When AI meets Gaming

I’m pretty obsessed with AI right now. You can ask my friends - it’s probably getting pretty annoying for many of them.

I tap ChatGPT countless times daily (yes, I pay for Plus), use DALL-E for initial concept art or inspiration sketches, leverage GitHub Co-Pilot in my programming projects, and keep a close watch on news and announcements of the constantly evolving space.

It’s genuinely exciting technology. (And yes, I say that as someone who didn’t follow the bandwagon on crypto, though I think that’s cool too.)

The area I’m seeing AI getting more involved is gaming. Running a game studio, we touch on it a bit. Concept art and such, mostly - nothing crazy. It seems to be what many who might do similar work are utilizing it for too.

What I’m interested in is how AI can up-level gaming. Not in the way that games are made but in the way that games are played. What can these recent advancements in machine learning due to bring our games to a new level of interactivity and immersion?

I have a few ideas:

NPCs

For the non-game savvy, NPCs, or non-playable characters, are the characters in a game world that make it feel more lively and interactive. They’ll typically give quests, be shopkeepers, award items, that kind of stuff. They’re generally bland and predictable - even with excellent writing, but they’re necessary for many games to help advance their story and provide a sense of place in a virtual world.

But what if they could be so much more intelligent?

Story-based games are excellent when they give players choices, but writers and developers typically have to engineer each outcome. If you want a specific decision to go back to haunt the player later — the game needs to be made to do that. It needs to remember that particular decision or branch and reference it later. It also needs to be done carefully. Otherwise, players will feel like their choices don’t matter (spoiler: in many games, they don’t).

But what if it wasn’t done that way?

What if when you speak to an NPC, it was a pre-prompted language model that reacted, talked to you, and made its dialogue choices based on the “input” of the other decisions you made so far in that game? Who else you interacted with, how you handled particular situations, etc.? Not only would that make it feel that much more natural, it’d also make the playthrough that much more yours. It’s your story — literally. Everyone who got to that point might experience it differently.

Mechanics

AI-powered features could also make game mechanics more accessible and tuned to player behavior.

If you’ve ever gotten stuck in a particular level or complex area of a game, you likely had to tab out to check YouTube for a quick walkthrough or exit the game entirely (I know I have…). But what if the game could intelligently notice these patterns and give guidance appropriate to your play style?

Being too naggy sucks — especially when you want to explore what else might be in a room, review the gear you just collected, or trade with a friend — but if you combine this with other improvements, like in NPC dialogue, maybe your non-playable companion could provide actual hints and guidance that was contextually tuned to you.

You’d receive self-aware guidance as a player without resorting to other methods of trying to advance, and it’d be tuned to your pace and play style. And, it could go so much further…

Adaptive Difficulty

This one would be fascinating. All too often, I get met with a difficulty choice in games that feel like I’m choosing if my opponents are made out of wet paper towels or titanium-equipped soldiers with no in-between. Honestly, the choice of difficulty at all feels strange. I want to feel like a badass in my games, but I also want a challenge. But if that challenge relies on high hit points, damage numbers, or the luck of the draw, that’s no fun either.

Piggybacking off playstyle awareness for game mechanics, a tuned game difficulty curve could be truly something special. Monsters that learn your play style, the abilities you utilize most, and the combat choices you make — all are different variables for each player.

Imagine if the game’s enemies dynamically prepared their defenses accordingly to force you to adapt your play style. That’s how you ensure a game doesn’t get old quickly or feel repetitive.

Every time you die in a game and respawn, that’s a second attempt at that section with the learnings of your previous lives. Put monsters and enemies on the same playing field.

In some ways, many of these things are already possible — no AI required. With a lot of time, programming for various scenarios and pattern recognition. But that’s not *truly* dynamic. AI and machine learning have the potential to transform the game industry fully — and not just in the way game assets are created. Providing developers with new tools to create more immersive and personalized gaming experiences will lead to sessions unlike anything else.

What sort of game-related applications for AI do you think are possible?