With the right commands, AI image generators like Stable Diffusion can spit out stunning artwork and even photorealistic works. The first game studios are now also using this: According to a report by the New York Times, Blizzard uses generative AI to create illustrations for games such as “World of Warcraft”, “Diablo” and “Overwatch”.
The tool refers to the Activision subsidiary’s report According to the New York Times as “Blizzard Diffusion”. Blizzard is said to have trained it with existing assets from the respective games in order to get to know orcs and demons in the established style of video games.
“Big Development”
“You will be amazed,” quoted the New York Times from an internal email from Blizzard’s design boss Allen Adham to his employees. “We’re on the cusp of a big evolution in how we develop our games.” Among other things, the tool should be used to create concept art for environments as well as characters and their outfits faster than human artists could.
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In the mail, Blizzard discusses other ways to revolutionize game development with AI. For example, Adham brings into play the possibility of creating independent and intelligent in-game NPCs using AI generators. Such concepts already exist Mods for “The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim”. The studio Inworld has with “Inworld Origins” also developed a tech demo that runs entirely with AI NPCs. Individual in-game characters are equipped with various parameters that describe their personality, for example. They then react dynamically to any questions that players speak into via microphone. Ubisoft is already using a tool called “Ghostwriter” to at least write dialogues for NPCs.
“More time for creativity”
The Blizzard mail also mentions the possibility of cloning voices via AI. AI models can be trained using voice overs recorded by voice actors to imitate their voice for any type of text input. That would allow developers to incorporate significantly more spoken texts into their games – this is exciting, for example, in combination with the dynamic AI NPCs mentioned. AI critics see this as a danger to jobs and warn of copyright infringement.
Compared to the New York Times, Blizzard manager Andrew Guerrero appeased: The tools are not intended to replace jobs, but to help in everyday work. “The goal is to eliminate a repetitive and manual process and give artists more time to be creative. Our goal with AI was and is to make creative work easier.”
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