No, I don’t think that the levels become harder. They also gift so many free boosters to the players that it is way easier than 10 years ago when I first played the game.
I also feel like that after failing a level too often, that the game is cheating for you so that you don’t lose interest.
The game is “cheating” all the time. All the successful games with thousands of repetitive levels, go whale fishing and have engagement promoting strategies.
The general strategy is:
Introduce core mechanics “organically” over the first few levels, then keep a periodic “loading screen tip” reminder
Add a harder level every several easier ones
Introduce “boosters” with a few free ones
Dis-associate booster cost from real money cost by having an “in-game currency” (not actual currency) with some non-intuitive conversion ratios
Add a second kind of free-ish in-game currency to keep players used to making in-game purchases
If a player runs out of boosters, give them some free ones after a while
Improve user engagement with regular reminders and periodic offers
Promote FOMO with limited-time offers
Add mechanics with obvious MiniMax-ing strategies, that are however impossible for a person with a normal life to MiniMax, while offering a way to use in-game currencies to correct for that
Keep adding cosmetic changes
Introduce slightly new mechanics once in a while every a lot of levels, combine mechanics together if you’ve run out of ideas
For each level, have a predefined setup that makes it extremely easy to solve, along with normal generators that make them hard to solve
Use the easy setups to showcase new mechanics and boosters
Use the hard setups to make people want to spend boosters, and buy them, and use real money to purchase in-game currency to do that
Ideally, have a level generator with tunable difficulty that can be adapted for every user
Offer whales big spenders exclusive VIP levels, that require a lot of spending to win
Add one or more “leaderboards” for big spenders to showcase how much they spend good they are
Remove real world time clues for big spenders, don’t let them realize for how many hours they’ve been throwing their money away
If a big spender drops their spending or engagement level, shower them with offers, assign a personal manager, offer invitations to real world events… whatever it takes (up to a certain % of their expected monthly spending)
Periodically expand the game with hundreds and thousands of “new” levels… which follow the same rules
Bonus points if you add “seasons” and a “season pass”.
Extra bonus if you place and cross-promote a number of games with the same strategy but different cosmetic themes.
Casino mode: have thousands of “games” all in one, with different cosmetics, complex winning modes, and very simple mechanics (press button to spin, press button to auto-spin 1000 times, etc)… but in most jurisdictions you need to calculate and disclose the exact odds of winning in each mode for every level generator.
They are for providing special hardware for Neural Network inference (most likely convolutional). Meaning they provide a bunch of matrix multiplication capabilities and other operations that are required for executing a neural network.
They can be leveraged for generative AI needs. And I bet that’s how Nvidia provides the feature of automatic upscaling - it’s not the game that does it, it’s literally the graphic cards that does it. Leveraging AI of video games (like using the core to generate text like ChatGPT) is another matter - you want to have a game that works on all platforms even those that do not have such cores. Having code that says “if it has such cores execute that code on them. Otherwise execute it on CPU” is possible but imo that is more the domain of the computational libraries or the game engine - not the game developer (unless that developer develops its own engine)
But my point is that it’s not as simple as “just have each core implement an AI for my game”. These cores are just accelerators of matrix multiplication operations. Which are themselves used in generative AI. They need to be leveraged within the game dev software ecosystem before the game dev can use those features.
it’s not the game that does it, it’s literally the graphic cards that does it The game is just software. It will execute on the GPU and CPU. DLSS (proprietary) and XeSS (OSS) are both libraries to run the AI bits of the cards for upscaling, because they weren’t really being used for anything. Gamedevs have the skills to use them just like regular AI devs do.
By AI here I mean what is traditionally meant by “game AI”, pathfinding, decisionmaking, co-ordination, etc. There is a counterstrike bot which uses neural nets (CPU), and it’s been around for decades now. It is trained like normal bots are trained. You can train an AI in a game and then have the AI as NPCs, enemies, etc.
what is the benefit over just using classical algorithms
Utilisation. A CPU isn’t really built for deep AI code, so it can’t really do realistic AI given the frame budget of doing other things. This is famously why games have bad AI. Training AI via AI algorithms could make the NPCs more realistic or smarter, and you could do this within reasonable frame budgets.
I see. You want to offload AI-specific computations to the Nvidia AI cores. Not a bad idea, although it does mean that hardware that do not have them will have more CPU load so perhaps the AI will have to be tuned down based on the hardware they run on…
A turn-based, tactical, squad-centered action title where a collective of vicious aliens invade the planet and you as the leader of a group of brave if vulnerable heroes have to save the world from the strange new threat. Except this time the world the aliens have picked to invade is a fantasy realm.
