In the world of Web3 gaming, we are witnessing a challenging era. From 2018 to 2023, a total of 2817 Web3 games were launched, but sadly, 2127 of them (75.5%) failed. This data highlights the difficulties faced by the industry.
Despite not sparking a significant wave since 2018, Web3 games are often seen with high expectations whenever the cryptocurrency market experiences new highs. With the current market’s bullish outlook, we might see many games reaching astronomical valuations.
Looking at 2024 and 2025, the concentrated explosion of AI models like DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and ChatGPT is likely to drive the integration of AI into Web3. In July, DeGame officially announced the launch of the “AI Generated Game” feature, aiming to revitalize the Web3 gaming industry with interoperable, composable, programmable tools, and modular game/video/voice generation models.
With nearly 3 billion Web2 gamers and around 600 million Web3 users globally, Web3 games have a strong narrative foundation. However, most funds and projects are concentrated on infrastructure, lacking new growth points for mass user adoption and conversion.
The key to advancing the gaming industry lies in technological transformation. The application of AI technology in game development is maturing, and using AI generation models to address typical issues faced by Web3 games may be the best solution for short-term breakout and growth.
Breaking the “Ice Age” Narrative
Playability has been a major flaw limiting Web3 games from attracting a large player base. Monotonous gameplay and crude graphics often make players feel like they’re flashing back to a decade ago. For ordinary players, the only hard standard for evaluating a game’s quality is whether it is fun. Overemphasis on the “Fi” in Web3 games can only attract gold farmers and fails to convert Web2 users on a large scale.
Realistically, the game sector, as a highly capital and time-intensive industry, needs the joint push of capital, time, and technology to explode. As we move into 2024, AI seems capable of bringing these elements together. The improvement of modular AI generation tools provides stronger support for Web3 games to advance towards AAA production and high quality.
In traditional games, NPCs (non-player characters) have very limited artificial intelligence, often only capable of operating in fixed situations. With AI technology, NPCs can simulate human behavior more realistically and operate more intelligently. For example, in “Save Me! Labor Law Guardian,” AI NPCs can engage in real-time dialogue, enhancing game interactivity and immersion.
Moreover, AI can be used to generate environments, character images, and balance values, further enriching the game’s diversity and playability. Traditional game interactions, often based on keyboard and mouse, can be unsatisfactory for players. With AI technology, more intuitive and vivid interaction methods such as voice, gestures, and expressions can be realized.
Overall, AI’s most successful application in the gaming field is undoubtedly enhancing game experience and personalizing game content. AI generation models can optimize the game development process within a short cycle, integrating multiple highlights of traditional Web2 games at a lower development cost, thereby smoothing the participation of incremental users in Web3 games. This is a crucial step for the large-scale migration of Web2 users to Web3 games.
Unleashing Unlimited Creativity
Decentralized blockchain is a significant force in balancing AI (and machine learning). It can combine with other technologies, such as ZK, to optimize the trust framework of machine learning, and effectively utilize long-tail resources to reduce the cost and threshold of using AI. On the other hand, many Web3 applications sacrifice user experience for security and decentralization, and AI can help optimize and enhance user experience, which is where AI can empower Web3.
In practical application scenarios, although there are use cases for AI+DeFi and AI+DID/Social, generative AI is naturally suitable for text-based, sandbox, simulation, open-world, and UGC (user-generated content) gameplay familiar to Web2 users. By rewriting game logic with AI, adding more uncertainty and randomness, Web3 games can collide with AI to create unique sparks.
For instance, a significant innovation of Web3 games is requiring users and platforms to co-create the game, rather than following a pre-planned, limited game. There is a concept of Lore in games, traditionally designed by game developers and entirely predictable. With AI models, various inputs can be aggregated to generate unpredictable outputs, giving the game infinite possibilities.
Imagine a future where we can access magical virtual worlds through AR/VR devices. We could instantly create 2D and 3D objects from our imagination with prompts, like casting a spell and truly owning them (data hosted on the public chain). We could interact with intelligent AI NPCs in the virtual world, influencing the development of the game’s story, all supported by fully transparent open-source infrastructure.
In this vision, AI-driven Web3 games will unleash unlimited creativity.
Rapid Evolution and Continuous Integration
In fact, the embryonic form of AI-developed games may date back even earlier.
The application of AI in game development can be traced back to classic games like “StarCraft” and “Diablo.” At that time, developers used AI systems to create interactive virtual worlds and characters, which have become standard configurations for developing such interactive platforms.
Early AI-related game development research emphasized controlling NPCs. With the development of natural language processing (NLP) technology, pioneering work using deep learning technology to generate levels has emerged.
One notable example is MarioGPT, which successfully generated parts of levels in “Super Mario Bros.” using a fine-tuned GPT-2 model.
With the rapid iteration of models, AI capabilities are becoming increasingly powerful. For Web3 game practitioners, the core is how to use AI to create high-quality games better and how to apply AI generation models to the development process to capture incremental users.
DeGame AI is a lightweight generative model and a no-code creator tool. It supports users in integrating DeGame AI tools into the existing game production ecosystem during game development or optimization to automate challenging content creation tasks. Based on the Transformer neural network, DeGame AI also provides text-to-game video generation functions through DeGame’s Annotation and Substation models.
We hope to see the emergence of procedurally generated worlds, each with its rich history, inhabitants, and mysteries. There will be interactive novels, with stories evolving through player choices, and told through generated images, videos, and audio, giving Web3 games more possibilities.
Conclusion
To complete a game work, a Web3 game practitioner must cover interactivity, playability, and content with a storyline core, consider the plot connections between characters in the game, and carefully design game levels and objectives for players. With advanced AI generation models, creativity and imagination can be transformed into complex game mechanics and storylines.
AI NPCs with vivid personality traits can lead player actions, trigger events affecting the game’s story direction, and improve the development and operation efficiency of the game, reducing development and operational costs, thereby generating new profit growth points.
AI technology has numerous applications in game development and operation, including story planning, map generation, level design, task creation, dialogue generation, storytelling, model creation, and rules generation for in-game growth and economic systems.
We are just beginning. We believe that exploring AI and Web3 games will open a door to a new gaming world. With technological advances and deeper applications, players can look forward to more unique gaming experiences that transcend traditional game boundaries, offering a more immersive and interactive game world. For players passionate about games and technological innovation, this is an exciting era.
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