The funny thing is that Dwarf Fortress is a procedurally generated game. It would seem like genAI/LLMs would be a good fit for it. When I first heard about LLM ability to generate coherent text I thought it might be perfect for DFs story telling. And he’s putting out a great, AI based game without any of it.
There are of course LLM ‘games’ that pretend to create a story in which the player does arbitrary actions. They’re utter dogshit, because a) they can’t keep track of their world for a prolonged time, since LLMs were never made for such cohesive reasoning and keeping track of objects; and b) they just string the player along forever without any particular objectives, since their whole modus operandi is endlessly generating text that seems coherent.
After the great procgen bubble of the 10s I kind of was meh on it being shoved in everything to try to pad play time or replay value. I became much more into finite authored content with like a real story, characters, and most importantly a real ending.
That said, procgen seems like a, uh idk, a cool clockwork contraption that an author actually fussed over and tuned to their vision.
Compared to the gen slop that tells me literally nothing of the person who made it. And can’t tell any of their decisions, brushstrokes, or challenges, from what some model that has nothing to do with them “decided” to spew forth.
At best it’s a form of curation that disrespects every artist who influenced what just generated.
You can create systems that generate content without resorting to mass plagiarism.
I’m working on a game that will have 10 million unique levels… due entirely to assets I’ve created that interact with each other in a variety of ways. I would never taint that with a system that not only plagiarizes but destroys the Earth to do so.
I mean, if LLMs could generate coherent, consistent narratives it would be an obvious good use of it. But they can’t do that. The mad lib system the game already uses is still a better option.
Saying it’s already an “AI based game” tho is laughably stupid.
The funny thing is that Dwarf Fortress is a procedurally generated game. It would seem like genAI/LLMs would be a good fit for it. When I first heard about LLM ability to generate coherent text I thought it might be perfect for DFs story telling. And he’s putting out a great, AI based game without any of it.
There are of course LLM ‘games’ that pretend to create a story in which the player does arbitrary actions. They’re utter dogshit, because a) they can’t keep track of their world for a prolonged time, since LLMs were never made for such cohesive reasoning and keeping track of objects; and b) they just string the player along forever without any particular objectives, since their whole modus operandi is endlessly generating text that seems coherent.
After the great procgen bubble of the 10s I kind of was meh on it being shoved in everything to try to pad play time or replay value. I became much more into finite authored content with like a real story, characters, and most importantly a real ending.
That said, procgen seems like a, uh idk, a cool clockwork contraption that an author actually fussed over and tuned to their vision.
Compared to the gen slop that tells me literally nothing of the person who made it. And can’t tell any of their decisions, brushstrokes, or challenges, from what some model that has nothing to do with them “decided” to spew forth.
At best it’s a form of curation that disrespects every artist who influenced what just generated.
Age of empires 1 has procgen, its good but you can’t expect it to carry a game on its own either. If all it had was its procgen the game would suck.
I’m not even hating on procgen, I just subjectively started getting sick of it (with exceptions). But for people who like(d) it, game on.
Fair, there were a lot of games coming out that acted like it was their main feature. You need solid gameplay first.
You can create systems that generate content without resorting to mass plagiarism.
I’m working on a game that will have 10 million unique levels… due entirely to assets I’ve created that interact with each other in a variety of ways. I would never taint that with a system that not only plagiarizes but destroys the Earth to do so.
I’m not saying he should just he could but has managed to make a complex game without it.
Oh hell no
I mean, if LLMs could generate coherent, consistent narratives it would be an obvious good use of it. But they can’t do that. The mad lib system the game already uses is still a better option.
Saying it’s already an “AI based game” tho is laughably stupid.