I’m writing this article to talk about how cool it would be if games got better fast! You know, like when you play Minecraft, and the world pops up super quick? That’s because of something called generative AI. It’s like magic for games! I want more people to know about it so they can have even more fun playing games. But even though AI is awesome, there are some things it can’t do as well as humans. Like, AI can’t replace the fun we have when we play with friends.
- Automated World Creation: Generative AI can create a full-size world without only relying on seeds. However, a seed system is still necessary so that it is possible to use external software (eg- chunkbase for Minecraft) to predict world generation and to share a nice seed to play again. The perfect solution will be to integrate AI into seed generation trained to avoid glitches involving impossible calculations (eg- dividing by 0).
- Tailored Player Experiences: Personalized content generation can be generated using AI that can adapt to the gameplay style of a player. Builders will be able to obtain more blocks, Adventurous Players see more maps, Enthusiasts will see more challenging mobs to fight, Speedrunners will see a faster gameplay. The list is much longer but I also need to write about other topics. It can also adapt to different computers (prioritizing performance and graphics depending on the computer).
- Dynamic Storylines: Currently video game dialogues are based on stored data but that will not be the case in two to three years. AI will be able to generate dialogues. This will eliminate glitches and irrelevant dialogues in games. Current AI models like GPT- 3.5 can be fine-tuned to be used to generate custom dialogues in video games. Higher temperatures can be used to randomize the dialogues generated.
- Lifelike NPC Interactions: NPC stands for Non-Playable Characters. They are the AIs that are used in games. Even in just one game, Minecraft, NPC’s can range from animals like cows and pigs to monsters like zombies and creepers to villagers. AI can revolutionize these NPCs to have more life-like interfaces and behaviour. After all, they are already AI. Why not make them Generative AI.
- Adaptive Difficulty Levels: AI can make challenges varying difficulty based on the player’s skill level. Beginners will have easier gameplay and Experts will have harder gameplay. We can take this a step further by integrating multiple types of skills into the training data. Melee players will face more melee combat and same with ranged and defensive players. We can even increase the HP (health points) and attack damage of beginners. However, there must be an option for the server owner to disable these settings for balancing reasons.
- Efficient Asset creation. The most time-consuming part of creating any game or mod is the time it takes to create images and other assets. Even for a simplistic game like Minecraft there is 256 pixels for each item , 1536 pixels for each block and over 8000 pixels for each armor set! And Minecraft is on the lower end of the spectrum. However, with fine-tuned models of popular image generating AI like DALL-E, endeavours that usually take weeks or even months can be done in a matter of minutes! Combining AI with popular mod making software like MCreator, A little kid could make a mod in a matter of days!
- Enhanced Realism: Current game textures have either one thing: Being unrealistic or requiring high performance computers to play. With AI, we can make lightweight, yet realistic games. With AI, we can have thousands, if not millions of customizations where every player can have their own definition of perfection. To save space on a computer, Only the player’s choices can be downloaded.
- Streamlined Game Testing: AI can automate testing procedures, identify bugs, and optimize performance. AI can find solutions to many bugs by testing millions of fixes to find the one that works best. A human will take months if not years to do this, but AI can do it in a matter of hours or days.
- Dynamic Environment Generation: AI can automatically generate weather patterns, terrain features, and ecosystems. In Minecraft, generative AI can automatically set weather patterns based on what the player wants. AI can predict the player’s behaviour and guess what weather the player wants. AI can also help in regulating mob spawning in Minecraft. AI also helps in regulating the speed of the game.
- AI-Driven Character customization: Players can customize their characters. This fact is already known. What if players get recommended new customization options based on their previous selections and options. Generative AI can do exactly that. Generative AI can also recommend purchases (with in-game money) that will be useful and cheap. This will be extremely useful in RPGs like hypixel skyblock.
- Future of Gaming: Generative AI represents the future of gaming. All the things we discussed earlier are only possible with Generative AI. Due to this, generative AI is the future of gaming. However, generative AI cannot replace key features of competitive multiplayer games like Bedwars. The reason that bedwars is fun is because it is not overtaken by perfect AI that can easily defeat even the best players.