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A lot of talk has been made over the last couple of years about the use of AI and generative AI tools in the game development process. In fact, a few public companies have openly discussed their intentions to actively use genAI tech in the production pipeline.
In this Practical AI series, in association with Ludo, we delve into the practical applications of these tools and how they are being utilised in development right now.
Want further insights? We regularly host the Practical AI track at Pocket Gamer Connects, including at PGC Helsinki, which takes place on October 1st and 2nd, and at PGC Jordan, which will be held on November 9th and 10th.
Founded in 2020, Ludo is a generative AI platform designed to support developers in the game design process.
The company has worked with studios of all sizes to date. Clients listed on its website include SayGames, Homa, Rovio, Ubisoft, Voodoo, Sunday, Garena and others.
Its tech can be used to analyse market trends and recommend themes and content for a game. It can also be used to mock up images of creative ideas from the team to quickly see how an idea might look. From there, the experts – the development team – can use the results as inspiration for the game’s look and design.
Tools on the platformcan create app icons, gameplay screenshots, game art and assets. Ludo can also be used to bring together game ideas, along with Ludo’s own market analysis and image creation, to create a document that explains the game’s idea and how it might work.
Once concepts are produced by the platform from developer input, they are given a ‘Ludo Score’, which offers a ‘confidence’ rating on its market potential. For developers that want more assistance from the tool, a chat assistant has been developed to enable users to interact with the platform and ask questions in a more “conversational manner”.
“We want to be sort of considered to be the game design hub where people, teams, individuals, indie developers can go and have all their work there in one place with all the tools,” says Ludo CEO Tom Pigott.
“I think the powerful aspect of it from our perspective is that we’re providing market intelligence through the AI-based trends. So we’re providing the ability to create new concepts and have them, let’s not call it validated, but really given a confidence score, this Ludo Score.
“Of course, it by no means you know, says that this game’s going to be the next hit, you’ve got to actually build it out, do marketing and stuff. But it does give you that combination of data and market trends, existing as they are, with new concepts.
“So if you get a low score, then you can continue to work on it to try and improve it.”
“The human, the editor, the creator is the one who’s going to have the impact on building out the game.”
Tom Pigott
One studio using the platform – who we have spoken to for another article in this series – is Sifor Games. Explaining the practical use, the team uses Ludo to get a visualisation of how their game works and how different ideas and mechanics might come together that they’ve been experimenting with, and then get their team of developers, artists and designers to bring the idea to life.
Pigott says that example is the kind of use case Ludo is aiming for.
“As we’ve always said, it’s human plus AI, and all these tools allow you to accelerate the process, you can expand your process,” he states.
“But at the end of the day, the human, the editor, the creator is the one who’s going to have the impact on building out the game, deciding that this is the game they want to go for.
He adds: “It’s a suite of tools that allows creators, indie developers, studios to really enhance their existing process. We dovetail right into their workflow, but with a means that say a triple-A studio would have, as now these types of tools are available for smaller players, which is great.
“It’s a little bit of a democratisation of how games are created.”
One of the most requested features and an area Ludo is looking into is text to video – so developers will be able to see their game concepts more practically visualised in how it might play.
“No one is pushing the button yet and having a perfectly scripted game come out and you can just upload it.”
Tom Pigott
Pigott admits that has “proven to be one of the most challenging” features to develop, and it’s looking to the open source community to release a model that could enable this for Ludo’s purposes.
While there are examples of genAI tech that has been used to create video from text prompts publicly available, game’s still have to combine a number of functions, including physics and how objects interact with one another.
“No one is pushing the button yet and having a perfectly scripted game come out and you can just upload it,” says Pigott.
Pigott says, however, that there could be further developments in the space, and even in 3D asset generation, over the next 12 months. Looking back over the previous year, he reflects that the AI space has already developed rapidly.
“Just think back to a year ago, what was there?,” he says.
“I think those would be the big things that would really push the infusion of AI tools into the overall game development process.”
