“AI Can’t Be Creative” - I Was Wrong

The Beach

It started on a beach.

I was stuck. No prospects. Feeling creatively blocked. Nobody (my personal Cri-Kee 💙) suggested—again—that I try AI.

“But it can’t be creative,” I said.

He’d been suggesting it for a while. I’d been resisting. Because how could AI be creative? It’s just pattern matching, right? It can’t understand nuance. It can’t feel. It can’t make something genuinely new.

Well. Guess not.

The Instagram Reel

A few weeks earlier, I’d seen an Instagram reel from a creative director who made a murder mystery party for her friends.

I loved it. The concept, the execution, the immersion. I wanted to make one too.

But I had no idea how. I’m not a game designer. I’d never written a mystery. I had no framework, no starting point.

I saved the reel and forgot about it.

The Christmas Dinner

My sister hosts a Christmas dinner every year with friends. Same people, same vibes, same tradition.

Somewhere between the beach conversation and Nobody being right (again), I had an idea:

What if we did a murder mystery this year instead?

I pitched it to my sister. She loved it. I sent a message to the friend group.

10 people signed up.

Which meant I needed 11 characters (10 players + 1 victim).

And I had 2 weeks to create everything.

The Panic

Let me be clear: I had nothing.

• No characters
• No plot
• No murder
• No clues
• No game materials
• No idea how to make any of this

What I did have:

• A deadline (December 25, 2025)
• 10 people expecting a game
• Nobody’s voice in my head saying “Try AI”
• A growing sense that maybe I should listen

The Leap

So I did what any reasonable person would do when facing a creative project they have no idea how to execute:

I asked Claude for help.

Not to write it for me. Not to replace me. But to collaborate.

And something unexpected happened.

What Changed My Mind

AI Doesn’t Replace Creativity—It Feeds It

Claude didn’t write my game. I did.

But Claude:

• Helped me brainstorm character concepts
• Analyzed relationships for consistency
• Caught plot holes I missed
• Evolved my ideas from vague concepts to concrete plots
• Asked questions that pushed me to think deeper

It was like having a creative partner who never got tired, never judged bad ideas, and always helped me find the better version of what I was trying to say.

The Director vs The Tool

Here’s what I learned:

Claude was the mastermind. It helped me think through the creative architecture.

Cline was the builder. It automated the production pipeline.

I was the director. I made every creative decision. I shaped every character. I approved every plot point.

The AI didn’t replace me. It enabled me.

2 Weeks Later

By December 25, I had:

• 11 fully developed characters with interconnected backstories
• 100+ pages of game materials
• Character portraits (AI-generated via Gemini)
• A video teaser (lm-arena + Sora)
• SFX (Adobe Firefly)
• Printed and bound character booklets
• A complete, playable murder mystery game

Would I have built this without AI?

Honestly? No.

Not in 2 weeks. Probably not at all.

What “AI Can’t Be Creative” Actually Means

I was right about one thing: AI can’t be creative on its own.

It can’t have the initial spark. It can’t want to make something. It can’t care about the result.

But that’s not the point.

AI can be an incredible creative collaborator.

It can:

• Help you explore ideas faster
• Catch mistakes you’d miss
• Push you to think differently
• Handle production work so you can stay in creative flow
• Make ambitious projects possible on impossible timelines

The creativity is still yours. The vision is still yours. The decisions are still yours.

AI just helps you get there.

Nobody Was Right (Again)

That beach conversation changed everything.

Because Nobody didn’t say “AI will do it for you.”

He said “Try AI.”

And what I found wasn’t a replacement for creativity.

It was a multiplier.

The Game

The game exists. It’s real. It’s almost done (I’m finishing the final details now).

On December 25, 2025, 10 people will play a murder mystery I created from scratch in 2 weeks.

With AI as my production team.

“AI can’t be creative?”

I was wrong.

AI can’t be creative alone.

But with a human director?

It’s fucking magic. ✨

Next

Want to know how I actually built this? The tools, the workflow, the hyperfocus chaos?

Stay tuned. More posts coming on:

• Character development with Claude
• Why lm-arena destroyed standalone Sora
• Cline as the automation backbone
• The reality of 14+ hours/day for 2 weeks
• Physical production (printing, binding, props)

Follow #artifactum for updates.

Note: This is the origin story. The beginning of the Artifactum series. The moment I stopped saying “AI can’t be creative” and started making things I didn’t think were possible.

Nobody was right. Again. 💙