Recording generated-asset provenance, originals, and selection decisions
Generating assets with AI also produces candidates that never get used. Saving only the images makes it harder to reconstruct the references used, whether a person approved a candidate, and which processed file the game actually loads. A stable candidate ID can connect the original, generation parameters, reviews, and code references while keeping those checks separate. This article examines VOLT…
AI-generated assets create unused candidates, making it difficult to trace the references and approvals used in the final game. To address this, a stable candidate ID should link the original asset, generation parameters, reviews, and code references. This article examines VOLT NOMAD's asset records, including an instance where recorded states did not match.
The investigation focused on commit f074703 from game-jam-lab on September 11, 2026. The repository includes ASSET_PROVENANCE.md to explain the production process and review-manifest.json to record individual candidates.
The manifest contains information about generation batches and candidate details such as ID, file, prompt, model, dimensions, seed, generation parameters, reference image, generation status, timestamp, usage, errors, human review decisions, ratings, and review timestamps. Some candidates have null seeds, so the manifest alone does not confirm identical images can be regenerated.
The provenance document explains how the original asset's background was removed to create a cutout for the game. The code references the cutout file, and the manifest's file differs from the file loaded by the game. Hash comparisons confirm the differences.
The inspection script found 30 batches with 107 candidates, all marked as generated, 35 approved, 13 held, 3 rejected, and 56 unreviewed. The approved filter alone cannot provide the complete list of implementation references. However, unreviewed records indicate human approval was not recorded in the manifest at that revision. The investigation proposes an empty usage record to indicate an undocumented usage rather than implying "unused."
A code reference does not guarantee the asset's presence during normal gameplay. The records should be used to replace assets by identifying the candidate and original, reviewing the selection rationale, and tracking the processed file in the code. Replacing only the original may leave the display unchanged if the game still references the cutout.
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