Baldur’s Gate 3’s director thinks AI is “a tool that we use to help us do things faster” but doesn’t think “it’ll ever replace a creative side” of development
Baldur’s Gate 3’s director thinks AI is “a tool that we use to help us do things faster” but doesn’t think “it’ll ever replace a creative side” of development
I work with AI tools every day in a professional capacity, from art generation to code generation and he’s right. Even the enterprise tools are not as smart as everyone thinks, and are generally good for monkey work.
dabor11
I agree with him AI should be a tool to help in development, humans have imagination and creativity that need to create a good concept of the game
Kutche
Why do so many people assume the capacity AI has today is the same it will be in 1, 5, or 10 years?
GlobalEnvironment554
All new inventions are just tools until they’re good enough to replace people
Swordbreaker9250
As it should be. AI has a purpose and a place, but it shouldn’t totally replace the human touch.
HorusTheHeadtaker
For purely prototyping purposes, it’s great. For finished product and actual functioning, it’s a stupid risk that eats up more time to fix it up than could be better spent just making it right by hand. I’m curious to see what’s in store for the future.
ChunkyStumpy
“Made By Humans” will become an expensive and sought after brand.
Odd-Fate
It’ll just replace the 450/500 people used to create the things they come up with lol
CallMeBlaBla
But how many of us do “creative” work tho? Most of us r just labour in different format
ertipo
Actual life sucks, everything need to be faster and cheaper, yisus craist. Just hold on for some times and make something beautiful, there no need to rush thi….. ohh shareholders right, ok bye
justice7
I work with AI as a software engineer. AI is a tool and it won’t be replacing us humans as quickly as people think. You still need a human for a lot of tasks including programming.
zachtheperson
As someone who’s worked in game development, there have been **many** tools over the years that “do things for you.” Those tools have never actually reduced the amount of time or effort that goes into making games, they just result in people doing more in the same amount of time.
Rapsculio
FF7 Rebirth used AI to animate the mouth movements of their hundreds of NPCs to match the voice acting. That’s the perfect use. Something that would’ve just been completely ignored because it would’ve been a mindless, ridiculously time consuming task was done automatically in no time at all.
Capital_Jello_9768
They’ll have creative direction people instead of coders and artists, there will be less people in the industry but it won’t take everyone’s job.
Vtron89
I mean, obviously eventually they will be creative enough to replace humans. Just not anytime in the next 10 years or so.
Remember that the AI technology we use is throttled and locked down. There is much better AI out there that companies are developing and even using.
[deleted]
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Phoeptar
That is 100% the way companies will succeed with it and not have to lay off any employees. Empowering their creative team with a new tool. That’s all AI is.
mattenthehat
I don’t really think it’s possible to “replace” creativity, just at a conceptual level. AI may eventually produce creative entertainment content from scratch, maybe even the majority of it, but that doesn’t somehow prevent humans from also being creative.
LovesFrenchLove_More
All companies that care only about profits: „Hold my beer.“
Tarc_Axiiom
AI could.
LLMs cannot, because they are not *intelligent*.
Frustrable_Zero
Even if the tools could replace people, it’d stand to reason that for the same reasons that AAA studios might try and do with less people is the same reasons that smaller studios might start to punch above their weight in terms of production with menial tasks. But creative vision will always be firmly with the human side of things.
Baricuda
How I see the future of gaming: MMORPGs that have world building and storylines created and overseen by humans, and most/all of the small details and player-npc interactions are handled by AI. These games will all utilize the same game engine but tweaked to suit their own needs.
Mentat_-_Bashar
Oh it will for some that’s for fucking sure. I have no doubts that AI will be used by soulless corporations to churn out more sludge.
I have no problem with AI being used to make code more effective or iron out dialogue or bugs, but it should not be a crutch.
shogi_x
> It’s not just concept artists being hired either: “We’re hiring writers, so we’re not having ChatGPT write their dialogues,” Vincke says, before adding that he does, however, “see a usage of generative AI.” **Further elaborating on this, the director says: “I think you can have reactive games and that’s where it can have a place.** So you can complement what’s there already. So that’s the thing that we should be exploring because [it’s] how we’ll make better RPGs.”
> Summarising his thoughts, Vincke says he thinks AI’s role in development should be to “augment” something that’s already been crafted by artists, and he doesn’t “buy” into the idea of an NPC being fully generated by AI. **”I buy more that there’s going to be something that’s crafted, and then you’ll have AI that plugs into it to augment it**. And it should be done in such a way that it’s invisible, so you don’t know that it’s shifting around. So I think that’s the thing of the future.”
This is one of the opportunities I’m looking forward to. Writers can only pen so much text, especially for background NPCs, and it can get stale pretty fast. Generative AI can be layered on top of that writing to create fresh variations, augmenting writers’ work. It’ll probably be a while before the tech is ready for that, but it should be pretty neat when it gets here.
Arch3591
If AI can ever have an original, creative thought, we’re in a lot more trouble than just our jobs being lost.
