In this talk we'll cover the complexities of the AI/ML landscape and what that means for independent studios. We'll look at tools for image, text, video, and multimedia and how these tools could be used to help smaller studios stand out in a competitive landscape. We'll also explore the potential legal and ethical ramifications of utilizing these tools and provide a roadmap for how to navigate this tumultuous ocean of technology

1. AI/ML for Indies
GenAI and what you should do about it

2. About Me
Indie Game Dev @
Retora Games LLC
Design Consultant @
Mobile Game
Doctor
Professor of Game Dev @ University of Texas in Austin🤘

3. Procedural Generation & Generative Art Enthusiast
2D Fractals (since 2006!) Planet Photoshop macro Glitch Art App
Freaky Foto Booth
Artbreeder Aliens 3D Fractals
Synesthesia Music Video Tool

4. What I’m up to now
Freaky Fotobooth can be seen here at Expo!
TBDNE.com launching this week!
AI Generated Art Group - a Facebook Group with ~100k users
AI Consulting for Game Companies - how will you work with AI? Let’s talk!
Merchant Guilds the sequel to Merchant, coming September 2023
Raising a Seed Round Investor in Games & AI/ML? Let’s Chat!

5. So when/where do we use AI/ML?

6. Ideation &
Prototyping
User Generated
Content
Procedural
Generation
Don’t Use It

7. Ideation

8. It’s great for ideation and rough
prototyping, but using a majority of AI
created content as-is doesn’t create a
strong cohesion without a large
amount of fine-tuning

9. It’s also less of a legal quagmire. Much
like using internet image for reference and
ideation, using AI tools only for this should
lessen potential legal issues

10. GPT for Ideation
Brainstorming partner / extra voice in conversation
Expand proposed content (kitchen sink design)
Random name generator (similar to fantasynamegenerator, but more malleable)
Alternate descriptions (X is my game, describe it to a child)
Pitch practice (write out a pitch, ask it to provide questions)

11. Image Gen for Ideation
Reference images (obvious one)
Rough Storyboarding
Style Experiments & Mood Boards
Hallucinate your Ideas (character name in image gen = ?)

12. Prototyping

13. Prototyping
Throwaway code (single use scripts)
Bug-fixing
Placeholder assets (2d stand-ins, textures, etc)
Make sure you store them in a separate space, name accordingly
‘Generate out’ from prototype content (outpaint, finish sequence, etc)

14. Extension to Proc-Gen

15. Indies ❤️ Procedural Generation
Deterministic Proc-Gen systems with non-deterministic ML added for flavor
Use Grammars to build prompts, send to LLM for expansion
Dynamic proc-gen based on user activities, allow for fine-tuning based on player
preferences and analytics (big data + little data)
Proc-gen’s history is in optimizing for a small disk/cartridge, AI/ML is the opposite
This area is still a lot of unknown with loads of potential for online/large games
I expect it will be ~2 years before we see the reality of this due to dev cycles

16. Make your own data!
Fine-tuning for LoRa on foundation models

17. User Generated Content

18. Promoting AI/ML use in UGC
User generated content will inevitably use these systems if the content creation is
not fully controlled by the game, leaving you with three options:
Forbid, Discourage, Encourage
Forbidding is a moderation/curating nightmare, hard to detect & leads to witch hunts
Discouraging is possible, will lead to traditional UGC/Mod community, a few experts
Encouraging can lead to more creators, lower barrier of entry to get involved

19. UGC Rules
Cite AI/ML Use Rule
Whether you are encouraging or not, you should include ways for creators to state
what tools they used so they can be tagged as “Made with AI”
You might still have creators that lie about the use of tools, but at least having the
tagging system should create a better atmosphere
This also helps users opt-out of AI/ML content if they don’t like its utilization

20. ‘Fan-Art’

21. Or…

22. Don’t Use It!
but benefit from it

23. <No AI Used Label>

24. AI-free will be a new ‘GMO Free’
Those who believe in it will pay more for it,
which helps offset the loss of production benefits

25. Some Final Thoughts

26. This is still true
even if you use
AI tools for dev
It’s also true for
the AI tools.
20% of the time =
today
Another 80% =
it finally gets
hands right
(expect a slow
down in dramatic
improvements)

27. Voice, Music, and Video are in the early stages but are coming soon
Rigged 3D meshes will most likely take the longest

28. Voice, Music, and Video are in the early stages but are coming soon
Rigged 3D meshes will most likely take the longest

29. Some legally sourced ML models now exist, and more will come.
The issue of ethical training data will be a less prevalent issue soon

30. AI/ML should be part of all creator’s employment/contract agreements.
Can what you make be used in models? Do you get a commission?

31. Unions in the TV & Film industry will have influence on this, but games
industry doesn’t have enough union presence to influence this… yet

32. Thanks!
Q&A
contact: Tyler@RetoraGames.com
LinkedIn: