Video game services company, Keywords Studios, attempted to create a video game using only artificial intelligence (AI), but the venture eventually collapsed. The experiment was part of a Research and Development initiative seeking to create a 2D game entirely with generative AI. The team spent half a year on the project, investigating over 400 tools that could potentially be utilized for an AI-generated game.
However, after the situation proved more difficult than anticipated, the team had to rely on bench resources from seven game development studios. Simply put, they discovered it wasn’t feasible to create a game with AI alone and that human developers could not be replaced. It became apparent the “best results and quality needed can only be achieved by experts in their field utilising Gen AI as a new, powerful tool in their creative process.”
This illustrates the debate around AI versus video games, as technology advances. Even with complex AI technology, it doesn’t imply everyone can be a game developer. Despite the excitement stirred by OpenAI’s revelation that its potent text-to-video tool Sora could simulate digital worlds faithfully, such as Minecraft, technology is yet to replace the need for human ingenuity in game development.
The experiment by Keywords Studios did not receive public release as it was purely exploratory. Gamers have, in the past, shown a preference for games developed by humans as compared to those developed by AI. For instance, the first-person shooter game Payday 3 and Pokémon GO, which incorporated AI-generated art, received backlash from fans. Another game, Palworld (labelled as a Pokémon rip-off), received negative reviews suggesting the poor design might have been AI-generated. The CEO of Palworld’s studio, Pocket Pair Inc, had also hinted at using AI to lower costs and save time.
In conclusion, while it looked promising, the experiment by Keywords Studios to create an AI-generated video game failed. It underscored the underlying challenge that the “tooling was unable to replace talent” and reinforced the conclusion that humans cannot be entirely replaced in the creative process. The role of AI, therefore, stays as a significant tool employed by experts in their creative process rather than a full replacement for human developers. This outcome strikingly highlights the limitations of AI and the irreplaceability of human touch in the video game industry.
