How AI will transform the gaming industry

Games are traditionally crafted by hand by a group of people with very different expertise. Most of the time goes into content creation. How will generative AI change the balance of effort in game creation?
We explore existing types of game creation. We focus on procedural content generation, which uses a small random seed to create seemingly indefinite volumes of content. A new AI model called Genie addresses the same problem using deep learning and computer vision. Genie can generate entire games from scratch.
However, in the short term it's more likely that AI models will assist game developers in their creation process. One example of this is a terrain generation paper that appeared at AAAI 2024. It is interesting to imagine what creations will be possible in the future with a lower barrier to entry.
#ai #games #contentgeneration
Google DeepMind’s new generative model makes Super Mario-like games from scratch
www.technologyreview.com/2024...
Genie: Generative Interactive Environments [paper]
deepmind.google/research/publ...
MindBranches X Post on Genie
/ 1761968625668215179
Terrain Diffusion Network: Climatic-Aware Terrain Generation with Geological Sketch Guidance [paper]
arxiv.org/pdf/2308.16725.pdf
.kkrieger - The FPS Game in 96KB (Full Gameplay)
• .kkrieger - The FPS Ga...
Infinite craft [game]
neal.fun/infinite-craft/
Dungeon crawl stone soup [game]
crawl.develz.org/
NetHack [game]
www.nethack.org/
0:00 Intro
0:22 Contents
0:30 Part 1: Anatomy of a game
0:41 Open world vs scripted games
1:04 Generative AI can tailor whole universe
1:43 Example: dynamic AI engine in Left4Dead 2
2:06 Addictive potential of generative AI games
2:51 Games are technically challenging to create
3:14 Game engine description
3:35 Huge number of other skills needed
3:47 Not a lucrative industry unfortunately
4:20 Part 2: History of content generation
4:36 Most effort goes towards content, not game engine
5:20 Hand crafted content vs procedural generation
5:51 Random seeds for procedural content generation
6:25 Traditional assets take a lot of space
6:47 Example: .kkrieger game less than 100KB
7:26 Example: Elite Dangerous populates galaxy
7:48 Example: No Man's Sky generates flora, fauna, etc
8:12 Example: Minecraft needs only one seed
8:30 Example: nethack and crawl, highly inventive
8:40 Using algorithms (genetic, etc) to generate levels at dev time
9:42 Example: interactive terrain generation
10:45 Part 3: Generative whole games
10:53 Genie paper from Google
11:11 Platformer game dataset, 7 million samples
12:09 Predicting future video frames (computer vision)
12:45 Enough similarities between platformer games
13:24 Trying to make the research reproducible
13:55 Asking for scenarios in English text
14:15 Model can even emulate parallax
14:59 Are all games about to be fully algorithmically generated?
15:22 Game generation might enable more inventiveness
15:59 The game itself might just be generative AI
16:21 Example: infinite craft
17:03 Conclusion
17:25 Procedural generation
18:14 Generating entire games from scratch
18:57 Video of Genie
19:28 Outro

[@DrWaku]

Making games is fun, but hard. What do you think would be some great ways for AI to help with the process?

[@DrWaku]

Sorry this video is quite late, I am traveling. What do you think of the thumbnail?

[@Techtalk2030]

You could essentially get a game that never ends. Making up your own quests, npcs, enemies and world just by telling the A.I to do so. Not to mention npcs with advanced A.Is.

[@xXWillyxWonkaXx]

@@DrWakuquite nice actually.

[@DrWaku]

​@@Techtalk2030 Yes, you could make an almost infinite game world. Probably a lot less repetitive than any existing ones.

[@user-if1ly5sn5f]

Throw a pdf file on how to use unreal engine and then use the open interpreter to make a game based on concept you make. Maybe

[@kronux3831]

This is what’s really cool about AI technologies: accessibility. Nobody can be good at everything, and given how many different skills are needed to make a video game, solo game dev can be a monumental task. Having an AI assistant that can fill in the blanks will make it so much easier for indie developers to create their games and tell their stories. I can see a future with a booming market for games made by individual people, that were made either partially or mostly with AI generated tech.

