Does Tenebris Somnia use AI?
No. Airdorf, writing on Xbox Wire on October 16, 2026, said “absolutely no generative AI was used anywhere at any point in production.” The cutscenes are not “100% in-camera.” They are practical effects plus a limited amount of traditional CGI.
Last checked 2026-10-18.
| Generative AI | None, per the Xbox Wire post. The same post lists human translation, hand-drawn pixels, a human composer, and a human programmer. |
|---|---|
| What the footage is | Live action, silicone prosthetics, and “practical special effects and limited CGI.” |
| What Borghi rejected | In Fangoria he said modern effects films are practical work plus VFX. He was objecting to generative AI, not to CGI. |
What the route feels like
The first time I saw a still of the two-faced prop I understood the rumor. The face is too smooth and the seam is too deliberate, which is what a generated image often looks like. Then I read the build notes. Fangoria says the face was molded off the actor twice, cut apart, and mounted with velcro because the plaster version was too heavy to wear. That is a shop story, not a prompt. I am not interested in repeating accusations the publisher already answered in a signed post. The post is linked below. A New Blood short video on the same question was reported at about 84,000 views in earlier research; its exact URL was not re-fetched, so it is not embedded here.
The three sentences that matter
First, the denial is specific. It says generative AI, and it says “anywhere at any point,” and it names the jobs that stayed with people: English, Japanese, and Brazilian Portuguese translation, the pixel art, the music, the code.
Second, the images are a mix on purpose. Xbox Wire’s phrase is “practical special effects and limited CGI.” If a caption somewhere calls the game pure live action with zero CGI, that caption is wrong, and Borghi said as much to Fangoria. He described being upset when people insisted it was entirely in-camera, because that erases the effects team.
Third, the look that triggers the rumor is the point of the production. A film crew of the size Fangoria describes, with Matías Rispau shooting and Marcos Berta’s shop building masks, produces images that do not look like a webcam. That is not evidence of a model.
Questions people ask
Does Tenebris Somnia use AI?
New Blood says no generative AI was used at any point. The source is Airdorf’s Xbox Wire article from October 16, 2026.
Are the cutscenes real people?
Yes. They were filmed, with silicone prosthetics and a limited amount of traditional CGI. They are not a claim of zero CGI.
Who said there was no AI?
Airdorf, executive producer, on Xbox Wire. Andrés Borghi expanded on the practical-plus-CGI point in a Fangoria interview.