Resident Evil and Street Fighter series developer Capcom is experimenting with introducing new technology, including generative AI, to tackle the ballooning costs and man-hours required for game development. In a recent interview with Google Cloud Japan, Kazuki Abe, a technical director at Capcom, gave some specific examples of what this involves. Based on his explanation, it doesn’t seem like Capcom is trying to use AI to generate anything directly related to gameplay, stories or character designs.
According to Abe, one of the most time-consuming and labor-intensive parts of game development is coming up with the “hundreds of thousands of unique ideas” needed to create the in-game environment. For example, if you want to put a TV inside of your game, you can’t just use an existing product as is – you need to think of a fictional TV design from scratch, including the manufacturer’s logo and everything else about the object.
Aren’t ideas like, the easiest part of making a game??
I got an idea for a fictional TV. It’s a black rectangle with a moving picture in the middle. There’s a logo on it that almost says the name of a real TV brand but in a slightly different typeface than they use and one or two of the letters is changed.
This is a revolutionary idea that nobody has ever had before, which if implemented will actually negate the need to use AI to create fictional TVs for us.
Pretty sure the actually developers at Capcom have more creative ideas than the AI they would use
For example, if you want to put a TV inside of your game, you can’t just use an existing product as is – you need to think of a fictional TV design from scratch, including the manufacturer’s logo and everything else about the object.
This is such a bullshit problem. No other media has this issue. This wasn’t a problem before and never should’ve been allowed to become a problem. Real objects have populated the scenes of movies for decades, artists have painted scenes rendering real clothes and weapons and carriages and all with accurate shapes for centuries, before the 2000’s video games seemed to have no issue doing the same. Something changed and now we’re left with absurd assets.
Rendering real objects without any limitations or requirement for legal agreements should be a right of any artist in any field.
That’s sadly not how the capitalist implementations of fair use and copyright in general work.
It needs a rework. It’s not in the people’s interest to have these limitations. The US shouldn’t be leading the copyright topic any longer, maybe the EU could fix this.
Corpo figurehead bloviating nonsense problems to justify paying fewer writers. Sure, just pay google to steal their ideas badly and at scale. As if they don’t already recycle and resell content constantly, you need an LLM to steal a riff on the Magnavox logo? Maybe leave the creative industry and make room for actual creatives.
it’s very funny because at the absolute most this maybe saves like, what, two steps in the best case? AI is so bad at this stuff that you have to human-edit it into something that looks good most of the time anyways
but! think of all the fresh water it will waste.
It’s reality shows all over again. (When it comes to TV anyway)
Remember the early 2000s sitcoms kinda went away because reality shows were the hot new thing and cheaper to produce?
Those people were scabs during the 2000s writer strike, though. This guy is talking about replacing labor with stolen labor.
The writers strike didn’t last until 2008, which is when Breaking Bad came out and suddenly TV was good again. Maybe even better than before.
The Sopranos ran from 1999-2007. The Wire was 2002-2008. Its always sunny in philadelphia started in 2005. Curb your enthusiasm started in 2000. Scrubs started 2001. So its not even just that two of the most critically acclaimed shows of all time were made in that time period, but some of the most groundbreaking and influential comedy shows also. If you think breaking bad was some sort of turning point for TV you missed a lot of history.
where in the article does it say the owners are looking to pay fewer writers? it explicitly says “Capcom [isn’t] trying to use AI to generate anything directly related to gameplay, stories or character designs.” please let us know
oh sorry, i treat all communication from corpos as hostile propaganda regarding labor and i make logical assumptions about what will happen to people whose labor is replaced
my views may not be suited for your purposes
…'cause creating a fictional TV is creative work. xD
It definitely can be if a creative does it. Look at Max Payne, Persona 4, or Golden Light (pictured) if you want to see examples of artists doing it well. What absolutely won’t create a fictional TV that is elevated to the level of “good video game art” is some trash theft model.
According to Abe, one of the most time-consuming and labor-intensive parts of game development is coming up with the “hundreds of thousands of unique ideas” needed to create the in-game environment. For example, if you want to put a TV inside of your game, you can’t just use an existing product as is – you need to think of a fictional TV design from scratch, including the manufacturer’s logo and everything else about the object.
I can just go into the asset browser and find a whole slew of TVs I can just add to my game and either use them as-is, or tweak the look a bit to fit my aesthetic choice and not need to reinvent the wheel every damn time. It’s such a small thing that’s just filling out the background, that adding details like a fictional logo aren’t necessary at all, unless it’s actually relevant to the plot somehow. What the fuck is Abe smoking with that example?
It does make sense if you replace the word time with money. Paying all those artists to make all those little details for every little thing is costly. But AI will do it for free.
On the subject of existing asset use… I played yonder: the cloud catcher chronicles, and I am fairly certain the sound for rain in that game is actually the sound of something gently sizzling in a pan.
It’s super close, but -just- wrong enough for me to notice. And then be mildly bothered by it for the next 40 hours of playtime.
People will call you an asset flip if you do that. Plus I don’t know if all of these games use engines compatible with “the” asset browser
“The” asset browser could be any number of sources, some of which are not coupled to any specific engine. AAA games do also use already made shit, especially when it’s an inconsequential background item like a TV. They just don’t use them for the entire game.
Cool, cool. More jobs to disappear.
I thought this was The Onion and now I’m disappointed.
