5 AI Tools Transforming Game Development

When it comes to game development, there are many considerations to even get the first draft over the line - dialogue, overall storytelling, animation, etc. All of these things are so important, and some projects will have varying amounts of time allocated to them. The good news is that these aspects of game dev are being made easier as we see more disruption and industry transformation coming off the back of AI advancements. A key example is Charisma AI, which is cutting down the time it takes to develop characters and dialogue. Below are 5 AI Tools that, like Charisma AI, are transforming game development. 

1. Ubisoft Ghostwriter

Ubisoft Ghostwriter was created in-house by Ubisoft’s R&D department, La Forge. This tool helps game developers generate the initial drafts of barks - which are phrases or sounds that are made by NPCs (non-playable characters) during a specific event. This sort of help tremendously impacts the total time it takes to write and create the dialogue and full story of the game, freeing up a ton of time for scriptwriters. 

Ben Swanson (R&D Scientist at La Forge, Ubisoft’s R&D department) is the creator of Ghostwriter and says he created it after having conversations with narrative designers over at Ubisoft. "Rather than writing first draft versions themselves, Ghostwriter lets scriptwriters select and polish the samples generated," Ben Swanson said in Ubisoft’s blog.

2. Charisma AI

Charisma AI allows its users to “create believable and lifelike characters.” This tool boasts the ability to enhance and enrich storytelling through emotional responses, having a memory of past interactions, and voice modulation that levels their characters above the rest. This tool is used by some big players in the gaming industry - Warner Bros, DreamWorks, and PlayStation. Charisma AI also integrates with several different engines (Unreal Engine, Unity, Javascript, React, etc.)., making its application that much easier and more impactful on game development. 

By having buy-in from major companies in game development and integrating with several engines, tools like Charisma AI are likely to become much more of a common addition to the game development process.

3. Elize.AI

When it comes to creating and developing games, having quality animation is becoming more and more of a demand. Given that, Elize.AI is one of several tools that enables its users to create 3D characters and animate them very easily in real time without requiring motion capture. This drastically cuts down the time to get the game over the line. Toolsai.net talks through what the process fully looks like utilizing Elize.AI as a tool. 

This tool in combination with something like Ubisoft’s Ghostwriter could have a tremendous impact on the game development timeline. While these are both recent “installments” in the AI revolution and its impact, these are some big steps to make in what feels like such a short timeline to most.

4. NVIDIA Picasso

Another offering in the AI animation category comes from NVIDIA - NVIDIA Picasso. NVIDIA Picasso is a “cloud service for building and deploying generative AI-powered image, video, and 3D Applications.” While not yet available, this tool is yet another indication of buy-in into AI integration with game development from the pioneers in the space (and some of the largest in the industry). This tool, much like Elize.AI and Charisma.AI, directly and dramatically impacts game development timelines. 

5. ChatGPT

It only feels natural to include ChatGPT as having an impact on almost anything related to AI. A key use case is highlighted by Daniel Boyd at fandomwire.com. Keijiro Takahashi, a game developer at Unity, a cross-platform game engine, has noted that ChatGPT can integrate effectively with Unity. Even though ChatGPT is not natively available in Unity, the level of impact that it already has - and would have if made natively available - is something to be considered.

The impact that ChatGPT could have on game development could effectively reduce the full dev cycle in half by reducing or removing the need for 3D modelers, specific animators, and programmers. (Take note: ChatGPT could potentially work even more effectively with some of the other tools in this list!)

Conclusion

AI tools used in game development help developers deliver quality video games in less time. But lower timelines could also muddy up the market or cause a glut of some kind. These tools can certainly allow developers to create high-quality games faster, but they can also be used by  low-effort devs to push out low-quality games at a lower price point to make a quick buck. Regardless, the growth of AI is transforming game development and it's something quite intriguing to keep an eye on.