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Artificial intelligence has been a fundamental part of games for decades. It is not a new or revolutionary part of game development. Generative AI, however, is a new tool in developers’ arsenal. Proponents say GenAI has the ability to revolutionize game development, but the technology has also drawn fierce criticism.
Typically, AI is most commonly used in games to generate in-game behaviors in non-player characters (NPCs) or new environments in procedurally generated games (e.g. Roguelikes). Generative AI, on the other hand, adds several new use cases for the technology from the earliest stages of a game’s development.
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Generative AI is growing in popularity, thanks in large part to tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and others. The gaming industry is no exception, as generative AI tools are increasingly integrated into game development and user-generated content creation.
Generative AIs are creeping into game development
One way developers are already incorporating AI into their development process is by generating art and assets. Generative AI trained with a handful of images can produce a significant number of similar pieces faster than a human could. In addition, game writers can use tools such as DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT to create original stories, flesh out basic ideas, or generate in-game text.
Recently, Scenario opened up its generative AI platform to developers. It claims to offer individually trainable generators, which developers can use to create artwork tailored to their specific style. Screenplay CEO Emmanuel de Maistre demonstrated to GamesBeat how this would work by generating dozens of small works of art based on a series of clues. de Maistre also showed on Twitter how the process worked and generated several images of potion bottles using Scenario.
Some developers also use AI in character creation. Ready Player Me, a metavers platform for creating avatars, has recently been launched a trial of its generative AI maker. Players can use AI to create their own in-game clothes.
According to Timmu Tõke, CEO of RPM, the goal of using the AI is to give players more involvement with the appearance of their avatar. He told GamesBeat: “Generative AI will definitely change the way 3D content is created and avatars are created. We strive to be at the forefront of this and understand how things change and change ourselves accordingly.”
Other developers have used generative AI to improve on more “traditional” in-game artificial intelligence. For example, Inworld AI plans to use the technology to give NPCs in games more dialogue in response to what the player says to them. They have already used this to create a demo of a virtual Santa Claus who responds to children’s interactions with him.
User (and AI) generated content
However, some of the biggest waves AI is making in game development aren’t just in the world of mainstream game development. If Dean Takahashi recently wrote, AI tools are becoming a staple of user-generated content (UGC) creation. This kind of content is abundant in games like Roblox and Minecraft, and the creators who have used the technology have built acclaim and profits. Roblox is right rolling out its own genAI tools to make it easier for users to create content for the game.
In the past few months alone, AI tools have helped users create a visual horror novel, multiplayer games on LG TVs And their own NFTs. Content creators use tools like ChatGPT to mod existing games to have more dialogue (similar to the Santa demo above), while others use it to craft new text based adventure games.
In the discussion of skilled human labor versus AI output, user-generated content would fall somewhere in the middle. While some users have the skills required to make in-game items to their liking, many do not. Generative AI, in theory, would bridge the gap between what users can imagine and what they can create themselves.
Even this use case is not without problems. Generative AI requires training sets – input data to drive the AI model. There may be legal implications if users train AI with copyrighted images without permission.
Suppose we could use genAI in games – would we?
Not everyone in the game development world is so optimistic about using AI in development. Recently, Justin Roiland, formerly of Squanch Games, revealed that the developers of first-person shooter High on Life used images generated by Midjourney as in-game decorations. Lead designer Erich Meyr also revealed that the team used AI to prototype voice lines, and a minor character in the game kept his AI voice.
Around the same time, former Riot Games producer Jon Lai (now general partner at a16z) tweeted that AI could reduce the time and cost of making a great triple-A game. Using a variation of the phrase “Fast, Cheap and Good . . . choose two,” Lai said, “GenAI promises to break this triangle: enabling good + fast + affordable.”
Reactions to Lai’s tweet were decidedly mixed. While some applauded the idea of enabling smaller developers to make games with greater scope, others pointed out that using AI to generate in-game assets or art could mean that artists and developers have fewer opportunities to contribute to the game. High on Life provides an example of this, as AI was used to generate art that would otherwise have been created by one of Squanch Games’ artists.
Rolland told Sky News the AI art was used in part because it made the alien world feel more different than our own. He also added, speaking of AI in game development: “I don’t know what the future holds, but AI is becoming a tool that has the potential to make content creation incredibly accessible. I don’t know how many years away we are, but all you need is someone with big ideas.”
As generative AI becomes more sophisticated and ubiquitous, it is likely to be used more in game development. What form that will take – and whether fears that it will replace human creators will be realized – remains to be seen.
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