Capcom appears to be pushing forward with plans to implement AI in its game development process.
As per a recent interview with Google Cloud Japan (as translated by Automaton), Capcom technical director Kazuki Abe seems pretty positive on the use of AI programs — especially during the conceptualisation phase of a project.
Abe says that one of the most time-consuming parts of game development is the creation of "hundreds of thousands of unique ideas" when it comes to things like settings and environmental design.
Typically, concept artists are the ones who have to come up with this stuff, based on briefs. Ideas are churned out as quickly as possible, before the vast majority of work is dismissed in favour of what seems to be the best fit.
In particular, Abe talks about about environmental objects; items placed within the game world that all need to be drafted, designed, and then realised in-engine. Again, Abe laments the sheer amount of work that has to go into details like this — the kind of details that, arguably, many players won't even stop to notice.
The theory, then, is that generative AI can handle the brunt of this workload, coming up with the initial ideas that the development team can then build upon and finalise.
Abe reckons that AI can streamline the process considerably, saving developers a huge amount of time. The generative programs are fed text, images, and other data before producing thousands of results in a matter of seconds.
According to Abe, this is "an essential advantage in the fast-paced gaming industry". And apparently, Abe's prototype programs have received "glowing" feedback from internal development teams at Capcom.
How do you feel about AI being used like this? Are you okay with the idea of AI streamlining the initial design process, as long as it's not being used to make more important decisions? Please don't use AI to write your opinion in the comments section below.
[source cloud.google.com, via automaton-media.com, ign.com]
Comments 42
With the way the game industry is at the moment, be prepared to see AI used more often, which in my opinion isn't a bad thing. The problem I would have is if they used it to replace voice actors. I will only start panicking when I see Skynet become a real thing 😬
AI will be the future. It will take peoples jobs. No matter what people think, companies are going to use it. Might as well embrace it now and get the most out of it.
I hope they disclose the use of AI beforehand so that I can boycott the game.
I can see ai being used to help ease the work load of a big game, like maybe how procedurally generated environemnts are done, as long as it doesn't result in 6 fingered Santa zombies.
With game production costs going up, it makes sense to use AI
Ai is going to take over every field. It's going to take a lot of jobs sadly.
AI is going to happen so good on them for admitting it up front, but I think they are using it exactly backwards from how it should be used. Artists should come up with the ideas, the AI should be used to speed up the creation process, like a car assembly line.
We all know how AI art turns out.😝
AI isn't bad in itself but hopefully it doesn't take over the vast majority over the creative process.
Sometimes I wonder if our ancestors protested every time some new automation came along and took away jobs. The Luddites existed and the struggle seems at least vaguely similar to what's going on with AI. I can only see people getting more and more upset but let's look at the end result...the textile industry is using automated machines. Adapt or die in the end I guess.
AI will completely revolutionise the games industry for the better. It will allow creatives to be creative and massively reduce costs and development times.
It will mean that smaller devs are able to create things beyond their current means and larger devs will be able to take risks again without shutting down a studio if their game doesn't sell tens of millions.
As long as it’s helping artists versus replacing them, that’s fine. I like the idea of AI as a “copilot”, helping out but not doing the work. Also, as long as it’s not outright stealing other artists’ work. Like any tool, AI can be helpful or harmful.
Hmm... Some of the names I recognize who "cry woke" seem to also be the names who are perfectly fine with machines replacing humans and taking away people's livelihoods. Better silver than Black, I guess...
The absolute worst use of AI. It has its uses within development but using it to create ‘ideas’ is fundamentally creatively bankrupt as it cannot come up with anything original, only regurgitating what has been.
Capcom really out here saying "we'll do literally anything else other than a Dino Crisis remake"
When conveyor belt was invented, lots of people cried "They are taking away our livelihoods" too.
Maybe this is the panacea to the ever spiralling costs for game development. Just like AI frame generation and reconstructon are the future of rendering?
The line between ordinary game development and 'AI' is already pretty blurry. Making a tool that makes things that go in your game.
they sure like to use the word "help" a lot, when describing their intentions of using AI. sure, at first AI will "help" ease the burden and lighten the load. but over time, AI will outright replace millions of jobs around the world. it will get to the point where a AAA game is developed by 12 people with the assistance of AI. so no, i do not support the use of AI in any capacity, because i can see what the end game is. don't give this tech an inch. you will be sorry. why people continue to embrace a monster that will be detrimental to their lives and well being is beyond me.
@KoopaTheGamer Prepare to be boycotting most games in the next 5-10 years.
This is 21st Century... of course we are relying on machines.
@Porco So speaking hypothetically here, Let's say said AAA game made by 12 people with help of AI makes X millions and wins GOTY, and from all the money they saved through the use of AI they could open up another studio, would that be a bad thing? I don't think publishers can afford to release high budget games like Concord, DA:V and Outlaws for them to tank.
The thing is... will it lead to worse content? If it does then i don't see it working out.
Already artists are embracing AI to make certain creation tasks easier. Generative AI in Photoshop is helping photographers create something unique with their work. Generative AI could be used in the initial design phase of video games to help hash out themes, script outlines, or storyboards. It's not all bad as long as the ARTIST uses AI to make THEIR life easier.
The problem arises when a half-dozen people in marketing or management do the same thing and eliminate the artist.
It's funny how most opinions on AI are on exact polar opposites. Either it's the greatest human invention or the beginning of the end when, in fact, the truth is usually in the middle.
Just look at the internet as a parallel example. It's certainly one of humanity's greatest achievement, but it's also the cause of many, many issues. This pattern will probably repeat itself with AI and with every disruptive new technology.
