Party Animals' $75,000 AI video contest is a slap in the face to its creative team, and I'm not surprised it's getting blasted on Steam

Party Animals’ ‘Golden Paw Awards’ is a gross celebration of generative AI, and the internet’s quickly rallied against the game’s developer.

May 14, 2026, 07:09 PT: Recreate Games has issued a statement apologizing for "upsetting players," and has offered three options to the community on how best to proceed.

Generative AI is more than a touchy subject, and for good reason. It's creatively bankrupt, and when used most egregiously does grave injustice to talented artists who have poured thousands of hours into honing their craft. Well, Recreate Games, the studio behind Party Animals, has announced it is hosting an AI video contest with a lucrative cash prize, and it's unsurprisingly gone down like a cup of cold puke.

As shared by the multiplayer game's studio on X yesterday, May 13, the 'Golden Paw Awards' requires players to generate a short film paying tribute to their favorite animal. The post, which itself appears to have been written using AI, stipulates that "AIGC must be the core creative tool, including but not limited to AI-generated images, video, music, voiceovers, 3D assets, etc." Ew. In return for selling out your creative integrity, you have a chance to win $75,000 - that's a big chunk of cash that could, instead, be awarded to people with skills beyond writing prompts.

The comments below the post are anything but supportive, and it's not much better on Steam. Party Animals has racked up over 800 negative reviews over the past couple of days, most, if not all of which lambasting Recreate's support of AI. Reflecting this, its recent reviews are now marked as 'Mostly Negative.' The full event forum post attached to the X announcement now returns a 'page could not be found' error, so there's a good chance Recreate's now actually reading the room.

My disappointment is immeasurable, but this, unfortunately, is the climate videogaming currently finds itself in. From major studios to indie outfits, gen AI is progressively cropping up more and more. I really enjoyed Party Animals when it first launched back in 2023, as I'm a sucker for a good ol' fashioned physics-based party game. It also let me play as an otter, which immediately jettisoned it to a top ranking in my mind, but now it's all a bit sad.

Recreate has since issued an apology to players for upsetting them with the event. "We hoped AI could be a more accessible tool that lets more people take part," the statement reads. "That said, we understand the concerns around AI content. We are not trying to dismiss handmade work or disrespect creators. To us, AI is just another tool. What we truly care about is the idea, the expression, and the final work."

Reaching out to its community, Recreate has offered three possible solutions: canceling the contest altogether, changing it to a non-AI contest, and having both AI and non-AI categories. I feel that still floating an AI avenue under the circumstances is a bizarre choice, but I'm hoping that option two passes.

If anything, this should serve as a reminder that AI needs to be embraced in the most ethical way possible - especially if you don't want to get roasted in the comments. The industry has already lost plenty of talent to nefarious handling of the tech, and I hate seeing it celebrated in this way.