The resistance in opposition to the AI artwork apocalypse is being televised in a advertising marketing campaign about burgers.
Over the previous yr, Wendy’s — sure, the identical Wendy’s identified for its sq. burgers, thick milkshakes, and unlikely stewardship of a mid-tier donut chain — has made waves by way of a collection of unconventional artistic partnerships. Amid slumps in gross sales and a focus, Wendy’s has turned to widespread creative mediums, like music and video video games, to attempt to reverse course.
The buzziest Wendy’s-affiliated mission was the post-hardcore EP Songs to Take heed to in a Wendy’s Parking Lot, which featured six tracks written by musicians from bands with legit emo cred, like Anberlin, Blessthefall, Silverstein, and Winona Fighter. Look, I’m as sorry as you might be handy something to Massive Company, however all six tracks are straight bangers. (Simply take heed to “She Mentioned She Didn’t Need Fries” and attempt to inform me you didn’t have that on repeat in a Wendy’s car parking zone in 2008.) On the heels of that album launch is the traditional JRPG riff WendyQuest: Legend of the 4 Nook Stones. Like Songs to Take heed to, it boasts an identical unmistakable authenticity.
“Wendy’s mustn’t have a recreation that’s this good,” Stephane Cotichini, founder and recreation director at 81Monkeys, the studio behind WendyQuest, instructed Polygon in a video name. (For the file, 81Monkeys was not named after the viral 2025 information story about meth sellers trying to smuggle 81 monkeys throughout the Thailand-Cambodia border. Pure coincidence. “Anyone forwarded me the article the day it broke and I used to be, like, ‘Critically? How?!’” Cotichini mentioned. “Of all of the numbers of monkeys, it needed to be our quantity?”)
WendyQuest began as many tasks within the indie gaming world do: funding. Or, moderately, a scarcity thereof.
For the previous a number of years, 81Monkeys has been engaged on an bold, systems-heavy pixel artwork RPG referred to as World of Anterra. Although World of Anterra was efficiently funded by way of Kickstarter in 2022, the scope and ambition of the sport continued to swell, and the crew discovered itself quickly operating out of runway. However as any indie and even mid-sized recreation developer will inform you, funding within the video games {industry} has all however evaporated because the early 2020s gold rush. Issues have been wanting “dire,” based on Cotichini, who mentioned he had post-Kickstarter funding conversations with 60 prospects that went nowhere. Then an e mail landed in his inbox by way of the studio’s web site type.
“Usually, I might have ignored the e-mail, however as a result of he mentioned they’re followers of the sport, I used to be like, ‘Oh, I will hear them out.’ So I get on a name and I discover out it was Wendy’s. And after I discovered what the sport was, I immediately knew we have been the suitable crew,” Cotichini mentioned.
Inside per week, 81Monkeys signed the deal for WendyQuest, permitting the studio to proceed engaged on World of Anterra. 81Monkeys cut up its crew 50/50 to work on each video games.
The Wendy’s folks apparently had the overall image and the overarching artistic imaginative and prescient for WendyQuest, however the crew at 81Monkeys nonetheless had its work reduce out for it in turning it right into a viable online game. They revised the battle system away from purely turn-based fight to a extra lively one. This echoes one of many studio’s core ideas: Nostalgia has to really feel up to date, in any other case it’s simply going to really feel dated. Cotichini additionally acknowledged that whereas the unique script had robust concepts (the Wendy’s advertising crew is thought for its witty social media posts), it didn’t fairly click on for a online game, the place the writing isn’t nearly telling a story but in addition about making a world really feel actual and lived-in.
Finally, writers at 81Monkeys rewrote “99%” of the script, based on Cotichini. Every little thing nonetheless needed to fly by company for brand-safety causes, however there are some unmistakable nods to the competitors: The emblem for WendyQuest’s villain, Dr. Mechborg, is a huge golden “M.” “Certain, positive, serving billions is nice,” MechBorg says in his introductory villain proselytizing that’s necessary for many each JRPG. “But it surely’s time I make billions.” He then directs his military to “reduce corners.”
