AI is the latest tool in the game developers’ arsenal, and after the initial struggles, it now has plenty to offer, with its abilities expanding daily. AI has found its place in many industries, and billion-dollar gaming is no exception. AI can streamline, collect, and process many operations and data, offering solutions or guidance for developers and unprecedented content for users.
1. Procedural Design
The genre of rouge-like games is nothing new. It relies on terrain-generating algorithms to make each scene, level, and run unique. By combining all of the game’s assets the algorithm can produce new content for the player each time they start playing. But, it does not end there, as with AI, the game can gather player preferences, moves, strengths, and weaknesses to create the ultimate personalized experience.
Gathering player input to create unique gaming experiences has become standard practice across many areas of digital gaming, including online gambling.
Slot games may be simple at first glance, but they can offer engaging gameplay, griping features, and countless skills. Using AI, developers can create ideal slot recommendations for the player.
As casino expert Narathip states in this B2C TH guide, some slot sites in Thailand can feature as many as 10,000 individual slot titles. Not only does this provide you with a huge variety to begin with, but many of these slot machines also harness AI to make each slot experience unique to you and your preferences. They also offer significant bonuses, with 300% welcome bonuses available.
As AI becomes commonplace, we’ll see more and more iGaming industries adapt and innovate using AI tech.
2. AI Learning
The more information we provide AI, the more advanced it gets. The Nemesis system from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a good example of this, as AI can create enemies that adapt to player strategies and movement, offering more or less challenges, depending on the player. The AI-powered Nemesis system can also create lasting rivals that impact the player’s playthrough, making each session unique when players talk and share experiences.
3. AI Helpers
AI can be used to aid players. When gaming, the player can encounter NPC helpers and they can significantly reduce the difficulty of some encounters, if done right. And that’s precisely where AI helpers come along like the ones in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla that analyze player performance and help them achieve victory. In the same way, AI can gather player intel and use it against the player to offer maximum challenge, so too can AI use the same info to help the player. This diverse approach to AI implementation shows how versatile and potent AI can be, and future games will surely profit. As we get to see more intelligent AI, both in helpers and enemies, games will evolve toward a more realistic end.
4. Realistic Reactions
To get immersed in a gaming world is a rare and precious experience, and whenever we find a game that grips, doesn’t let go, and sucks us right into its rich narrative, we usually remember it for years to come. Try to imagine a scene in-game where a building is burning, but the NPC dances and is nonchalant during your gameplay.
This unrealistic reaction can break player immersion, and it can happen for any number of reasons. Sometimes, there is a limited amount of responses the developers can code and bugs can happen. That’s precisely where AI comes in as it can offer realistic NPC interaction by generating more immersive responses. The Last of Us has such technology already in place, where NPC react not only to the environment but also to player decisions, creating further immersion.
5. Evolving Difficulty
Most games come with various difficulty sliders, ranging from easy to insane. Despite the settings, players can often pick a difficulty that’s not quite right, ending in the experience being too hard or too easy. Finding that sweet spot is difficult and a matter of developer experience and design, but AI can pitch in to help. We can use Halo as a good example of advanced and adaptive enemy AI. In this game, AI tech is capable of utilizing cover, devising strategies, and reading player movement to offer the best challenge.
When we take into account the initial game settings, it’s AI that can fine-tune and adapt for the best results, offering an adequate challenge based on all the data it receives from the player. If the settings are easy, and the player is struggling, AI can detect its failures and lower the enemy AI, as they will react slower, for example, and vice-versa.
6. World Generation
Imagine an engine so powerful it can create an entire game world at a click of a button. The player can set some preference (or go into detail if allowed) and create their special place each time. While world generation is nothing new, and we already have games like Minecraft and No Man’s Sky, AI can take it further and evolve the concept.
By measuring how the player interacts with the world or some of its segments at each given time, AI can adjust the explored territory and tailor it to the player’s liking. AI can also use all the data from each season and implement it whenever a player starts a new game. With world generation we can see how AI can be a useful addon for already existing concepts, elevating them to a higher level and allowing for more player options and for better game worlds.
AI may not be the last tool we use for game development, but it is definitely the most paradigm-changing one. While AI has caused plenty of controversy, we can see its practical and useful application now that the dust has settled. With AI by their side, game devs can continue making the best games and experiences for their players for years to come.
