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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.

And it’s not just TVs – there’s “thousands to tens of thousands” of these kinds of objects per game, and the developers need to come up with multiple proposals for each of them, Abe explains. Moreover, these proposals don’t just include text, but also illustrations needed to communicate the idea to the art director and artists. In other words – it’s a huge amount of work.

Abe says he saw a way to make this process more efficient by introducing generative AI to help generate the necessary mountain of ideas. As a result, he developed a system that uses generative AI models like Gemini Pro, Gemini Flash, and Imagen. The system is fed text, images and tables about the game being developed, which it uses to not only generate ideas, but also evaluate their quality against predetermined criteria, automatically refining outputs.

According to Abe, the Gemini AI models are able to deliver high-quality results in seconds, which is “an essential advantage in the fast-paced gaming industry.” Although it’s still a prototype, his system has apparently received glowing feedback from Capcom’s development teams.

Going forward, Capcom plans to enhance this system, making it accessible to external partners and refining interfaces for easier use. Abe emphasized that with generative AI slashing costs, the extra leeway gained will fuel higher-quality game development, benefiting both creators and players.

Capcom is experimenting with generative AI to help generate the “hundreds of thousands of ideas needed for game development" - AUTOMATON WEST

Capcom's technical director talks about their experimental system for using generative AI to streamline the brainstorming process.

automaton-media.com

 

[Shaki12345]

Nintendo likes a word.

 

[jufonuk]

Well this is going to put more people out of a job and make games less interesting

 

[Davevil]

 

[Hudo]

I rather like Nintendo's approach they've taken with Super Mario Bros. Wonder more. Where everyone could pitch in an idea with a note and it would be considered and talked about.

 

[Evolved1]

this is where it's ALL going. for better and worse.

 

[Schmendrick]

If we can get to a point where AI can drastically improve asset creation for example then I´m all for it.
There`s just no need for level designers to spend weeks or even months working on the details of setpieces, textures etc if AI can do it adequately. Anything to get the ridiculous AAA cost explosion under control.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

If you need a machine to generate ideas it means that your people lack creativity and need to be replaced by more creative people.

 

[Tajaz2426]

Some folks better learn to coal mine, because of that damn technology. Good thing there are oil rigs and some coal mines left to work at after game development.

 

[StereoVsn]

Capcom is experimenting with generative AI to help generate the “hundreds of thousands of ideas needed for game development" - AUTOMATON WEST

Capcom's technical director talks about their experimental system for using generative AI to streamline the brainstorming process.

automaton-media.com

This makes absolute sense. Using LLMs for prototyping and idea generation is the way to go and cut time in the project without actually affecting employees negatively. And you can even use it for basic information research now days.

Of course they really should tune the model further based on their own data as well and I am sure they are doing that.

And time saved can go into turning games around quicker.

 

[Thief1987]

In the end they will settle for another remake

 

[StereoVsn]

Well this is going to put more people out of a job and make games less interesting

It shouldn’t put anyone out of a job for this particular use case. It will save a tons of time for their artists and creatives that can be used to accelerate some of the more mundane and boring work. I.E. Capcom can cut a bit of time off the usual 5-6 years to launch the game.

Now, while in this particular case it shouldn’t lead to job losses, as they get more comfortable with AI, use it for more coding and other tasks… it would probably lead to attrition based reduced hiring. .

If you need a machine to generate ideas it means that your people lack creativity and need to be replaced by more creative people.

Nah, this is to generate mundane and boring stuff. How creative do you need to get to come up with off brand TV or Coffee Maker? Plus this is basically helping to prototype.

 

[Scrawnton]

All these companies will stop using AI when the AI keeps saying "you are making less money because you are vastly overpaying your C-Suite for the value they bring to your company. They are not needed. Fire them."

 

[ReyBrujo]

It's stupid not to leverage LLM if it's available. Many times it can put into words ideas that you can't totally express, fill gaps to make ideas round, or take completely new approaches when seniors have already a fix mindset (especially in a society where most people don't want to express themselves). As long as you feed your own data to prevent copyright violations and you check the results to make sure they aren't already copyrighted, I don't see anything wrong with that.

Well this is going to put more people out of a job and make games less interesting

They need to reinvent, just as toll booth workers have to now or carriage drivers had to in the past. As for games less interesting who knows, already more than half released games are shitloads of fuck.