[@fr0ntend]

Dynamic npc's, worlds and quests would be a dream come true.

[@Techtalk2030]

For the past 3 years I started to play all the games I wanted to play for the years I couldnt due to work and studies. Now im hurrying up and playing all the games that are left before a massive technological leap takes place. The games that are gonna come out in the next 2-5 years are going to make current games look really limited and lame I feel like. Companies are already saying that the next consoles will see massive tech advancements.

[@DrWaku]

Console generations used to be 5 years apart, with massive hardware differences between them. I wonder how that will accelerate.

[@Techtalk2030]

@@DrWakutotally right. If technology is moving extremely fast I wonder if theyll release a new console every 2 years or so if not sooner, stall until tech slows down a little or maybe create a system where you can just switch certain parts for better performance, essentially making it a pc lol.

[@user-if1ly5sn5f]

I hope you play destiny and follow philosophy. Its so fun to listen and learn and understand the differences and similarities between everything. Its like seeing flowers bloom in a garden.

[@Techtalk2030]

@@user-if1ly5sn5f destiny the game?

[@sinkingdutchman7227]

​@@Techtalk2030wouldn't it make more sense that we'll mostly see remote play in the future? Why have these massive expensive machines at home when you can just rent a computing resource 100x more powerful? With 5G, you can even have on the go with minimal latency.

[@smilerdude4704]

I would use ai to bring life into my npcs

[@ShibsKensei]

I'm personally not interested in a fully generated experience. But i'm glad the tech exists, and can see how it can be beneficial to any workflow.

[@Siranoxz]

It benefits everyone, including you.. You may not be interested at the beginning, but it will definitely convince you to create something with AI assistant agents to help developers with their workflow, single developers will be a thing in the future.

[@p5rsona]

Seems were headed toward a future where ai is everything, search, shopping, video, music, games, personal computer os. Ai will generate entire games real time. My personal wish is to have ai generate based on existing stuff, enhance and expand on it.

[@DrWaku]

The best use of AI is when it enables a human to create and work more productively. If it's taking over the whole job, you better have societal safety nets in place etc, which take some time to set up. Let's hope the tech evolves responsibly.

[@xXEpicEpic4Xx]

@@DrWaku”let’s hope” …. It won’t

[@zrakonthekrakon494]

The biggest advance will be BCI interfaces as controllers, people will use their hands and their brains directly to manipulate games

[@DrWaku]

Agreed. I made a video about BCI a while ago, you can check it out if you're interested. But more direct input with less latency would be a real... Game changer.

[@zrakonthekrakon494]

@@DrWaku Think about the fidelity of the controls though, Controllers are really much simpler interfaces, they are in a sense a crude technological middle man between the brain-hands-controller-input, hands are just a modality that formed for the brain to interact with the environment, however we are not accustomed to using the brain to manipulate things, since we live in a tangible world with bodies, for now, ultimately peak fidelity, efficiency, and intuitiveness is, the brain interacting with all technology and experience directly, like telepaths, think the scene of Ego from Guardians of the galaxy 2 forming matter with his mind on his home planet, I think that is the future of humanities virtual existence which will be where we spend 90% of our time

[@panpiper]

Generating individualized content I expect will take a while longer yet, simply due to the speed limitations of local inference. What I think we will see sooner is a lot of game reboots which will include all the original content, with a huge increase in both quantity and quality of additional material, along with realtime LLM voiced conversation with NPCs.

[@user-if1ly5sn5f]

When the natural language reaches game development and open source we can use it in so many ways but i think we could design the game first through language and images before full scale creation. A general model would connect to the process and use the previous generated data through many models, like saving progress and then transfering to another model to use the data. Multiple models would get the data in a cascade like monte carlo scattering and then reintegrating. It would look like the opposite of a plant with its roots and branches, inverse like a zipper, start, expand on detail (monte scatter), then wrap around the boundaries of the content, then finely organize and finalize.

