“Game development has been exposed to the ubiquitous nature of AI on industry change, and it is no exception. The role of AI in gaming has undergone radical changes and is now at its most advanced level; from how non-playable characters NPCs interact with players, to new methods for creating vast procedural worlds that make a game feel more immersive and replayable. In this essay, I will be discussing the various ways in which AI has affected game development including how it has shaped the way games are designed, created narratives and gameplay experience as well as future of gaming.”
In Image: An AI-driven NPC named Bloom is shown in a tech demo. Image credit: Ubisoft.
The Evolution of AI in Game Development
In order to understand the effects of AI on game design, we should follow its trajectory. Back when video games were first being made, game AI consisted of NPCs moving through defined, scripted paths. These initial AI systems were quite predictable, and often also lacked enough depth to be able to represent a convincing play experience. But soon, the technology evolved and so did the AI.
From the late 1980s through the 1990s, we also saw a much larger role for AI in game development. For example, games such as Pac-Man allowed AI opponents to follow the player’s movements, leading to a more dynamic experience. Nevertheless, the true progress in AI for game development came with advanced algorithms and higher computational power of the 2000s.
AI in gaming is no longer a simple behavior for an enemy. Today, it covers a wide range of applications — from chatty NPCs that can verbally respond to players, in real-time; to procedural generation systems that create extensive, personalized worlds for gamers. AI is nothing but a transformative force for game developing, which helps developers to defy the impossible limits of gaming.
AI and NPC Behavior
In Image: An AI NPC character demo created by Nvidia and Convai
Perhaps the most apparent effect of AI on game production can be seen in NPC behavior. Traditionally, NPCs served as little more than a video game roadblock; they play a very passive – often static role in gameplay. AI is an aspect of game design that has developed tremendously in the modern era, granting NPCs with complex behaviors that can drastically improve gameplay today.
Instead of programmed bots following rigid patterns, today NPCs that actually experience environments and can adapt to player action in real-time foster immersion and challenge during gameplay. In a similar vein, games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim can feature NPC reactions based on the player’s reputation and choices, adding a level of depth to gameplay. That is the kind of AI on game development, that can enable dynamic storytelling from your decisions impacting the narrative in real ways.
In addition to that, AI on game development helps produce NPCs (non-playable character) that behave naturally like they are in developing relationships, reacting to environmental changes as well as learning from past interactions. The changes in NPC habits have allowed for games to feel more immersive, leading to greater player investment in game.
Procedural Generation and World Building
Procedural generation in AI has also, created a game-changer effect on game development and its routing. Each of these environments is procedural, meaning that instead of being handcrafted each one was generated by an algorithm, allowing for the creation of massive systems full of unique surprises.
Minecraft and No Man’s Sky are examples of where procedural generation, fuelled by AI is scoped for larger worlds that a player may explore for countless hours. With the exception of certain structures, the terrain and caves in Minecraft are generated procedurally which makes every game world unique. This has created a nearly endless supply of content, pushing the game’s replayability into another stratosphere.
Example: AI on Game Development in No Man’s Sky has reached unprecedented levels of procedural generation. The game incorporates a universe of over 18 quintillion planets, each with an individual ecosystem, geography and other organisms. There would be no way to make this complexity without AI, as these worlds are generated on the fly as a player moves around them. By utilizing AI in procedural generation, game development can transcend past limitations while allowing players greater exploration and discovery of the surroundings.
AI in Game Design and Storytelling
In Image: An AI-driven NPC is shown in a tech demo. Image credit: Ubisoft.
Finally, AI also impacted the way games are designed and told stories. Game stories used to be life on a rail; a prewritten narrative with no possibility of either real involvement or divergence. But AI finally opened up new avenues for creators to write more dynamic, branching narratives based on players most critical input.
Take for example, Detroit: Become Human where you get to play the role of making choices as an AI and determine how a story unravels. There are multiple conclusions depending on the player’s progression through the narrative. This results in a more custom experience where players will actually feel their decisions matter.
Along similar lines, is also the role of AI in procedural storytelling — where the story exists based on what the player does. Thus, producing potentially unlimited and tumultuous plots, further increasing the replay value of a title. To take a prominent example, in Dwarf Fortress the ‘story’ does not exist prior to play and is created by the events arising from player/ environmental interaction. The level of narrativity that this is talking about, dynamic storylines that respond to play — there is no way that could happen without AI.