I’ve performed a little bit little bit of WendyQuest, and to cite the children, it slaps. Past its quick 16-bit-era vibes, the fight system is the principle draw. The system is constructed round a gauge that quickly fills up on the backside of the display screen. You must press the assault button as near full as potential; faucet too early and also you’ll deal much less harm or miss your assault, however in case you get it proper, you’ll deal most harm. It’s a pleasant contact that retains WendyQuest from feeling like one more Remaining Fantasy clone. The sport is fairly humorous, too; its jokes-per-minute ratio is on par with TV exhibits like Veep or 30 Rock. Cotichini is correct: Wendy’s ought to not have a recreation that’s this good.
“Initially, they weren’t gonna credit score us,” Cotichini mentioned. “I imply, that is the character of this kind of settlement, proper? We’re only a silent associate, we’ll make this recreation, after which they launch it.”
However he pushed again. In late 2023, when the mission initially started improvement, AI was out within the wild, although not but the industry-demolishing drive it’s at the moment. AI grows extra unpopular yearly, however gaming audiences specifically react with visceral repudiation; even a trailer that options AI-generated belongings can immediate a significant firm to reverse on a dime and difficulty a public apology.
“You need folks to know that it was 100% human-made by an precise indie studio,” Cotichini mentioned.
That ethos is mirrored in a line of bolded textual content entrance and heart on the Steam pages for each WendyQuest and World of Anterra: “100% human made.”
“A part of why World of Anterra is pretty much as good as it’s, and I do know the world hasn’t performed it but, neither have you ever, however it’s due to the time it took to carry it to life. It is due to the battle it took. All of that comes throughout within the product that finally ends up being created, and I believe that is important. So the extra AI is used to make a recreation, the more severe the sport turns into,” Cotichini mentioned. “As a result of the extra you pace up that course of, the much less alternative you need to enhance it.”
Earlier in World of Anterra’s improvement, 81Monkeys dabbled with AI for mission administration and effectivity, however discovered that regardless of guarantees peddled by the likes of Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, the instruments truly elevated prices and decreased productiveness. Additionally they discovered that generative AI supplied options for issues that already had options. Cotichini floated the thought of utilizing AI to assist pace up the creation of NPCs, as an illustration. “They have been, like, ‘Why don’t we simply make a script to do this?’”
For WendyQuest, based on Cotichini, the advertising crew at Wendy’s actively pushed 81Monkeys to keep away from AI instruments and workflows.
Nobody might declare that WendyQuest is as in-depth as, say, Remaining Fantasy Resonance or different big-budget RPGs capitalizing on the nostalgia development du jour. However there’s an actual richness — and extra importantly, an actual authenticity — to its design. That is why Songs to Take heed to in a Wendy’s Parking Lot ended up resonating a lot with retired scene youngsters. These have been actual songs written by legit artists who we truly listened to in Wendy’s parking heaps 20 years in the past. In an period the place McDonald’s is utilizing AI to create nightmare fever dream adverts and implement dynamic pricing algorithms, Wendy’s investing as an alternative within the arts stands out.
“I believe that artistic work generally has gotten watered down during the last couple many years,” Cotichini mentioned. “And the reason being as a result of it turned extra influenced and managed by enterprise curiosity and fewer by the artistic. Now, I truly see a swing the opposite method.”
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That may sound like an oxymoron coming from the mouth of the man who’s making a recreation for a corporation with a $2.2 billion market cap. However actually, why ought to it? Is the Wendy’s emblem being on this factor any completely different than Sony’s or Microsoft’s or, hell, even Nintendo’s? (None of gaming’s three largest corporations began out as online game publishers.) Sure, it’s advertising, and sure, it’s transparently transactional. However the video games {industry} is dealing with down its fifth yr of a dry spell for conventional funding fashions. That’s not altering any time quickly. If a Fortune 500 firm was debating find out how to allocate 0.5% of its 2027 advertising funds, would you moderately it’s spent on a month of YouTube preroll or on a yr of overhead for a budding impartial studio?
“The {industry}’s actually struggling proper now. Issues have by no means seemed extra dire,” Cotichini mentioned. “That is the factor that I hope will come of WendyQuest. Wendy’s spends some hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in advertising yearly. WendyQuest prices a fraction of that. So many manufacturers on the market do the identical factor. My hope is that when folks see WendyQuest — and that, truly, if a studio cares a few branded recreation, it may be a extremely good recreation — that extra manufacturers search partnerships like we made with Wendy’s. I believe that might develop into an alternate funding supply for therefore many truly proficient indies within the {industry}.”
