1000 AI Princes Are Besieging Me: The Creepiest Steam Gift This Year
“I can't be the only one eating shit.”
A few days ago, I received an email from Steam. It was a game sent to me by a friend - "1000 Princes: Born to Love You".
??? What the hell, dude. Do you still remember I'm a guy? When did I ever need the love of princes? And 1000 of them, no less???
Although I instinctively sensed that my friend had ulterior motives, based on my wonderful memories of last year's "Oh No! I'm Surrounded by Beauties!", I still decided to open it first and see.
● The Steam game interface of "Oh No! I'm Surrounded by Beauties!"
But when I opened Steam and saw this interface, I felt something was terribly wrong. The art style didn't look like princes at all; it was more like zombies. The princes' faces were so pixelated it was like they had ten layers of mosaic on them. Their hair was just a blob of color, and some of them even had bruises on their faces. And then I scrolled down and found out it cost money! 11 yuan! Come on! With this kind of graphics, they're charging 11 yuan? They might as well buy me a few bottles of soda.
● The Steam game interface of "1000 Princes: Born to Love You"
Let me briefly introduce the game's background in my own words because the official description doesn't make much sense - "I" got electrocuted while saving a cute little pig, which caused a time - space disorder. As a result, "I" have the husbands (all princes) from my past life, this life, next life, and the life after that all come to my side to protect and care for me.
Facing such a "complicated" game that I've never played before, just in case, I wanted to do some mental preparation first. So I opened Xiaoh Hei He to check the reviews -
● The comments under the post about "1000 Princes" on Xiaoh Hei He
The unanimous negative reviews actually triggered my masochistic side - I don't eat just any shit, but I'm quite curious to try this really bad - tasting one.
But I didn't expect the first scene to make me dizzy. The countless but identical modeled faces. Surrounded by these princes, I was stunned and numb. I mean, is this really supposed to be good - looking?????
● The main interface of the game "1000 Princes"
Next came a series of blows from the plot -
First, there was the plot where "I" got electrocuted while saving the pink pig. Then I kept traveling to different places and meeting my prince - husbands:
The first to appear was Brother Wild Boar and also the Prince of Fangguo - Zhen Ting. As soon as he opened his mouth, he called me Piggy Sister and asked me to call him "Brother Wild Boar" instead of "Your Highness Prince", saying not to be so formal. This 180 - cm straight - laced sports guy just clicked quickly to skip this part;
Then I traveled again and met the warlord of Xiongguo in a security uniform - Haowei, the domineering warlord only allows me to like brown bears. I can't understand. Why not black bears?
There's also a prince of Fangguo named Ling Tian who looks like a vampire and is a love - struck fool. He said that as long as he can be with "me", he'd even feel the smell of fragrance in the baby room next to the toilet... There are just too many things to complain about....
● The in - game interface of "1000 Princes"
After traveling again, I saw the department store president with a gloomy face - Qian Yi;
Then there was the Baixingren with a spiky, slanted bangs like Tao Zhe - Citan;
The chubby - faced version of Lin Gengxin - the dessert president Kalong. He proposed to me right away and wanted to put me in a box and take me home to spoil me;
And the Water and Fire General of Jiguo who sleeps in a "niao" (a Chinese character formed by three people) shape - Yongmi (the author is really something, finding such a hard - to - type character). This guy is a bit interesting. He said that when sleeping at night, the three of us should be in a "chuan" (a Chinese character meaning three horizontal lines) shape, "Two big brothers will wrap around little sister and sleep together." I'm not only shocked but also extremely confused???? This game isn't beyond the law, you know!
● The in - game interface of "1000 Princes"
My princes kept appearing one after another, and my stomach kept churning. I really wanted to quit the game, but I couldn't find the button. It felt like I was being forced to recognize all 1000 princes. It's so domineering. I can't take it. I even feel like vomiting. For the sake of my physical and mental health, I opened the task manager and forced it to quit.
I really want a new pair of eyes now.