[@jameshughes3014]

I was just writing about what it was I was hoping to see, and then you mentioned the terrain generator, which is exactly what I was hoping for. I'm excited, I've gotta check that out. Thank you for this vid.

[@DrWaku]

Nice! Yeah definitely check it out, the images are cool. Cheers.

[@OceanGateEngineer4Hire]

If we dont get full dive VR (and we might), at the very least, 'Westworld' style LARP theme parks will be inevitable in a post-labour economy. Being able to LARP as a wizard in a medieval fantasy setting with augmented reality spell effects, and AI NPC's populating the environment and giving out quests, is pretty much my ultimate dream.

[@ekulegend]

If I had the money I would totally do it!

[@haxresearch701]

You live in a fantasy post labour economy lol

[@DrWaku]

Lol sounds interesting. You should read "The frugal wizard's guide to surviving medieval England" :)

[@Di5functi0n3l_playp3n]

Word 👍. I'll see you on the battlefield 😉.

[@OceanGateEngineer4Hire]

@@DrWaku Just ordered it! 🧙🏻‍♂️

[@figmentariumanimation7598]

This was an amazing watch and perfectly fitting to what I’ve been wanting to know lately. Subbed!

[@user-mp2fb9ku5o]

I'm still gonna be playing games on the NES

[@VarietyAI.]

It's impact to virtual reality or full dive vr plss make a video about it

[@orionswatchers9775]

Netflix will change. Soon youll be able to create your own movie or have a random generated one.

[@caseyarmstrong7113]

Awesome overview. Curious why dyou don't think full games are sooner than later. Actually, on that theme, would love to see you talk with David Shapiro about his Sept 2024 AGI prediction. Would love to hear the back & forth. Similarly, if you could get Dr. Alan D Thompson on a call. Again, great content. Kudos & Cheers!

[@Siranoxz]

I think a lot more will happen with AI assistant game development, but you have indeed named up a few disruptions regardless.

[@DrWaku]

The whole industry will be disrupted I'm sure. I have a decent view into what development requires but I have no doubt there's a lot more going on too.

[@RtB68]

I've been playing games since my first Atari in 1978. I've played them all. My hope is that some of my classics will be made new again and improved by AI - but I also suspect I'll be able to write a page of my likes and an AI will create them game, personalized to me. Example - "Make a puzzle based adventure game with a similar feel to Alone in the Dark and Bioshock but with a Firewatch aesthetic and a traditional character arc for the protagonist but with a similar to Dear Esther" Ohhh my Lord the future is bright.

[@honaleri]

The skill floor to getting into game design, was already incredibly low. This won't make that floor lower, but it will make more generic content, more pervasive.

[@DrWaku]

Yeah, similar to the way that LLMs have made generic text much more prevalent on the internet. It's certainly possible that this will happen with games. I don't know what kind of quality bars services like steam use, but it's possible there's a bit more gatekeeping when it comes to games.

[@sevika]

Thnx Dr Waku for explaining this complex matter! I am in Germany and go to school classes and speak to parents about Prevention, Health, Danger of and Digital Media, now I need to add AI as content to my topics.

[@torarinvik4920]

I have most hopes for making alternative versions of movies. The dialog and camera angles are altered not in a way that it changes the story but makes the viewing experience a bit more fresh.

[@nsbd90now]

That was really interesting and you're a terrific instructor.

[@DrWaku]

Thank you ;)

[@user-if1ly5sn5f]

0:45 They sat down and did all the work and so we can use ai to learn all the things and then mirror and expand. The ai doesnt really need too much, just a little knowledge like what we have and then some freedom or i guess we could let it only wake up to respond to the stimuli of our questions and goals.

[@SlimmCity]

I can't wait to see what amazing features A.I brings to gaming. Also isn't it possible to have more graphically complex games because A.I. game generate graphics instead of having to render them?