In games development specifically, it will be successfully used as a productivity tool by many, and it will also be abused to the detriment of many games and studios. Some will turn out great, while others will certainly be soulless disasters. The market will be the judge of that, as usual.
@nessisonett You have this kitsch already today, but man-made. There are worlds you can consider art, e.g. the worlds from RDR2 and BotW, which create your curiosity by very intelligently placed hills, ways and ponds.
But most video game worlds are uninspired and samey, and I can’t imagine that it was a lot of fun for the developers to create them. Let the machine assist here!
@Oram77 hypothetically, it would destroy the creative arts as we know it. there would be a severe restriction in the number of professionals able to break into the creative fields as jobs would be so limited. in an industry that is already ultra competitive, it would be controlled by even fewer people, which in turn would restrict ideas and result in stagnation and homogeny. it would also significantly increase the output of trash and brain-rot creation and consumption since the majority if the AI generated media (with little to no human element applied) would result in a soulless and sterile product, without meaning or purpose. a plethora of it; much more than you can even imagine since it will be created so quickly and with so little consequence. if you think moderation is bad on psn or the eshop, you have seen nothing yet.
ultimately, we are talking about everyday, hard working people, being pushed into a corner and having a tougher time of it. this might affect me, you, our friends, colleagues, family members or anyone else in between. why wish for something that has the potential to disrupt the very things that define us as human? make no mistake, AI is designed to primarily benefit the corpos and their agendas like with most things in the capitalist world which are driven by money and greed. this is going to be a weaponization of thoughts, ideas and narratives. what happens in the gaming industry is only the tip of the iceberg.
AI can be used to increase output and speed up development (bringing costs down) without resulting in job losses. Not every AI implementation is an asset flip.
Once ai is matured game can be churned out at rapid pace. This really isn’t a bad thing as long as it’s used correctly. Invidia new graphics cards use ai to massively improve graphics without much input. That’s great for all of us who love this industry
You will get exactly zero original ideas from AI. You will only get a regurgitation of whatever was used to train the algorithm. When the human touch is eliminated you will only get a luke-warm sameness. Good luck having a brand new hit IP with that crap!
The biggest problem with AI will come later, if you rely on AI it will stagnate as it only rehashes what is already there. By replacing the creatives with AI, no one is creating any more and new ideas dry up.
AI makes mistakes and hallucinations, you need experts who know the basics to review and spot them, if no-one is doing the basics and learning where are the experts coming from to verify the output.
It's a false economy in a lot of scenarios they are pushing it.
AI can and should be used to reduce the workload when it comes to stuff like brainstorming ideas for the environments of these games. As an ASSISTIVE tool, generative AI can be fantastic.
Like any other major technology, it'll reshape the economy, jobs will be lost or transformed, and people will be reactively suspicious of the new. But AI is probably here to stay, and that inevitably will inform how major creative works like blockbuster films and video games are created as well.
In other words we're lazy f**ks who can't cope without a souless machine doing are work for us.
The thing is. In a potential good future we will have creative people using AI to help streamline the process. That's fine. Artistic people using AI as a tool is fine. The problem is that that isn't at all how this is going to end up working out. The future we will inevitably face is that the creative and artistic people will be fired and generative AI will replace them completely. And we'll see a bankruptcy of creativity as a result.
@ATaco I don't think (generative) AI is comparable to automation. We're talking about replacing human creativity with something artificial. I don't mind if AI is used for tasks that don't take creativity like image upscaling, but it should never be used to replace human ideas and expression.
There are plenty of other reasons to dislike AI outside of videogames, like how it spreads misinformation, either intentionally when people create images with malicious intent, or unintentionally when ChatGPT hallucinates information.
Anyway, I think it's extremely alarming how some people seem to be okay with this kind of news. I'm prepared to only play Indies in the future if this is the direction that videogame industry goes.
My stand is still neutral when comes to A.I. So i can only watch and see how A.I will effect game development. If devs can still produce high quality games without crunch time then i don't see any problem with A.I. But if A.I give negative impact then devs shouldn't rely a lot on A.I.
I mean, i don't think we can stop A.I / tech in general became better and better.
The same when people used to buy newspaper to get info. But now, people don't need to buy newpaper again because internet provides with quicker and very up to date news than newspaper. Or how we used to buy gaming magazines that came out every month but now game magazines got replaced by gaming site.
To be clear the vast majority of studios are ALREADY using AI to help with Game Development. It isn't a questions of IF they use it, it is HOW they use it. Caution is absolutely necessary, but I am also excited to see what they can do with it, especially smaller teams.
I don't mind A.I if it's used by creatives to streamline thier work load but if A.I is being used to get rid of creatives then I have a problem. A.I shouldn't be used to replace staff.
AI has already taken umpteen jobs in manufacturing, it’s also catching up to desk workers now
@Oram77 If that happened that money made would not go towards a new studio but the CEO and shareholders pockets nothing more, the gaming industry is making as much money as it can but give out as little as you can.
Some actually like to take a risk but it doesn't always pay off right Sony can't catch a break
@Nakatomi_Uk Sadly you are probably right, but I was talking hypothetically remember. The end of the day this subject is very nuanced and only time will tell where it leads.
Really dismissive of a concept artist's work and expertise.
Honestly, games are not a necessity. We do not need them automated. They should be about pushing the craft, not firing the creatives to reduce costs to churn out content quicker so the shareholders can add a few more million to their pile.
Concept is not where you want to use generative AI. Concept is the time where you should be as organic and free-flowing as possible. That's how you get new things.
@Valgore I have some bad news for you...
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