I'm going to see who on earth is giving this game positive reviews. And then I discovered the biggest conspiracy behind the hype of this game - I can't be the only one eating shit! Giving it to friends has become a form of revenge and punishment.
● The review interface of "1000 Princes" on Steam
The author claims that she used AI tools like Midjourney, ChatGPT, and Suno throughout the entire production of this game. This makes me think of another game regarded as a "representative of AI - native games", "Whispers from the Star", which received 93% positive reviews upon its release. But after all, it was launched by Anuttacon Studio led by Cai Haoyu, the founder of Mihoyo. They're professionals, so there's really no comparison.
"1000 Princes" has been criticized for "not even reaching the passing line of AI games" because of its pixelated graphics and strange - looking princes. But to be honest, I'm a bit in awe of the author's wild imagination. So I can't help but be curious about her - who on earth is making this kind of game? Where is the technology? And where are the boundaries? An AI game is just adding AI - generated pixelated pictures and scary - looking princes to a traditional game. It's so "fun", it's going to "explode".
"Qinyan Ginyan" - I found the author of this game. Her YouTube page introduces her as an independent developer. She was also a romance novelist before, "having written all kinds of sweet and romantic novels" (for example, I saw that she published a novel in 2017 called "Love in Short Letters: The Deep - Love Romance of a Gangster Boss"); she learned AI tools and made games during the pandemic when she was staying at home. She released "Ling Tian 1 ~ Your Fated Prince DEMO" on Steam in October 2024, and then "1000 Princes: Born to Love You" in January 2025.
● The introduction page of Qinyan's YouTube account
But Qinyan is just her pen - name. Like the princes, she's from Fangguo. She loves romances and learning foreign languages.
During the pandemic, she started learning AI tools like Clone animation production, Unity engine, Midjourney, Pr, and Suno, and then explored and created her own game, which she also released on Steam. Although the setting of "Fangguo" seems a bit childish, you can tell that she's really serious about building her own little world.
In Qinyan's account, the first otome game she ever played was "Love365" from the Japanese company Voltage. It can be considered her otome game enlightenment teacher. "At that time, I was just daydreaming that if only I could make a similar comprehensive otome game app in the future." "Love and Producer" also fascinated her, but she doesn't like 2D characters. So when she saw the models and animations in "Love and the Cosmos", she was deeply moved. "At that time, I was also making '1000 Princes', and I felt a sense of overwhelming pressure." Qinyan said that "1000 Princes" is an otome game made for female players who love romances. "If you, like me, love reading romance novels or watching romance idols, then you're very likely to like playing otome games and probably '1000 Princes' too."
At first, I played this game just for the fun of it, thinking it was low - quality, rough, and absurd. But after learning about Qinyan's production process, I'm actually a bit in awe of her. She's really perseverant. And she really shows me the equality that AI has achieved in the field of creation.
And Steam, the world's largest PC digital game distribution platform, has also shown its acceptance and tolerance of AI - created games. Since January 2024, it has been able to distribute most games that use AI technology as long as they comply with the regulations.
● Image source: Zhihu user LitGate
The news was released in 2024, and it's almost been two years now. I thought there should be quite a few AI - assisted games on Steam. But after searching and browsing around, I found that apart from professional teams, like the aforementioned "Whispers from the Star". Among the games made by individual creators, most are unbearable to look at. For example, "Eye of Death" is just a stick - figure running forward, with such blurry graphics that it's hard to look at. The lowest price ever is 108 yuan. What? Are there 108 stick - figure heroes from Liangshan? And some games were just abandoned halfway, leaving only a game demo on the platform all alone.
Although I still find it hard to talk about "1000 Princes" now, to be honest, compared with those individual works above, it's actually not that bad. And I'm willing to believe that with Qinyan's iron - will and the development of large - scale models, it should... maybe... possibly... gradually get better...
And surprisingly, I saw a positive review. The person said "I'm glad there's content more targeted at women on the list."
● Image source: A comment from a Reddit user
In the developer's diary,