I'm a one man team making a game.

It's a management game and indirectly you control characters, which you don't see as in-game models because instead you control the ships they're in or you order them to work in specific positions in the space station.

I would like to actually have distinct recognizable characters with their own voices so that players can identify with them, like them and not want to lose them.

So I would like to have character cards with portraits and as much as possible unique character voices, and given that the game's visuals are toward the realistic side, the portraits would be in a realistic style.

This means around 100+ realistic portraits and distinct voices.

As a one man team I can't actually do this without AI - not enough funds for hiring 100 voice actors, not enough skill to do that kind of design or funds to hire somebody who will do 100 realistic distinct portraits.

So either I seriously trim down that feature (say, their speech is text only, and they have no portraits at all) or I use AI image generation and voice generation.

It's simply not possible to do certain features at a certain level if you're a small indie - unlike a big games company, I neither have the skill to do it myself (or in the case of the multiple voices, physically can't), the employees to do it for me or the funds to pay for freelancers to do it, given how much work that involves.

I'll probably try multiple options and see which works best. Maybe I'll use AI for it, maybe I'll cut down that feature to the point that all you have is an name and written text (essentially making the whole idea of players liking some characters nonviable), maybe I'll find some middle way that avoids AI.

That said, I support disclosing that AI was used in making the game, ideally if it lets me list where an how it was used.

As a customer, I feel I should be able to make an informed decision when buying something, so it's only fair that the same applies to my potential customers. As I see it, it should be up to gamers to decide if and how much they care about AI having been used in making a game.