Guiding mages, warriors and rogues against the threat from outer space, combining XCOMesque battles with traditional fantasy game combat and levelling mechanics. Advance through the map taking regions back in control rather than zigzagging around the globe. Both the dwarven and elven capitals are under attack, which one do you go to rescue first and gain the help a new race to pick your pool of heroes from? Manage your kingdom and choose which deities you build a temple for, determining whether you unlock paladins or warlocks as a sub-class. Beat the aliens to reach the dragon before its captured and converted to their side. And as you encounter more armoured enemies, let your blacksmiths experiment with slapping together scavenged items from the battlefield to form high -tier magitech armour of your own.
It’s a fever dream combination of effectively XCOM and Majesty that’s been in my head for years because I love quirky mashups like this. Not necessarily anything new under the sun but I feel like with some work put into it, you could really forge something unique by embracing the combination of styles and genre conventions.
I’ve always thought it was weird that there hasn’t been a Hunger Games video game. Not to play out the teen movie storyline, but as the Battle Royale part.
Imagine creating a character using typical RPG elements (strength, endurance, speed, crafting, survival, etc.) with a limited number of points, the same number of points as everyone else. Then you’re placed inside different large arenas that have environmental hazards for a Battle Royale survival that could last up to 30 minutes per game if you’re good enough to make it to the end.
You have to survive against random encounters just like the gamemasters use in the books, dangerous animals, and you can get sponsorship drops like the COD kill streak rewards (healing items, tools, weapons). You could even make it through by not killing anyone if you’re good enough at surviving the environment, but you’d better hope you don’t end up in a fight.
It’s not a dedicated game and idk if servers even run these anymore, but the original popular “battle royal” was minecraft hunger games servers and they did kinda run like that - no stats obviously, but throwing you empty into a bounded world where you’d have to survive and craft and kill monsters and each other. I think some of them might’ve even had like your sponsor drops where you’d get potions or enchanted stuff
I have a mental hangup with the very real dread of when hosted multiplayer games die, that all the time and effort I have spent, and all the things I’ve built, will just suddenly disappear. It’s why I run a private G17 Mabinogi server on my pc, rather than playing online.
Saw this trailer the other day that might interest you, it’s an offline type mmo where all the other players are simulated. Erenshor Offline MMO Trailer
Cities: Skylines but ecosystem repair. Plant forests, regrade areas of mountains to mitigate landslide potential, reintroduce species and study their functional relationships with each other… Game progression comes in the form of additional research grants or new area assignments which present new challenges and unlock a new set of tools/procedures, but the successes from previous sites allow for migration of the reintroduced species into the new site.
I’ve only watched gameplay of Terra Nil, but it seems like it’s just an environmentalism themed puzzle game. You could replace all the titles with colors, and all the buildings and what they do with arbitrary rules, and it seems like it wouldn’t look anything like an ecosystem sim. It would be like taking the game Lights Out, changing dark spots to “growth”, light spots to “wastelands” and saying the goal is to balance out the ecosystem.
I didn’t see the late game though, so maybe I didn’t see where it shines.
I was hoping this was the direction Dyson Sphere Program would go. I think it would be an interesting twist on the factory management genre if nature was working against you; not in a Factorio “aliens will attack you if they see your pollution” way, but a “you’re producing pollution, this is creating more in-climate weather that is damaging your factories and changing the landscape dynamically” sort of way. I think this was the natural next step given that the game is already about climbing the Kardashev scale, producing more energy so that you can construct the means to produce exponentially more energy. Seemed like the natural next step would be exploring the balancing act that has to happen to achieve that energy production without also creating systemic issues for yourself that make it infeasible.
Instead their latest patch adds aliens that attack you 😕.
An rpg based on wheel or time or storm light archives
Open world top down skyrim-like with combat more akin to ghost of tsushima than traditional 2d zeldas. (As in focus on bad guys, dodge roll, fluid combat)
Modern single player carpg, similar to original forza horizon
There are definitely adventures. But even the concept of the powers aligns well to a game. Wouldn’t need to follow thr narrative, but I dont think it would be bad if it did. Would have some cool cut scenes and missions
Hopefully our grandkids will play a game like that, or be it in real life by the time it is complete… I’m saying that as someone who backed in 2013 and have about 2k worth of ships.
This but unironically. A game like SC would absolutely be My Thing™, although maybe without the MMO part (so I guess Squadron whatever-it-was from the SC team?) – generally people are twats and I want nothing to do with them.
Guild Wars 2’s World vs World mode, but with an established IP and without the bolted-on single player content. And increase the team sizes while you’re at it. Sell cosmetic DLC to pay the bills if you must.
WvW was a blast until they shelved it for a year to focus on poorly-written single player DLC, and lost half of the community in the process. I tried going back a few years ago but it’s a grindfest now.
I guess this game just doesn’t exist, but remember that tweet of the guy who had a dream about an open world pirate exploration game with Waluigi in it?
Now I'm just imagining AC Black Flag, but Waluigi just replaces Edward whole cloth, just does all the voicelines and everything, everybody else just pretends he's a normal guy.
There is/was a fan made version of this in development! I don’t know the status of it currently, and I heard that development was rocky for a while… and they haven’t posted on the blog since 2020. But take a look anyway!