Enhancing Player Experience Through AI
In Image: AI-driven NPC Character
Artificial intelligence doesn’t just shape non-player character (NPC) behavior and world-building but the overall player experience as well. With the help of AI tools, developers are learning how players play the game and able to change best match for each player with more personalized content delivery. It might be a comprehensive adaptation, such as to the environment of the game itself; or it could be subtle and small, like adjusting complexity, providing tips or changing elements of an ecosystem to align with a players preferences.
Take Left 4 Dead ‘s AI Director as a prime example, who monitors performance and dynamically alters difficulty as needed. If they are having trouble, the AI Director can reduce enemies or provide additional resources. On the flip side, if the player is doing far too well, AI will ramp up difficulty for it to stay interesting. The game will accommodate the good and bad players alike, which helps all players stay involved in the gameplay.
Crank Up That AI Intelligent Feedback about Players In games like the Sims, AI can also watch (or track) players and generate feedback through actions from non-player characters or changes in the simulated world. You know that what you do will matter, which makes things feel more dynamic.
AI in Quality Assurance and Game Testing
Testing and QA are important steps in the process of game production as they ensure that a product is mostly polished, playable, and free of game-breaking bugs or issues. Testing a game has long been an arduous process of putting the flesh over bone to suss out the errors. On the other hand, the aspect of testing and quality assurance has undergone a total change with interventions of AI in game development. In particular, with the advancements in technology today, various AI-driven systems can automate many parts of game testing and all of them appear to give you better comprehensive results which drive accuracy and efficiency in either way through qualitative or quantitative methods as compared to pure manual testing.
At game testing, one of the aspects AI can actually have a higher impact is its ability to repeat tasks at extremely high precision — A note on AI on gaming development AI can simulate a large range of scenarios and playstyles in the time it takes human testers. AI might simulate thousands of concurrent users in an online environment, performing stress testing and surfacing performance bugs that would be otherwise invisible. This not only saves time, it also stabilizes the game when put under load (especially crucial for multiplayer and online games).
Additionally, AI on game development systems might perform a deeper level of testing than human testers by considering edge cases that humans may not consider. For instance, an AI could analyze the interplay of increasingly numerous aspects — such as player positionings, atmospheric components, and motion combinations — in a broad-spectrum open-world game across millions of possible permutations. This is useful in cases of procedurally-generated games where it would be infeasible or prohibitive to test every possible outcome by hand.
Inside audio and video detection errors, AI works effectively. AI-powered technologies could then analyze the graphics and sounds of these games to identify discrepancies — like texture problems, frame rate drop or sound clipping. They work by looking for small defects of any size that might escape manual testers either due to sheer volume of the material or limits in human eyesight. It can also keep constant tabs on the game-of-development, notifying developers instantly when something goes awry so that they can fix it quicker and thus boost general game-building efficiency.
However, AI testing does come with some challenges. There isn’t much available research on the subject of AIs specifically testing for game development systems; they might struggle to grasp qualitative elements like how a game ‘feels’ or if its narrative hangs together, and they need training to be able to flag a wide variety of issues. Human testers are still needed to assess the user experience and ensure the game matches what’s in the minds of its creators. Combined with human insight, though, AI-driven testing might drastically improve the speed and effectiveness of quality assurance, resulting in a better-looking, more entertaining game for players.
The Role of AI in Multiplayer and Online Games
Multiplayer games and online games are also in part feeling the impact of AI on game development. AI can be utilised in these games to have smart enemies, or control the in-game economy and player conduct. Including artificial intelligence in multiplayer online games has contributed to a more balanced and fair gameplay along with well-rounded and dynamic experiences for the players.
For example, in games like Overwatch, AI developed bots that can replace human players in some multiplayer matches. These bots are AI-controlled, and they act the way a human would up to a point; therefore these will be tough competition for players. This means matches will still be competitive and fun even with not enough human players on hand.
Now EVE Online is in the news for a different reason, including game dev AI: it’s also been used to do in-game economies. It can help monitor the virtual goods supply and demand, units price, even new crafted items to hold a balance in the economy. Doing would be impossibly complex to do by hand but with AI powered responsive economies we can give a much more enjoyable experience than ever possible.
