Artificial Intelligence is going to remold our lives in every way possible. From our jobs to daily routines, AI has a role to play. Gaming industry is a vast area where AI has already started to disrupt things, and analysts think Artificial Intelligence is going to change the gaming industry forever. According to a report, global gaming market has a total worth of a whopping $99.6 billion. AI’s effects on gaming will be fateful. In this article, we’ll take a look at how AI can affect the realm of gaming.
Hologram-Based Games
An amazing short film named “Her” shows a futuristic concept where a man is playing a hologram-based game in which he talks to and interact with a whiny little robot. The idea went viral on the internet, and the good news is that is not a long shot. Researchers are already working on Augmented Reality based space games which will incorporate VR, mixed reality and IoT. Such games will let us choose the maps of our own choice and design our own scenes. Watch this video to get a glimpse of future gaming.
Automating The Game Development Process
Companies will be automating the game development process to increase the speed and output of gaming content. Bots can develop and change NPCs (Non-Play Characters) easily. Storylines can also be automated and AI bots can integrate marketing campaigns, targeting users with specific auctions or promos.
Spontaneous, Situation-Based Challenge Creation
Game development companies are working on AI-based technologies that will let them develop special gaming characters that will react and response to the gamer’s behavior and input. So for example, you could imagine a war game in which a character would directly talk with a gamer and brief him about the situation or the feasibility of their plan and answer questions.
Immersive Gaming Based on Artificial Intelligence
We can see the effect of AI on gaming in the famous game Left4Dead, which uses the “Director” style AIs in which all the game assets in scenes are changed and rendered based on movements of the players. This creates a highly immersive and coherent gaming environment. Gaming companies can work to create a buffer zone where AI-based bots would be able to maneuver the difficulty level of games based on real time responses and moves of players. This would keep players hooked video games, as we all know the biggest deal breaker in the game is when you feel the game is too difficult or too easy to play.
End of Pre-Scripted Plots
Artificial Intelligence spells a death-knell for the pre-programmed plots in games. AI would make it possible for the companies to load games with better procedural creation of missions and extempore environments. There will be no need to hard-code every dialogue option in RPGs. So you we will have unexpected challenges, puzzles and enemy reinforcements in AI-based games in the future. This would skyrocket the addiction and interest factor in games as humans love the element of surprise in games.
Problems for Multi-Threading
Artificial Intelligence will make it nearly impossible to employ multi-threading in game development. The conventional games use job-based systems which launch and process workloads. But when you incorporate AI in a game, it constantly asks questions which should be answered immediately. For example, in Assassin’s Creed, you get busted if a guard detect you in certain situations. In that scenario, AI in the game is constantly bombarding the system to keep a check on the line of sight of the guard. Modern hardware devices pertinently meet the requirements of an AI-based advanced game, but most this power is being devoted to making games’ graphics sterling, instead of AI.
Meet TUEBOR
A researcher from Michigan State University recently designed an AI-based system named “TUEBOR” which makes games adapt users’ behavior and come up with new challenges instead of pre-defined set of instructions. The idea is same: add spontaneous objects based on user inputs and situations rather than fixed set of instructions. The system is based on the rules of “Darwinian Evolution” which makes the game bots learn and respond based on the gamer’s progress.