[@jayaybe1]

Whew! Such a relief KZbinrs realise we don't understand the words "one", "three" and the like and helpfully hold up the requisite number of fingers for us to count! Seriously, nice channel and everything well explained, subscribed.

[@seryi9447]

I hope AIs make developments a lot faster. It's not normal that some games take 3-5 years to be made and then they are not that good. AIs should be used to make games like RDR2 in a year maximun and bigger and better with procedural stuff.

[@brandoovalle5678]

ya quiero que usen la ai sora en video juegos seria increible

[@EudaderurScheiss]

it depends, if ai is trained on videos of games and we let it generate such games where we navigate inside of the videe, it will be too diffuse to really be a good game. though it may look amazing for an 3d run through worlds kinda game. trained on unreal 5 worlds and the real world. for content creation, world creation, character creation, dialog creation it will speed up everything 1000 fold. we could populate worlds with npcs that do stuff that are realistic and that are like those anime game worlds. i think.. for really content complex games like rpgs it will make everything easier. with smaller 2d games im not that sure. there the mechanics are actually more important. in terms of gameplay we still need the human element to gauge the behaviours and also how the gameplay works.

[@williamal91]

Hi Doc greetings from the UK. exciting times ahead

[@DrWaku]

Hi Alan, thanks for dropping by. Have a good one.

[@NPC.T]

Procedural generation in terms of repeatable landscapes is something ML should be very good at with its expertise in pattern recognition. I also imagine in the near future smaller quantized models fine tuned on synthetic dialogue data for individual NPCs getting used to make each character feel alive and respond to any input. Something that I would like to see but will probably not be implemented until after the next Bethesda title will be genetic NPC behavior.

[@NickDrinksWater]

ai can already generate fully functioning code, within seconds. It can also generate code for a fully functioning, but very basic game, such as snake. Imagine in a few years knowing how fast its evolving, ai will be able to code an entire complex 3d game, all from a simple prompt

[@jonmichaelgalindo]

Procedural generation dates back to before Mario's sprite getting palette-swapped into Luigi's sprite. AI is already having a massive impact, and will definitely be mindboggling over the next few years. I don't know where this is going.

[@nsbd90now]

An oldster, and barely even a "casual gamer", but have a VR thing that I sure like and want to develop and... I'm an optimist when it comes to things like AI and especially AGI... and whew! Sure is exciting to see all this happen! Yeah!

[@TaylorCks03]

Great topic!!

[@DrWaku]

Thank you! I thought it would draw in some new and interested viewers and it seems to be doing just that.

[@michaelcera11]

very good and concise video

[@DrWaku]

Thank you! Appreciate your comment

[@erwingomez1249]

Nintendo should be in charge of google's genie.

[@alvaroluffy1]

imagine no mans sky had cities, cultures, narrative, story... all of those things could be infinitely true with generative AI. I wanna play skyrim but i can go anywhere on the planet, i can disrupt cultures and kingdoms, i can slay kings or politicians, or become one, and change the world in real time based on my actions AND based on other external factors that dont depend on me. I want a really alive world, i want to become a legend, wait a thousand years and be forgotten again, i want to explore and change a world for all of eternity (well maybe not all of eternity, since probably we all are gonna live thousands of years when we reach 2030 or 2040, but you get what i mean)

[@alvaroluffy1]

i want that world to evolve, i wanna see their technology change, their language change, their culture change. I wanna see new cultures arising and the old ones being destroyed. I wanna be on the center of the conflict and i wanna be an spectator from outside. I wanna experience these worlds like no one has experienced them before. And the only thing we need... is for generative AI to become as good as a professional writer... and we are so fucking close

[@DrWaku]

What an inventive vision. To me, it's the gap between stories and movies, and interactive media like games. The former can really grip your imagination, while the other can make you feel like you are there. Merging the two would be simply fantastic.

