“It knows what scares you. It has from the very beginning.”
~ Poltergeist
Italian video game studio Dreampainters have announced a revolutionary new game-AI, which they claim ‘learns’ from players’ actions, and adjusts the way that the game progresses accordingly.
You’re standing in a room, with slumped, half-melted candles making your shadow waltz upon the wall. Before you lies an unlit corridor and you are reluctant to enter, for fear of what the darkness may hide. Eventually, after searching for other possible means of progression, you bypass the obstacle, but your hesitation didn’t go unnoticed. Anna saw. The next time you enter an important room, you may find fewer candles, or dimmer light filtering through the boarded-up windows. Anna knows you are afraid of the dark, and it intends to use that against you.
Of course, the concept of a game engine ‘learning’ from a player is not a new one by any stretch. Peter Molyneux’s controversial ‘Black and White’ was practically built on the idea, and almost since their inception, Role Playing Games have offered ‘personality tests’ to build preset characters for the player. Even horror game ‘Silent Hill: Shattered Memories’ has a ‘psychiatric test’ system, through which it builds a unique ‘scary’ experience. However, as this particular game’s trailer boasts: “It’s not about the character, it’s about you…”
The question that such a game poses is what this means for the future of horror-games, or even other genres. After-all, we have seen a great spike in ‘personalisation’ in games. From spending the equivalent of a working day building your ideal character in Skyrim, to customising your loadout and emblem in Call of Duty, modern players expect an experience catered to them. Other games, such as Left 4 Dead 2, ‘randomise’ certain variables in campaigns, forcing players to take different routes, or fight hordes in a variety of areas, but the idea that the game itself might actually learn and build itself based on the way it is played is an intriguing one.
We may be getting ahead of ourselves here: Anna is a small-budget, indie game, with (when we get to the bare-bones of the matter) a set number of variables and ‘switches’ which trip in response to a player’s actions. As for the industry: I mentioned before that other games have done similar things, and failed to popularise the concept. However, Anna looks set to be a very interesting experience (considering the pre-order price of US$10), and the prospects for the industry if the game does take-off are staggering.
