TECH

This Girl Does Not Exist: the game created by artificial intelligence algorithms

A game called This Girl Does Not Exist debuted on the Steam platform, almost entirely created by artificial intelligence algorithms. The public received the project coldly, but independent company Cute Pen Games, listed as a developer and publisher, is sure prejudice is to blame.

Resource Kotaku talked about the game, whose journalists spoke on Discord with a representative of Cute Pen Games: the studio is made up of two people, a couple. A woman under the moniker mrspotatoes admitted that from the beginning of work on the project, her husband suspected that the public would condemn such a development and expected negative reviews, including accusations of hack work. She herself, she said, was more optimistic, hoping that people would be curious to see what modern technology is capable of. Artificial intelligence created everything in this game: character art, story and music.

The game's development was fraught with some of the characteristic problems of artificial intelligence. The game's plot, which is simple in terms of gameplay, where you have to solve puzzles, suggests the presence of several attractive characters with whom the main character could establish a romantic relationship - each has its own image, story and a single voice -over. It took several iterations of trial and error to get the correct result for Midjourney's AI to work properly. It also took some effort for the algorithm to generate images of the same character in different poses and in different environments.

By the end of the project, the couple had sent copies of the game to about 250 expert YouTube bloggers, and there was almost no negative feedback from them. At the same time, sales of This Girl Does Not Exist were weak, although the company's other projects are aimed at an adult audience and do not show up in the search for Steam users who are not logged in. An avalanche of negative reviews ensued after one of YouTube's bloggers launched a live stream, and their viewers in the chat started expressing their dissatisfaction en masse, and according to mrspotatoes, people didn't like the game itself, but from the fact that it was developed by artificial intelligence. Some feared that artificial intelligence would deprive them of their jobs, others generally felt some “nasty vibes” from the game.

However, the authors were not embarrassed by the public's denial - they intend to continue working in this direction and have now decided to involve AI in creating a game for adults. Although their participation is limited so far: maybe artificial intelligence will help in UI development or background design.

Image source: steampowered.com