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[–] 2 points 2 days ago (1 child)

If you imagine something like how the crew of the enterprise talk to the holodeck and create games via prompt engineering (e.g. in one episode Geordi and Data tell the computer "create an adventure game in the style of the novels of Sherlock Holmes") - what would those drawbacks be? And why would that not be noteworthy?

Obviously it would be in a VR environment at best. And rather limited in flexibility at first. And balancing and game design would not become considerably easier. And yes, you'd still need grit and the luxury to at least work part time on it without getting paid. IMHO good games are already drowning in human sweatshop made slop that is controlled by publishers who have the capital.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    I don't exactly know what you are trying to convey, because it's basically what I think too. Maybe AI can gain a buck here and there for big corp, but well that's about it. Also something I thought about: if you want to do an indie game, there are loads of free material that's not harder to use than AI generated stuff IMO.

    We'll see, maybe I'm wrong and we'll have nice turnbased crpgs by the truckload 😁!

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 child)

    So if there was a software with the exact same capabilities as the holodeck, just in a VR headset, you'd just say "Nah. Take it away. That does not amuse us at all." :D

    This discussion basically comes down to a technical question about progress. How quick and how far we can move towards that goal (ignoring economic and environmental issues). Obviously we're at 0% and it's speculation about technical progress (and AI and hardware becoming good and cheap enough).

    PS: I'm mostly curious because to an extend understand the irrational hate against AI, because there is justified bullshit going on. But what I don't understand is how a trekie who knows all about the holodeck can look at genAI and not connect the two for VR and video games. Millions watched those examples of advanced prompt engineering and generative AI and thought it was cool. But now hate gen AI categorically.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 hours ago (1 child)

    I'm in the same boat, kinda. I know how it works, and it's good, and incredible that it works IMO. A next step forward.

    For games though, I think it's a bit like art, maybe the comparison isn't very good, but a real artwork must (IMO) have some human intent, you can only rehash old stuff with AI (today) so much. Games should not be made by gamers, but by some one who knows how to make games. Like make you work for that reward. If that makes sense 😅.

    Anyway, interesting times ahead!

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  • [–] 1 point 5 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

    I'm a bit more jaded when it comes to games art, or maybe snobbish lol. I also have some industry experience. I dislike a lot of art direction and consider much "dilettante art" that is just made very detailed or overly cool. It often works and is fine, but it's not art. The real art you find in indie games. But take a look at zerospace for example, it's pretty detailed and technically good 3D unit models, but overall it's pretty pedestrian art direction.

    And that is not always easy to avoid. Like you can only tell your concept artist that his art and color choices remind you of a preschooler so often before he cries and rage-quits, leaving you to have to find and hire a new underpaid slave. Or your modellers that they'll have to redo all of this garbage and stay the weekend. What you already had to stay the weekend unpaid because I made you believe in this project??? /s obviously lol.

    Video game development is technically very demanding, underfunded and very badly paid and has time constrains, and a high complexity and "unknowability of complications" what gameplay elements need to be redesigned. I recently watched an excellent Diablo III post mortem of the development hell they went through, despite their best intention and talent and funding - in the end it was rushed out.

    So being able to prompt an AI to create or make variations of concept art and then iterate EFFORTLESSLY over the overall composition of the resulting work - my theory is that it will allow for greater artistic freedom. At least for the "game director" similar to a movie director. It does not just have the potential to be cheaper and produce more slop, it also has the potential to elevate and empower to control and iterate over the creative vision. The source code could be like an annotated game design document in a special markup language with inserted links to approved artwork and random seeds that you can just tweak and rerun the whole game generation. Not just for visuals and audio, but also for the gameplay.

    So with gen AI you might potentially end up seeing more and better games that can be considered artwork or masterpieces.

    Obviously this is all speculation, if this actually can work technically and economically. And AI psychosis is real, there might be a dead end in genAI and LLMs ahead instead of improvement. Also friction and pain in the media often breeds beauty. See how well book authors do without a publisher and editor to keep them on a tight leash lol. But I do think it is well worth considering, investing and exploring this potential.

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