Is artificial intelligence used in the design and development of video and computer games? Is it possible that AI-based tools will replace game developers shortly?
There is talk everywhere about the applications of artificial intelligence in different fields. These discussions and the popularity of artificial intelligence tools among people and even professionals in different jobs have worried some. It is not at all unlikely that artificial intelligence will destroy many jobs in the not-so-distant future. Is game design and development one of those jobs? If someone is interested in game development and wants to learn Python programming language, should they worry about their future career?
In this context, we want to discuss the relationship between artificial intelligence and game development, and AI applications in game design and development, and answer the questions raised above.
Table of Contents
Artificial intelligence and design and development of video and computer games
Video and computer games have many fans all over the world. Currently, the number of gamers worldwide is estimated at more than 3 billion people. This figure was 2 billion in 2015. This growing trend shows that the game development industry is both growing and very prosperous and profitable. More than 25 thousand game design and development studios and 21 million people work in this lucrative industry.
The game design and development process consists of different stages: Game Design, Game Mechanics, Game Narrative, and Game Testing. In each of these stages, experts and specialists from various fields (including motion designers, 3D designers, JavaScript and Python programmers and developers, etc.) are present. However, it has been a while since artificial intelligence and tools based on artificial intelligence have become prominent in all stages.
Artificial intelligence and its tools have revolutionized the gaming industry. With the use of AI, games are designed and executed more realistically and attractively. AI has provided great opportunities and possibilities for computer game developers. They can easily destroy the boundaries between reality and imagination in all kinds of games.
In addition to making the game environment and characters more realistic, one of the most important advantages of using artificial intelligence and its tools in the game design and development process is that with artificial intelligence, the speed of designing, developing, and most importantly, testing and evaluating games increases significantly.
In the following, the most important applications of artificial intelligence are examined at each stage.
1. AI applications in game design
The first step in the game-making process is the design of the game environment and characters. Every game has a story and depicts events. The player (user) must go through stages and experience things. For each game, a special world should be designed for that game and its characters. At this stage, artificial intelligence and tools based on it make the work of game designers easier and faster.
- Generative AI can produce believable and very real content (story), characters, and spaces and design different stages of the game. Many tools and platforms help and give ideas to designers in this matter.
- The artificial intelligence tools used in this step allow the game designers to simulate the behavior and reactions of the players. Based on the simulation results, the difficulty level of each step is adjusted.
- Also, machine learning algorithms analyze data related to the behavior and reactions of real players find their preferences, and make suggestions to designers.
2. Applications of artificial intelligence in game mechanics
After designing the characters, the space or environment in which the game is to be played, and the tasks that the player must do at each stage; It’s time to build and implement the game flow and the actions and reactions that happen between the player, the equipment and the game environment. At this stage, the game is engineered, or in other words, the game mechanics are developed.
It is difficult to clearly define the game mechanics. For this reason, it is better to explain the mechanics of the game with an example. What happens in a war game? The characters have guns and attack and shoot each other. They run away, jump over obstacles, or hide behind obstacles. Game mechanics refers to the creation of mechanisms that make it possible to shoot, run, run, and take shelter in the game, and the actions of the characters in the game take place based on it.
Making game mechanics with the help of artificial intelligence and its tools has made the games more interactive, dynamic, exciting, and challenging. The AI can create many sub-characters that do something and make the players react. Also, designers can include more actions in each stage of the game. For example, navigating in a war game rescuing the wounded, or hand-to-hand combat.
3. AI applications in game narrative
Natural language processing (NLP) has revolutionized the narrative of computer and video games. Artificial intelligence (natural language processing) can talk to each player and advance and narrate the story based on their answers. Also, dialogues between players and other characters in the game become more realistic and exciting with the help of natural language processing.
4. Applications of artificial intelligence in game testing and evaluation
Now that the game is designed and built, it needs to be tested and evaluated. Artificial intelligence-based tools can play all stages of the game with different scenarios and discover and show possible bugs. Machine learning algorithms, trained with a lot of data about different types of games, can identify patterns errors, and anomalies in the game.
AI plays the game once before a human can. In this way, it simulates the human gaming experience for game developers. Therefore, designers and developers can both find technical and technical bugs and improve the experience of interacting with the game for humans.
In online computer games many players can play together at the same time, testing and evaluating the game and the online broadcasting system is very important. In these types of games, artificial intelligence can simulate and test the performance of the system and the game with a large number of players.