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According to a talk Cosmic Lounge’s cofounder Tomi Huttula gave at Think Games 2024, his studio has developed a generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can prototype games in “five to six hours.”
“Yes, AI is really changing how games are developed and it is a big part of the future of game development,” he said during his talk. “My recommendation to everybody here is that you should be getting your teams and technology ready for AI.”
During the talk, Huttula demonstrated Cosmic Lounge’s in-house tool, Puzzle Engine, which uses dropdown menus and prompts to create a variety of game elements from puzzle engines and game logic to art and levels. He showed off ‘Angry Dev’, a puzzle game prototype created using Puzzle Engine in five to six hours.
“Creative people have a lot of game ideas. The challenge, of course, always has been: how do you know if your idea is good?” said Huttula. “Typically within companies, a designer has an idea, but they need an artist and an engineer to try the idea. So we want it to be super easy for designers – they can come up with ideas to create a prototype, just with Puzzle Engine, without an artist or an engineer.”
He described how Cosmic Lounge’s tech can generate vast quantities of levels, and then play through those levels for testing. It can then provide feedback on important points such as difficulty, possible churn points, and even potential areas for monetization. The human designers, which the studio only has two of, can edit and tweak based on the AI feedback.
Generative AI in an industry scarred by layoffs
“We don’t think that AI is doing anybody’s job,” said Huttula. “This is not replacing somebody…we are thinking about AI as helping our team members to do their job better, be more productive, and get better results.”
However, this might not be a stance shared with many game developers. The industry has been dominated by layoffs for the better part of a year despite soaring profits. It is hard to hear ‘AI is generating and testing levels’ and ‘AI isn’t taking any jobs’ in the same talk without it sticking in the throat. The games industry is grappling with how generative AI will affect it, and with large company bosses such as Square Enix’s President Takashi Kiryu and EA CEO Andrew Wilson boarding the AI hype train, the mood is uneasy.
Valve has introduced new processes for developers to disclose how AI is used in their games. Several users have taken to X to express their unease, with one saying they won’t touch any game made with generative AI. This is a complex, multifaceted issue that the games industry will be confronting for months and years to come.
Featured image credit: Ideogram