I just wanna drive around the world and see shit I can’t otherwise see, but in real time drives. I got the inspiration from those Trucker Simulator games.
We’re almost there with Street View and satellite images, and the developer could do hand-modeling for certain cities and landmarks like MS FS does.
Yesssss, hard agree with this. I’ve been playing a lot of Euro Truck Simulator and I keep finding myself wishing it was 1:1 like MS Flight Sim. A woman can dream…
It’s not what really you’re looking for, but there are some really good open world map mods for Assetto Corsa that probably make it the closest feeling thing right now. They’re based on real places, so while it doesn’t give the touristy sense, it does a good job of capturing the vibe of just cruising around some beautiful scenery.
This. I remember playing Test Drive 3 as a kid, and being memorized with the choose your own route thing (which was huge for a game back then), and thinking how cool this sort of thing could be, if we could make the graphics realistic and basically make it like driving in the real world but it isn’t the real world.
Well now we can make the graphics realistic. And we certainly have the data, the imagery and the technology.
I love playing Diablo solo self-found, and ignoring metas as much as possible. But every new game that’s released makes it more and more difficult, because they are generally designed with the most powerful builds in mind. I.e. if you don’t follow one of a few cookie cutter builds, you’re in for a hard time and unlikely to finish the game. Having completely random items (as opposed to RNG’d items) means the focus would shift to experimenting. Which I enjoy more.
I don’t see why they would need to be “coded in”. If we can train AIs on language (including programming languages) and media, I don’t see why we would not reach a point where actual game content and mechanics are AI generated.
This is nothing for AI now:
_In a post apocalyptic roleplaying setting, I am in an abandoned electronics store. Invent a completely new, ludicrous weapon made of items I can find in the shop. Describe briefly how it is built and its effects.
You craft a “Jolt-O-Matic,” a makeshift weapon from the items found in the abandoned electronics store. To build it, you combine a car battery, several copper wires, a broken microwave’s magnetron, and an old CRT TV screen. Here’s how it works:
Construction: First, you attach the copper wires to the car battery, creating a makeshift power source. Then, you connect the other ends of the wires to the magnetron, which you’ve salvaged from the microwave. This forms the core of your weapon.
Amplification: You carefully remove the CRT TV screen and use it as a reflector to focus the microwave energy emitted by the magnetron.
Effects: When activated, the Jolt-O-Matic releases a powerful burst of concentrated microwave radiation. It can incapacitate or severely damage electronic devices and even cause minor explosions in nearby metallic objects. However, it has a limited range and may drain the car battery quickly, making it a high-risk, high-reward weapon in your post-apocalyptic adventure_.
IMHO, it’s realistic to think that we’ll soon be able to generate all the resources and code necessary to implement an AOE weapon that makes metal explode.
Or:
_In a darkmedieval fantasy roleplaying setting, I am in a cemetery. Invent a completely new, ludicrous weapon made of items I can find nearby. Describe briefly how it is built and it’s effects.
In the eerie cemetery, you stumble upon a makeshift weapon known as the “Soulshiver Spire.” It’s constructed from a weathered tombstone, a twisted iron gate, and an ethereal, glowing wisp captured within a lantern.
The tombstone serves as the hilt, providing a solid grip, while the iron gate forms the blade, jagged and menacing. The lantern, containing the captured wisp, is attached to the pommel.
When swung, the Soulshiver Spire emits an unsettling, bone-chilling wail that can paralyze foes with fear. Its blade can phase through solid objects momentarily, allowing you to strike from unexpected angles. But its most sinister power lies in the lantern: when shattered, the wisp bursts forth, sapping the life force from anyone nearby and channeling it into the wielder, granting temporary invulnerability. However, using such dark magic comes at a price, as it corrupts the wielder’s soul over time._
It’s bonkers. Afaik, you can’t procedurally-generate every item in a way that is so random and unexpected.
You clearly misunderstand both how language models work, and how procedural generation works. Procedural generation is as “random and unexpected” as you want to make it.
Stonehearth was eventually abandoned, unfortunately, but the game is very much playable. The devs didn’t just ghost the playerbase but had a kind of transfer of knowledge with the modders and the game lives on.
What’s great about Stonehearth is it’s multiplayer. A multiplayer colony management sim where two players can build an interconnected city (technically 2 separate colonies) and command an army to fend off increasingly difficult waves of goblin raids.
I’ve had so many fun games with my wife, we’ll settle next to a cliff side, she has hearthlings (i.e. hobbits) and me as dwarves. I’d take care of mining and build all into the mountain, make us the best weapons with world-class smiths and she’d take care of the food, amazing cooks, animal husbandry, etc.
I do like 4x and GSG titles for their complexity but I miss the strategy games where you see the actual units moving around. Even better if you are one of those units! Real time action also always ends up being reflex /speed / micro oriented rather than depend on slow strategy so I’m not sure if this is one of those cursed problems and they can’t coexist…
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