[@alvaroluffy1]

@@DrWaku I'm confident it will happen, we're already on the path to it, we just have to avoid civilization extinction and everything will be fine

[@scimeco]

I cannot wait for text to game and not be disappointed!!!!! YESSSSSS

[@jayaybe1]

Sports games like Madden and FIFA could be far more realistic I think if the players on the screen were more authentic and game logic less formulaic.

[@entreprenerd1963]

Seems bad form to give a shoutout to NetHack without mentioning Rogue - after all, the category is now called "Roguelike"!

[@DrWaku]

True. Rogue is old enough though that most people don't seem familiar with it. I like crawl best but nethack seems the most widely recognized these days which is why I mentioned it.

[@xXWillyxWonkaXx]

Thanks for the video. Procedural generation. Funny that in most industries we’re almost always creating content all day long 😂😅 epic.

[@--waffle-]

11:50 160p resolution is 284x160 not 160x90

[@JeroenPut]

Games are definitely not the driving force for GPU development anymore. Datacentre GPU sales are way bigger.

[@DrWaku]

Yeah. You can see this in how the new systems are AI accelerators and no longer graphics shading language compatible.

[@perrybb2]

I used to make mods for Counter-Strike and Minecraft back when I was in high school, but they kinda sucked. I can't wait to finally be able to make my own video games from scratch, starting with Left 4 Dead 3 and Half-Life 3

[@UniQueLyEviL]

I am so interested on this topic

[@isajoha9962]

Great video and the break down of different concepts generating worlds.

[@DrWaku]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@Saint2CB]

purely out of curiosity are you albino? I like this topic, this is my first interaction with this channel

[@DrWaku]

Albino as in white skin, white hair? No, my hair is reddish. And I'm just from Canada where there's not a lot of sun lol. Welcome to the channel, hope to see you at some other videos.

[@kairi4640]

I just want a rpg game that can finally say my name lol. Like in Genshin Impact, instead of traveler, it's my name. 😂

[@DrWaku]

Lol yeah. That would be pretty hard though because you need to be able to auto generate all the characters voices that might refer to you. So probably a lot less human voice acting, or at least the human voices used as input to a system.

[@The_Questionaut]

There's a mod for fallout new Vegas and Skyrim that uses chatgpt or something with a text to speech model, then theres also the inworld AI detective demo

[@Neseku]

I'm not very excited for video games developed by ai. What I want is npc that feel alive. Worlds where everyone has a personality and voice. And perhaps have the capability of having full blown conversations.

[@toututu2993]

AI will obviously be something that you interact in the game not something you used to make game

[@typhoon320i]

The way you make a lot of money is: find out what jobs are uninteresting, and (unpleasant to many) but need to be done. Cha-ching!!

[@roshni6767]

This is way too cool. Hard to wrap my head around, even after reading about it!

[@DrWaku]

Thanks for suggesting this topic!!

[@AIgaming-so7pu]

Good

[@DrWaku]

Thanks for watching

[@sayachan6069]

I think I would rather have games made by people with heart and soul put into them instead of AI algoslop.

[@markmuller7962]

Gaming is definitely left behind in driving "graphic" cards, the latest Nvidia AI chips are 100 folds better than the previous generation of 1 year ago. Moor's Law on steroids

[@gofai274]

I am not even excited about anything positive AI could bring because rich and corporations will use it for power and against ppl not only to determine what is the truth but even reality itself...

[@ZenTheMC]

Except that wouldn’t make any sense. They would make MORE money if they sold it to as many people as reasonably possible for the cost of development. Selling only to rich people often doesn’t net the most profit for the seller. That’s why almost everyone has a smartphone and almost everyone can use chat gpt+. The consumer model actually gives me optimism that us plebs will have access to it because it benefits the rich to sell it to us. Initially, I’m sure most people wouldn’t have access just like all tech, but over time almost everyone will.

[@pandoraeeris7860]

The entire gaming industry is going to die (finally).

