A Generative Gamechanger

What do all of the following have in common? VR transporting to different realities, the mass social aspects of the Metaverse, the game interoperability of NFTs. I’d say “overpromising, underdelivering” is the thing that first comes to mind for most people. These are all technologies that have underachieved the dream they’re selling, even when being given breathtaking budgets to work with. The question on everyone’s mind right now is whether generative AI is the next victim on that chopping block. This blog will argue against that, from the perspective of this scientific advancement enabling something that is both desirable to players and already technologically possible today.

Link in the game Hollow Knight, image courtesy of this playthrough

What do all of the following have in common? VR transporting to different realities, the mass social aspects of the Metaverse, the game interoperability of NFTs. I’d say “overpromising, underdelivering” is the thing that first comes to mind for most people. These are all technologies that have underachieved the dream they’re selling, even when being given breathtaking budgets to work with. The question on everyone’s mind right now is whether generative AI is the next victim on that chopping block. This blog will argue against that, from the perspective of this scientific advancement enabling something that is both desirable to players and already technologically possible today.

Let’s continue off of my previous blog post’s cliffhanger, namely pondering how to bring your favourite gun to a new game. First, do players actually want that? To answer, let’s list a few similar themes:

  • The idea of a “digital theme park”, a multi-IP-sprawling experience, is being attempted with the recent $1.5bn Disney investment in Epic Games, and according to Mitch Lasky in the excellent GameCraft podcast, what we’ll see with thatgamescompany’s next project release.
  • Roblox connects their various games by allowing players to carry their UGC aesthetics across experiences, as well as recognising when particular achievements have been gained in a different game (often made by the same creative team)
  • As mentioned in previous blog posts, ReadyPlayerMe is pushing through the ability to adapt a player’s avatar to any game world on the fly.
  • The success of the TV series Arcane, The Last of Us, and the Mario movie, among others, has investors talk of “inter-media”, as people are hungry to experience their favourite game IPs in new ways.
  • Smash Bros’ continual success largely comes through its roster of characters from familiar franchises.

All of these show a clear market signal: players are interested in lifting the story, characters, items, and accessories they’ve built sentiment towards out of the confines of the game or framework in which they currently reside.

I’m personally more...
I’m personally more excited about and want to shout out more niche projects like https://archipelago.gg/, a grassroots initiative that allows people to re-experience their favourite PC games with a twist: your actions in Ocarina of Time, such as beating a boss, can feed a signal to another game like Hollow Knight, perhaps unlocking a new ability. If you’re familiar with game randomisers, it’s that, but sprawling over several independent games that pass data between each other in the background. This is not yet being able to “send Link into Hollow Knight”, but I will not be at all surprised if this takes off in a big way even in its current, limited form.

So, how can gen AI address this desire, which we internally call “IP in context”? If we break it down, this is a particular flavour of interoperability. Over the last 5 years, natural language processing (NLP) has given us the ability to weave narratives procedurally, and with relative ease. That means telling an “interoperable” story about Sonic in the world of Factorio is (technologically) trivial these days, which you already know if you’ve ever played around with services like AI Dungeon or NovelAI. What has historically been missing can now be addressed through code generation, which finally allows Sonic to operate within Factorio’s codebase, giving embodiment to his abstract narrative form (which, in turn, allows him to help the factory grow fast).

While, of the...
While, of the time of writing, the above is still largely conceptual, we’ve started to see code synthesis move into the zeitgeist, with several companies (BrainDump, FractalLabs, Gamestorms.ai) betting on code generation during gameplay as a problem that’s now plausible to tackle. As this space heats up, it’s exciting to guess what genre will be transformed by auto-modding capabilities next.

Our early experiments in GUG have shown that even rudimentary forms of these capabilities have lasting engagement with players. In GUG, players create a new creature (gug) that has thematic inspiration from a keyword they provide. If you happen to be attending gamescom 2024, come to Indie Hall, 10.2, Aisle F to test that for yourself. If you’re living in the future, the GUG demo has probably already dropped.

To finish off, let’s talk about where things can end up if they go right. Assuming no big hurdles, this technology will soon have the capability to separate a character from their environment, and transport them to a new one at the snap of a player’s fingers. This missing component will enable the willing player to throw their dream tea party with Doom’s Cacodemon, Cho’Gath from League of Legends, and Super Meat Boy, finally allowing them to squash their ongoing decades-long beef.

