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DOOM creator keen on “ethical” uses for AI, but worried about AAA-style “homogenisation"Also wouldn’t mind bringing Anachronox back
Also wouldn’t mind bringing Anachronox back
Image credit:Ion Storm
Image credit:Ion Storm
The conversation/free-for-all around the role of automated “AI”-based game development rolls on with a few thoughts from Tom Hall, co-founder of id Software and one of the creators of the original DOOM, who says he’s (Commander) keen on the prospect of “ethical” uses for such tools in gamedev, but worries that reliance on them “will homogenize games, sort of like AAA games are now”.
Image credit:VentureBeat/Resolution Games
But he added: “I don’t want it to just willy-nilly be procedural, everything AI, and just not have any crafting to it, because that will homogenize games, sort of like a lot of AAA games are now. They’re just kind of like I attack the monster, oh, it’s attacking, I’ll roll out of the way. It’s all kind of the same stuff. And that’s what I don’t want to happen to games because of AI. I want it to enable us to make cooler things, and more amazing things, but there still needs to be a sense of craft.”
The current generation of “artificial intelligence” or machine learning tools - ranging from language learning models like ChatGPT to image generators such as Midjourney - continues to divide developers, with many pointing out that the latest crop of AI tools are 1) far from the magical labour-saving devices they’re billed to be (perhaps because each “AI creation” actually represents the labour of thousands of low-income workers), and 2) essentially designed to help CEOs cut costs and strip back their workforces.
Amongst others, Stardock have been experimenting with chatbox-style functionality togenerate text lore for Galactic Civilization IV: Supernova Edition, while leaving associated imagery in the hands of artists. Activision, meanwhile, havebegun using ToxMod’s Modulate tool to screen for toxic behaviour in Call of Duty multiplayer. Ubisoft areusing a new “Ghostwriter” tool to generate dialogue barks in games like Assassin’s Creed. Tinybuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik has suggested using ChatGPT-style functionality toidentify “time vampires” within development teams. As ever, the broad takeaway is that a tool is only as good as the purpose it serves.
“We were so ready to just jump on that so hard, oh my gosh, because we’d solved all those kind of problems. And I just did a stint for three hours in VR and AR, and that was fantastic, you know, but I did Wolfenstein VR back in 1993.
“I always like seeing new technologies and seeing what the new language you can make is. I did some innovations while I was there, like ways to go into arcade game modes, you just grab a joystick, and now you’re playing an arcade game, and these are your buttons on the other controller, and then you can let go, and you just seamlessly go back to VR, and that felt good.
“So I’m always looking for new challenges and new platforms, what are the problems here, what would playing a game in my house mean. All those things are new, exciting challenges, and as a game designer, I want to constantly keep learning and trying to solve the unsolvable, that’s an endless quest.”
The interview is worth reading in full for Hall’s thoughts on the fine art of DOOM level design and certain legendary creative differences with others at id Software back in the 90s, especially the company’s engine guru John Carmack. Hall also chats a bit about old properties he’d love to revive, in particular Ion Storm’sAnachronoxfrom 2001, which came 31st on our list of thebest RPGsdespite releasing shortly before the originalDeus Exstudio went under.
“I would love to do Anachronox 2 or Anachronox HD!” he told the site. “When the director of the cinematics, Jake Hughes, playedMass Effect, he goes like: ‘Oh my god, they made Anachronox!’ Mass Effect is really similar, with similar protagonist, and stuff like that. I would love to, it’s such a rich universe. I would probably not name the game in Anachronox, but, yeah, I would do that, yeah, heartbeat.”
