AI is one of the most disruptive technologies the world has ever experienced and is significantly transforming the world of work.
The technology is present in many different sectors now, including healthcare, transportation, tax and accounting, and more, as leaders implement AI to streamline operations, anticipate trends, craft better strategies or perform other tasks humans do.
This is just the start of it as AI becomes present in more and more sectors and shakes things up in them.
Banking, insurance, financial services, customer service, marketing, defense, retail and lifestyle are just a few more sectors where AI could really exert a deep impact on how things are done in the years to come.
AI in the World of Game Development
One industry harnessing the power of AI to fantastic effect is the gaming industry. Game developers are using it to support them in their work in several different ways.
Dynamic Storytelling
Thanks to AI, games don’t have to follow linear narratives anymore.
AI opens them up to dynamic storytelling, where the story can change based on players’ decisions and actions.
This creates a unique experience for each player because the AI can analyse players’ choices and then personalise the storylines, in turn changing the plot, character relationships and even the outcome of the game.
Developers in simplistic games such as slots have much less need to fear AI in terms of storytelling. This doesn’t mean that they can’t reap its benefits in other ways.
One way is to make the most of AI to enhance players’ experience, which it can do by analysing their decisions and then recommending special features. Developers of slots in New Zealand, for instance, may incorporate the AI so that it suggests specific wagering concepts, bonuses or even games.
This isn’t the only way that developers can use AI to their advantage. They can explore the opportunities that AI-driven analytics offers them to gain insight and, based on their conclusions from the analysis, optimise game mechanics. Players could also benefit from the addition of an AI-powered chatbot that offers support.
AI-Driven Content Generation
AI-driven procedural content generation is changing the way that developers build game worlds. Smaller studios are especially inclined to use AI for content generation, according to data on the website of consumer and market data company Statista.
Developers are no longer forced to create every detail because AI is improvising characters, environments and even entire levels. The results are vast, fresh-feeling, dynamic worlds. This is far from completely random, however. AI-driven procedural content generation creates coherent settings, taking players’ decisions as the basis for the development of them.
Algorithmic Design
AI algorithms are enabling designers to create more immersive, dynamic experiences. They adapt the environment and game difficulty in real time, basing this adaptation on players’ behavior during the game.
AI doesn’t just lend a hand with environments, but also supports designers with level design. It suggests improvements to levels and even generates layouts that optimise the players’ experience.
Improving Player Interactions and Non-Player Characters (NPCs)
AI is improving NPCs by making them significantly more lifelike and engaging. Before, NPCs used to follow set patterns and just felt like background filler. Now, they adapt to player interactions and real time. NPCs can learn from past experiences, change their strategies or develop relationships with the player’s character. This generates deeper emotional connection and allows richer storytelling.
Smarter Gameplay
AI is empowering developers to enhance gameplay. In older games, enemies would display predictable patterns of behaviour. Players could figure out what they were going to do and outmanoeuvre them.
Those days have gone. Enemies learn the player’s move and adjust their own tactics, which makes the game more challenging and unpredictable. Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare 2, where enemy soldiers communicate with each other and use flanking techniques based on the player’s strategy, is one example of this.
Game Testing
AI doesn’t just contribute to the actual creation of different elements of the game, but it also supports developers when testing the game. AI can simulate edge cases, including unexpected inputs, sequence-breaking actions or extreme stress in the game world. Developers can employ machine learning models that mimic players so that the developers can test movement, combat, level progression and other mechanics.
Not only is AI helping to test how the game handles the most random of gaming scenarios, but it’s also enabling them to test for more routine issues such as bugs, glitches and performance issues. This used to be a manual task, but now AI can analyse vast amounts of data, detect any patterns and notify the developers of any possible problems.
The arrival of AI has caused huge disruption in many industries, including the gaming industry, and is encouraging leaders to change how they operate. AI is helping them streamline operations, analyse massive amounts of data, and derive insights to make changes for the better. Ultimately, the results in gaming have been better-quality games that provide the player with a more immersive, more unpredictable gaming experience.
