What types of content do are you creating with the Production API?
Ruslan: We do all-sorts, from characters in various iconic styles to backgrounds, props, and other in-game assets. One of the best things about Leonardo is how good it is at creating diverse content that isn’t typical, like even handling complex creatures with bizarre features and abstract designs efficiently.
Leonardo: What advice would you give to others looking to try out Leonardo.Ai?
Ruslan: I recommend viewing AI not as a replacement for human creativity but as a tool to enhance it. Most people try to get AI to create unique images from scratch without realising it has to be trained on existing data.
In my opinion it is best to spend some time starting with a unique concept you have either designed yourself or had done for you, and using AI for enhancement and refinement. In that way it can produce remarkable results.
Leonardo: What gets you excited about the future of creativity and technology?
Ruslan: I envision AI playing a bigger role in game development, potentially allowing non-developers to create games from scratch based on simple prompts, revolutionising content creation and personalisation in gaming in the same way that YouTube revolutionised visual media.