As a young child I always loved to play games. Especially coming up with strategies and seeing what results they will yield later on really got me excited. As I grew older, I started playing more complicated games with more choices to make. “Open world” games for example put the player in a certain world. The player is then free to roam around, explore and meet characters to go on adventures with. Of course, even open world games have their limits. I remember a frustrating feeling when I found those limits. Technological advancements, especially the evolution of generative AI, within the (video)game industry now have made it possible to play infinite games.
AI Dungeon is a text-based game that allows the player firstly to come up with prompts to describe the setting. The game could take place in a post-apocalyptic world or any other setting imaginable. Then the player chooses his or her character, again made up with prompts specified by the player. After this, the AI Dungeon master sets the setting and explains it via text, at then the player is asked to fill in his action. The AI processes the player’s action and further develops the game.
While playing this game, I focussed on finding the limits of the game. Reading through the AI Dungeon Guidebook I found those limits. Most boundaries are put in place to prevent the player to take unethical decisions. A clear-cut example of this is that the player cannot engage in sexual activities with minors. But in some instances, an action cannot easily be defined as unethical. While playing a soldier I was not allowed to deviate from the mission to rescue a stranded survivor as ‘it is not in a soldiers nature to ignore a task’. Why this boundary is set in place is unknow to me, but it proves that a completely unlimited game is not yet in place.
The Ai Dungeon master, however, can be influential in the idea generation and development. As stated earlier, players can, using prompts, design worlds. Communities have developed over time where players share hugely expanded worlds. These communities have developed fast worlds and narratives that would have taken an enormous time to be developed by game companies.
One downfall of AI Dungeon is that it is text based, and therefore does not provide any visuals for the player. I could see how in the future AI Dungeon can be combined with an AI picture generator like Dall-E to provide this. If AI generation further develops, I could see entire videogames being developed as players play. I am looking forward to the future to see what the industry comes up with!