What do all of the following have in common? VR transporting to different realities, the mass social aspects of the Metaverse, the game interoperability of NFTs. I’d say “overpromising, underdelivering” is the thing that first comes to mind for most people. These are all technologies that have underachieved the dream they’re selling, even when being given breathtaking budgets to work with. The question on everyone’s mind right now is whether generative AI is the next victim on that chopping block. This blog will argue against that, from the perspective of this scientific advancement enabling something that is both desirable to players and already technologically possible today.

Link in the game Hollow Knight, image courtesy of this playthrough

What do all of the following have in common? VR transporting to different realities, the mass social aspects of the Metaverse, the game interoperability of NFTs. I’d say “overpromising, underdelivering” is the thing that first comes to mind for most people. These are all technologies that have underachieved the dream they’re selling, even when being given breathtaking budgets to work with. The question on everyone’s mind right now is whether generative AI is the next victim on that chopping block. This blog will argue against that, from the perspective of this scientific advancement enabling something that is both desirable to players and already technologically possible today.

Let’s continue off of my previous blog post’s cliffhanger, namely pondering how to bring your favourite gun to a new game. First, do players actually want that? To answer, let’s list a few similar themes:

  • The idea of a “digital theme park”, a multi-IP-sprawling experience, is being attempted with the recent $1.5bn Disney investment in Epic Games, and according to Mitch Lasky in the excellent GameCraft podcast, what we’ll see with thatgamescompany’s next project release.
  • Roblox connects their various games by allowing players to carry their UGC aesthetics across experiences, as well as recognising when particular achievements have been gained in a different game (often made by the same creative team)
  • As mentioned in previous blog posts, ReadyPlayerMe is pushing through the ability to adapt a player’s avatar to any game world on the fly.
  • The success of the TV series Arcane, The Last of Us, and the Mario movie, among others, has investors talk of “inter-media”, as people are hungry to experience their favourite game IPs in new ways.
  • Smash Bros’ continual success largely comes through its roster of characters from familiar franchises.

All of these show a clear market signal: players are interested in lifting the story, characters, items, and accessories they’ve built sentiment towards out of the confines of the game or framework in which they currently reside.

I’m personally more...
I’m personally more excited about and want to shout out more niche projects like https://archipelago.gg/, a grassroots initiative that allows people to re-experience their favourite PC games with a twist: your actions in Ocarina of Time, such as beating a boss, can feed a signal to another game like Hollow Knight, perhaps unlocking a new ability. If you’re familiar with game randomisers, it’s that, but sprawling over several independent games that pass data between each other in the background. This is not yet being able to “send Link into Hollow Knight”, but I will not be at all surprised if this takes off in a big way even in its current, limited form.

So, how can gen AI address this desire, which we internally call “IP in context”? If we break it down, this is a particular flavour of interoperability. Over the last 5 years, natural language processing (NLP) has given us the ability to weave narratives procedurally, and with relative ease. That means telling an “interoperable” story about Sonic in the world of Factorio is (technologically) trivial these days, which you already know if you’ve ever played around with services like AI Dungeon or NovelAI. What has historically been missing can now be addressed through code generation, which finally allows Sonic to operate within Factorio’s codebase, giving embodiment to his abstract narrative form (which, in turn, allows him to help the factory grow fast).

While, of the...
While, of the time of writing, the above is still largely conceptual, we’ve started to see code synthesis move into the zeitgeist, with several companies (BrainDump, FractalLabs, Gamestorms.ai) betting on code generation during gameplay as a problem that’s now plausible to tackle. As this space heats up, it’s exciting to guess what genre will be transformed by auto-modding capabilities next.

Our early experiments in GUG have shown that even rudimentary forms of these capabilities have lasting engagement with players. In GUG, players create a new creature (gug) that has thematic inspiration from a keyword they provide. If you happen to be attending gamescom 2024, come to Indie Hall, 10.2, Aisle F to test that for yourself. If you’re living in the future, the GUG demo has probably already dropped.

To finish off, let’s talk about where things can end up if they go right. Assuming no big hurdles, this technology will soon have the capability to separate a character from their environment, and transport them to a new one at the snap of a player’s fingers. This missing component will enable the willing player to throw their dream tea party with Doom’s Cacodemon, Cho’Gath from League of Legends, and Super Meat Boy, finally allowing them to squash their ongoing decades-long beef.

by Kamen

by Kamen