Ludo upgrades its generative AI tools for game creativity

Ludo uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) to help game developers such as artists and designers be more productive. The point is not to put them out of their jobs. It’s to make them more creative.

When Tom Pigott, CEO of Ludo, talked to me about this in early 2021, the topic was pretty far ahead of the curve. Ludo’s AI tools leveraged previous AI models, such as the OpenAI Foundation’s GPT-2 technology, to search for images or generate conceptual art.

But now generative AI is all the rage, and Pigott is amazed at how fast the technology is developing. It is now clear to him that AI will have a major impact on game development. Ludo has over 8,000 developers using it. And we’re seeing a Cambrian explosion of companies in this category.

“It’s certainly exciting times here,” Pigott said. “We have been faced with the facts, only with the models that have subsequently been released in the last 18 months and started with GPT-2. The pace of innovation for AI is astonishing. We’ve had people on here for 15 years and they’ve never seen the number of papers that get released, not just by the Googles of the world or the OpenAIs, but just by individuals or smaller companies.

The companies that pop up include Midjourney, AI Dungeon, Stable Diffusion, GPT-3, DALL-E, Kaedim 3D, Hypothetic, Mirage, and more. Andrews Horowitz James Gwertzman recently wrote an article on generative AI for games and he mentioned a number of companies in games, graphics, characters and audio categories.

Leaders from Promethean AI, Accenture, GGWP and Inworld AI spoke at our recent GamesBeat Summit Next 2022 event on the impact of AI on gaming. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidiatold me recently that generative AI will be an important tool in enabling developers to build the massive amount of resources needed for the metaverse.

“The demands of the games industry have changed, making the environment more competitive than ever, and we as a team have adapted to these demands,” said Pigott. “AI technology has advanced exponentially in the past year and with it, Ludo has enhanced its services for game makers, allowing them to focus on the creative process while limiting the risk of failure in a competitive market.”

Pigott doesn’t want this to be alarming to game developers or artists. He sees it as his job to provide tools that can be a game developer’s best friend. It could be an ideation machine that can search two million games with a simple text query to see if someone else has already had your idea.

It has proven to be very helpful for mobile game developers due to the sheer amount of competition. There are about a few million games in the app stores and no human expert can know if a particular game concept has been created before.

And nearly two years later, Pigott said Ludo has added several features to its AI toolkit. Now it includes the ability to search through trends and top charts. It can do ideation such as image search or image generation. And it has a Game Elements feature that can generate non-player characters (NPCs) in minutes, saving developers a lot of development time.

“Ludo has grown tremendously since launching in 2021 and now has over 8,000 users coming to our platform when they embark on their next hit game,” said Pigott. “We are able to help creators reduce the risk of the game development process and reduce the chance of failure even further with the new and improved features, which push the boundaries and truly revolutionize the game creation process.”

That can save costs at a time when game companies are trying to keep costs in check. Ludo recently launched a mobile-friendly site that has seen an 80% increase in new signups. Since the launch of DALL-E and Midjourney this year, new options and more powerful AI engines are available.

With an AI market analysis tool, Ludo can analyze how a theme or genre for games is performing in the market. That can help developers take the risk out of making games by helping them understand the market potential of their new ideas. It can save game developers valuable time and resources by reducing the chance of creating a game that doesn’t connect with the audience.

Ludo uses Stable Diffusion’s AI engine and uses it to create high-quality graphics from text prompts, resulting in faster game icon or art creation. This new image generation tool makes it possible to automatically create art that is more relevant to what the developer has in mind. By entering keywords, users can generate in-game graphics, high-quality game icons, and game art, including characters, worlds, items, art concepts, and more.

Ludo’s Image Generator is now capable of producing image-to-image transformations, where users can provide one image, and Ludo’s Image Generator will transform that image according to the input. This can be used to create game icons, graphics in different artistic styles and variations of a given image, and bring gameplay sketches to life.

Ludo users can also target specific game genres, preferred colors and art styles that will subject image generation to these filters.

Take away jobs?

Will this kind of technology lead to job losses in gaming? AI can influence any industry in this way.

Pigott said that instead of taking away human jobs, Ludo focuses on human-AI collaboration. “If you’re an artist or designer, it makes your work better,” he said. “You can focus on the things that require the editing that a human can do. Ludo doesn’t just build these games.”

He added, “What our users are saying is that this enables me, from a competitive intelligence standpoint, from an ideation standpoint, from an art generation standpoint.”

The question is not about how fast an AI will make a game. It’s more how much faster experienced developers can release a game because they use the right AI tools.

Pigott knows there will be a lot of competition over the next six months. But he believes his team has an edge and the right talent. The team tested its tools for game developers and incorporated the feedback.

Ludo’s tools are built by experts using the latest AI technology to change the game development process. Pigott believes that Ludo is the best pregame investment a creator can make, as Ludo has a database of nearly two million games.

“For designers and artists, we chose to go completely vertical in terms of our approach,” said Pigott. “We don’t try to be everything to all people. And there are a lot of great companies out there in text, image or generative text, but we think gaming is the most exciting sector and the most opportunity to solve problems.”

help India

Pigott believes that small game studios or solo indie developers need these kinds of tools the most. They can’t afford to hire an art director and a full team of artists early on. But with these tools, they can act faster, produce a prototype and get them on the road to funding so they can hire that team of artists faster.

“We’re all about helping the long tail,” he said. “We’ve come to the point where we want more and more users and the platform to be tested.”

One of the things that happens with more use is that the engine gets better at figuring out what a developer wants the tools to create. Pigott’s team fed more than 600,000 game images into the AI ​​to train it. And as general AI tools get better, Ludo plans to take advantage.

Of course, big game companies can do the same and may not need Ludo. So Ludo needs to race ahead and make its tools as user-friendly and convenient as possible for developers. Ludo charges subscription fees for the service. It has a free tier and a paid tier at $15 per month per developer, and separate pricing for larger studios.

“Even if it were easy to download and use an AI model, we’re trying to provide a comprehensive platform,” said Pigott. “So you want to research the competition from other games? Want to come up with something you’ve seen on TikTok, or create some assets for your game? And we offer solutions for that Ludo.”

In tasks such as creating icons for mobile games, there isn’t too much risk of someone else’s image being infringed, as these icons are often not photo-realistic.

The future of AI and the metaverse

As for things to think about for the future of AI and games, Pigott acknowledges that there will be some legal issues to resolve. If an artist’s work is fed into a game, does that mean the AI ​​spewing it out as a derivative image uses that previous work and should royalties be paid to that original artist? Or does the legal concept of fair use play a role?

“The legal issues are still being discussed and resolved,” said Pigott.

As for the metaverse, Pigott believes generative AI will be needed to build out the massive amount of resources that will be required, and it will allow developers to take the first step towards the metaverse.

“It is now in the early stages. If you are not satisfied with the results you get today, just wait a month. It goes so fast,” he said. “Gaming will lead the way. In my career I have seen transformations and technological breakthroughs such as internet and mobile. Web3 and the metaverse is something that we hope will be huge and important, but AI is at the root of all of that.