Moreover, Game development AI has also been used to control player behavior in online games. Example: AI-based systems can monitor player conduct in games like League of Legends and issue a warning or punishment for toxic behaviour. Simply put, it provides a warmer and more comfortable gaming experience with less toxic behavior spilling over onto the players.
AI-Driven Game Development Tools
AI changing the game doesn’t just apply to the games themselves — it also applies to the tools and processes used by developers. From asset generation to testing and debugging, a host of components of game development are now able to be automated thanks to AI-driven tools. This allows developers to focus on creativity and innovations since it saves a lot of time and money in the development phase.
AI-driven tools Unity’s ML-Agents help developers create smarter NPCs by applying machine learning algorithms for training an NPC, for example. This allows developers to develop complicated and realistic behaviours without having to code every step.
AI can be used to generate assets, like textures, models and animations. AI-powered tools such as Artomatix can create high-quality assets in a fraction of the time, without needing to spend hours manually creating additional assets. Game engines also allow developers to not have to spend so much time on asset creation and rather just focus on how the game is supposed to be designed and played.
Other AI-based testing & debugging tools are automated to search and fix bugs saving time & effort for quality checks. This gives games more stability and polish at launch, allowing for a better experience as a player.
The Future of AI in Game Development
AI in game dev will only continue to increase over the next few years! AI innovation and use will promise new opportunities in game development, narrative and play experience.
For example, AI can be used to create smarter and more human-like NPCs. Machine learning will allow NPCs to learn from their interactions with players and adjust their behavior in much more complicated ways. As a result, the games would feel much more immersive and players will have the feeling that they are interacting with real characters instead of automated features, over scripts attached to NPCs.
In addition, AI will also be used more in procedural generation to create even bigger and weirder game worlds. AI algorithms will not just generate a lot of content, but soon enough, incredibly detailed and responsive for player actions. Such a thing could enable the generation of fully dynamic game worlds, those that react to your decisions and actions.
In addition, AI on game development will allow for more customized gaming experiences. By using AI to analyse player behaviour and preferences, the systems will be able to provide games that are personalized just for you. Things like dynamic difficulty scaling, tailored narratives, and even procedurally generated content to match player preferences.
One more area AI is sure to make a big impact on the integration of AI into VR and AR. Natural language processing algorithms can improve the experience of immersion and interactivity realistic and responsive environments creating a new level of VR and AR experiences. This can create a next level of gaming between virtuality & reality.
Ethical Considerations of AI in Game Development
While we definitely do see a lot of positive impact of AI in game dev, it also brings several ethical dilemmas (like any tech). As games increasingly have AI incorporated into them, developers need to be vigilant regarding what these player behavior and experience-monitored systems can do.
Another concern here is that a systems run by an AI could potentially alter the behavior of players. It could for example, use AI to generate engaging gameplay cycles or achieve higher player expenditure approaching microtransactions. It is a lesson where developers must remain vigilant against these risks and leverage AI as an assistive part of the player experience, rather than leveraging it to guide the player experience into exploitation.
We also need to be aware of the potential impact that AI could have on biases or even stereotypes. So AI has been demonstrated to reproduce social injustice with either a dataset that gets staged within the process of schooling it goes to go through, meaning if the NPCs are being pushed or procedural era systems additionally get educated on prejudiced statistics they’ll likely repeat what’s in the game. Developers must therefore be selective regarding the data used to train AI systems, because if bias exists in data, it will lead to harmful stereotypes systemically.
The fourth has to do with openness and accountability. As AI systems become increasingly complex and autonomous, I see further challenges ahead regarding our understanding (or lack of it) of the decision-making processes and accountability for those decisions. In this sense, if a system is driven by artificial intelligence, its inner workings and effects should be transparent to the developer and the players.
As much as video games have gone through so many changes with the advent of AI, everything from NPC behavior and world-building and storytelling and player experience, etc are all affected in some way or another when it comes to how AI works its magic in news headlines these days. Because of AI, the boundaries of gaming have been broken, allowing developers to create a gaming experience that is increasingly customizable, living and breathing.
As AI matures, it will continue to revolutionize game development as well. And the AI systems will enable smarter NPCs, bigger worlds, and dynamically generated content customized for each player. But with the rise of AI in games, developers should also mind how AI systems affect ethics and be careful that they are used to enhance rather than detract from gameplay.
“In the end, AI could be a game-changer in terms of video game manufacturing bringing each new stage of fun and expertise for all on a sensible path.”