 

[Breakfast_At_Noon]

I was under the assumption that AI can only generate thoughts that already exist, like AI art can't create anything new only warp what already is.
So would this not all be a waste of time? nothing new would come of it.

I may or may not be completely wrong on this.

 

[hyperbertha]

I was under the assumption that AI can only generate thoughts that already exist, like AI art can't create anything new only warp what already is.
So would this not all be a waste of time? nothing new would come of it.

I may or may not be completely wrong on this.

You are right. This won't create anything revolutionary. But will create combinations of existing ideas at a faster rate, which is par for the course for the creatively bankrupt industry

 

[Breakfast_At_Noon]

You are right. This won't create anything revolutionary. But will create combinations of existing ideas at a faster rate, which is par for the course for the creatively bankrupt industry

So it's basically Blizzard?

 

[Lambogenie]

If we can get to a point where AI can drastically improve asset creation for example then I´m all for it.
There`s just no need for level designers to spend weeks or even months working on the details of setpieces, textures etc if AI can do it adequately. Anything to get the ridiculous AAA cost explosion under control.

I agree.

It's a bit like manufacturing anything. Yes, you can get hand made, expensive chairs, but an efficient, mass produced line is acceptable and affordable (and profitable)!). I'm all for adopting it into workflows.

Jobs may be reduced or restructured but that's the way of the world of modernising and looking for efficiency.

 

[calistan]

Sounds like a nail in the coffin of the "are videogames really art?" argument.

 

[K' Dash]

 

[Alebrije]

They must be using Chatgpt for this, no need of a fancy gaming AI.

 

[Killer8]

Capcom would rather spend millions on AI than make a new Dino Crisis.

 

[Deerock71]

"It's shit like this that's gonna bring this situation to a head."
~Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction)

 

[ungalo]

If you need a machine to generate ideas it means that your people lack creativity and need to be replaced by more creative people.

they're talking about assets

game dev must return to design and gameplay, it should not be so prominently about creating immersive worlds and spending 90% of resources into art design, but gen AI or not i have very little hope about that

 

[Alex Anderson]

I think anyone discussing this issue publicly is just giving themselves bad press.

 

[near]

Capcom about to go back to being Crapcom.

 

[OGM_Madness]

This example Capcom uses makes sense. This means there’s a team at Capcom that only purpose is to look at a radio or television asset and make sure it doesn’t infringe on any patent or copyright from a real Television machine or Radio equipment. It sounds like a bad job for someone passionate about art and design. Hopefully this team can instead be allowed to design their own items (cool unique weapons, armor, etc) and leave all the clutter and garbage that fills the scream to a few guys and a robot.

I’m here thinking a game like Dead Rising, you probably want to fill the stores with real-looking assets, but making sure not to piss Sony or Panasonic or something.

 

[ungalo]

I think anyone discussing this issue publicly is just giving themselves bad press.

they should not resign just because some people are dumb

 

[Wandering Leopard]

The AI train will continue gaining momentum.

 

[Crystal Winters]

Better some non-woke AI than some woke blue haired activist writing these games.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

.

they're talking about assets

game dev must return to design and gameplay, it should not be so prominently about creating immersive worlds and spending 90% of resources into art design, but gen AI or not i have very little hope about that

If it's only assets I understand the objective advantages because it's a mechanical almost non-creative job. However, I also fear "the escalation" of this. Imagine the Excel sheet dude saying: "Why stop there? AI could also design characters' clothes or appearances". As a natural degradation, soon most of the game would be made by AI unless the studio is managed by guys with true vision and those would never even think of implementing AI in their creative process.

In other threads we are complaining about investors pushing GaaS and stuff that is ruining the industry. This is one of those things they will try even harder if devs let that door open.

 

[od-chan]

I know pople will go apeshit about this, but really, whatever.

 

[ReBurn]

I was under the assumption that AI can only generate thoughts that already exist, like AI art can't create anything new only warp what already is.
So would this not all be a waste of time? nothing new would come of it.

I may or may not be completely wrong on this.

Companies want stories that will sell, so it's not like video games are very focused on broaching new ideas in storytelling. Generative AI is perfectly capable of producing story prompts based on the same tropes that humans use to create their own prompts from. The difference is that AI can do it orders of magnitude faster and without ego.

 

[Imtjnotu]

Imagine using AI to create new ideas and you just remake RE6 anyways