(Credit: Runway AI)
If life got in the way of your game design ambitions, generative AI firm Runway’s upcoming tool could be a ray of light.
Runway says the new tool, Game Worlds, will allow users to generate functioning video games using text-based prompts and user-provided images. It's slated to drop next week.
Generative AI is already widely used within the video game industry, both at the independent and big-budget studio levels. It appears in everything from the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops to helping devs revive old 90s classics like Doom and Quake. But this would be the first time that the gaming-focused, text-to-graphics model has been available to the general public.
However, don’t expect to make AAA-quality games right off the bat. According to The Verge, which first reported the news, the tool will initially only allow users to create simple text-based adventures accompanied by pictures, with the capability to produce more fleshed-out games to be added later in the year.
There are plenty of reasons to take Runway’s claims seriously; its tools are already commonly used throughout Hollywood and the film and TV industry. Runway AI was used to create elements of Everything Everywhere All at Once, the Oscar-winning comedy-drama from 2022, as well as the Amazon Prime series House of David. Its technology has also popped up in the visuals for music videos from household names like A$AP Rocky and Kanye West.
The company’s CEO, Cristóbal Valenzuela, didn’t name any names but said his firm is already in talks with gaming companies about using Runway's tools and their datasets. “If we can help a studio make a movie 40% faster, then we’re probably gonna be able to help developers of games make games faster,” he told The Verge.
It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that we're seeing an increasing number of AI-based game development tools emerge. Some of the world's largest companies, including Netflix, Microsoft, and the game publisher Electronic Arts, have all expressed interest in leveraging AI for game development.