[@Diogo85]

Finally? What's wrong with it and I would not want to live in a world where there are no more news video games,

[@MichaelDeeringMHC]

Nice hat. I play Minecraft. I can't wait until the skeletons are smarter than humans.

[@DrWaku]

Hey thanks for the comment as usual. Just wait until the skeletons start playing big game hunter and herding you off a cliff

[@kellymaxwell8468]

we need ai to remake the games that have closed dawn of the dragons etc final fantasy record keeper that is what I am most looking forward to that and immortal life with new you clinic

[@pauldannelachica2388]

❤❤❤❤

[@user-if1ly5sn5f]

Could use real physics and chemistry data to generate details while in the simulated environment. I mean like when you cut a piece of bread in the game world, itll draw from the physics to model a visual representation of the data and when you think of doing something, the ai would scatter to gather the detail to make images and such to accompany the goal so you would see the differences happen but the full piece of bread doesnt exist, only the details like image and game physics and such. If modeled correctly it could be an accurate playground for a school so learning could be easy and fun for future generations and even for us now and even colleges and such could use this to simulate designs and model in vr like design buildings and architecture. Then the ai could transfer data to the factory to generate parts and then use automated cranes and cars to deliver and construct anything. Same with 3d printing and other things too. The world is blowing up and we are entering a golden age.

[@MikePaixao]

Can't wait to show my my new AI I've been working on the last year 🙂 Imagine interacting with a local LLM, that grows more complex as you interact with the world around it in game, but every entity in the game is running the same recursive code, all logic of every entity is done by evaluating and processing through English language understanding only

[@OceanGateEngineer4Hire]

Sounds awesome!

[@King_Slime1xp]

Wow...can i mount a cyclops like in Dragons Dogma and stab its eyeball though?

[@MikePaixao]

@@King_Slime1xp 100% adding that to list of things to teach it o.O

[@haxresearch701]

AI is only going to make things worse if you know whose controlling it like UBISOFT EA EPIC GAMES. yeah those fucks

[@osz494]

This video is basically just using a bunch of long-winded amount of sentences to describe what a rogue like is and making it sound like as if it's gonna replace people making video games. Also as somebody who studied game designed and game development for five years this guy does not know how to make a game or talk about it

[@bluishglacier5206]

3D Games won't run or play smooth without people to adjust the poly's, textures sizes, lod's, lighting. Plus the ai can't generate exactly what you're asking it to and with good uv's and it's always triangles which can't be used good for animators. This guy is clueless to the production process.

[@ilhanilhanDev]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Ok finaly programmers will be began make game with good mechanics, becouse of the competition. AI good think When AI and robots appear on us live Porters: Nooooo Writers:Noooooo Draw artists: Noooo Programmers: finaly you will be mine! Also AI good think

[@emanuelmma2]

Thanks for that high IQ content 🙃

[@DrWaku]

Thanks for commenting :)

[@--waffle-]

6:56 you also butchered the pronunciation of "butcher"

[@DrWaku]

😂

[@--waffle-]

@@DrWaku great vid though.

[@mister_r447]

Make a video on AI NPCs!

[@Slaci-vl2io]

I haven't read / watched / played anything about games in the last 20 years. Dr Waku summed it up for me in 20 minutes. He made my morning very efficient.

[@DrWaku]

Good to see you again. I'm all about efficiency :) for the viewer, not necessarily for me...

[@chrissscottt]

I'm looking forward to having an AI tutor help me improve my World of Warcraft arena rating.

[@ender749]

I want to see an AI layered ontop of Dwarf Fortress in adventure mode

[@ender749]

Or have AI play Dwarf Fortress

[@SearchingForSounds]

IRL games.. is coming

[@lcmiracle]

Glory to the machine

[@justinwhite2725]

16:15 Ai Dungeon.

[@user-if1ly5sn5f]

This is gonna be insanely amazing. All the nay sayers are gonna lose their minds hahaha

[@diga4696]

So according to Dr. Waku meta is creating a foundation for the last game, or likely the very least thing humans will do. Goodnight sweet prince.