NotSoElijah
Anything generated with AI has been so because of a creative individual. Ai has just made it accessible to anyone to have “HQ” images of their wildest dreams. I don’t understand why people who have learned how to draw or paint or take photos or create graphic designs can look at these tools and act like it’s bad for their longevity. It’s not like “AI” is sentient and just coming up with its own groundbreaking prompts and starts overshadowing humanity’s creativity. In my opinion being so pissed about people being able to do something easily you could only do with training. Is like being mad at a physically disabled person cuz they have a robotic prosthetic or a top of the line motorized chair. Just cuz u learned how to walk and function without help doesn’t mean other people can/have to. That’s all image generation is. Making the impossible, possible. Everyone’s really gonna be singing a different tune when GTA 6 comes out and AI gives us dynamic movement and unique interiors. it’s always bad until it isn’t.
uwillnotgotospace
I guarantee if there’s another one they absolutely will use generative AIs to write dialogue if hiring writers gets particularly expensive.
TheGreatRevealer
Unfortunately not all jobs in game studios require a lot of creativity. There are many roles, particularly entry level and interns, that are basically just production under someone’s direction.
Korvacs
This is exactly the right approach for tools like AI and automation, they are tools to empower employees, not replace them.
ZeeWoof
Finally somebody with an objective rational take on this topic lol. It’s pretty annoying seeing the AI hate from people and artists constantly just because something is AI and the idiot techbros using it for literally everything.
Fangscale40K
This is generally the take of any professional that uses AI. The only people who are fearful of replacement are those who are less familiar with AI. If you heavily use AI, you’re aware that it is a tool rather than a stopgap.
AI is not creative. Think of a character with intricate details and features and it will be nigh impossible for AI to get it exactly how you’re looking. It can, at best, create a common amalgamation of your ideas, but will not solve for human creativity.
Reshish
That is the ideal use for it. The sheer cost of man-hours required to create games and movies is absurd, and it reflects in the ‘safe’ style of entertainment we’re getting nowadays.
If they can use tech to cut a thousand staff project down to a few hundred, that really benefits everyone.
Would they cut jobs in the process, yeah. Then those people can join or start other projects. And with the cost of creation decreased, there would be plenty of new and hopefully far more interesting projects.
People read job-loss and act like these highly paid workers in such a desirable field are being executed. Most are likely re-employed within the month.
PlatinumPOS
Pretty much my opinion as well, as a Graphic Designer.
​
AI could be a great tool for cranking out concepts and coming up with / communicating new ideas, but it’s not going to replace creatives because higher-ups *don’t know what they want*. Someone who doesn’t know what they want isn’t going to be able to choose a good design over a bad one – they hire a designer to do that. The designer is able to utilize the AI to do their grunt work faster.
Will it still replace jobs? Absolutely. Just like tractors replaced a lot of people with shovels. You still need someone who knows what they’re doing to operate the tractor. Society will need to adapt and deal with it.
Kezly
Though I’m sure company execs will see it as “Why hire a team of creatives when we can hire one person to use Midjourney all day?”
Spyko
as a student dev, that’s how I learned to see and use it, using it to generate basic codes I could do myself can can’t be arsed (generating tons of variables or basic loops and shit) or using it as “rubber duck” when I’m stuck, 99% of the time the chatbot don’t find the issue, but “discussing” it with it help me find it
Bromswell
Not if the finance bros have anything to say about it.
36 Comments
I work with AI tools every day in a professional capacity, from art generation to code generation and he’s right. Even the enterprise tools are not as smart as everyone thinks, and are generally good for monkey work.
I agree with him AI should be a tool to help in development, humans have imagination and creativity that need to create a good concept of the game
Why do so many people assume the capacity AI has today is the same it will be in 1, 5, or 10 years?
All new inventions are just tools until they’re good enough to replace people
As it should be. AI has a purpose and a place, but it shouldn’t totally replace the human touch.
For purely prototyping purposes, it’s great. For finished product and actual functioning, it’s a stupid risk that eats up more time to fix it up than could be better spent just making it right by hand. I’m curious to see what’s in store for the future.
“Made By Humans” will become an expensive and sought after brand.
It’ll just replace the 450/500 people used to create the things they come up with lol
But how many of us do “creative” work tho? Most of us r just labour in different format
Actual life sucks, everything need to be faster and cheaper, yisus craist. Just hold on for some times and make something beautiful, there no need to rush thi….. ohh shareholders right, ok bye
I work with AI as a software engineer. AI is a tool and it won’t be replacing us humans as quickly as people think. You still need a human for a lot of tasks including programming.
As someone who’s worked in game development, there have been **many** tools over the years that “do things for you.” Those tools have never actually reduced the amount of time or effort that goes into making games, they just result in people doing more in the same amount of time.
FF7 Rebirth used AI to animate the mouth movements of their hundreds of NPCs to match the voice acting. That’s the perfect use. Something that would’ve just been completely ignored because it would’ve been a mindless, ridiculously time consuming task was done automatically in no time at all.
They’ll have creative direction people instead of coders and artists, there will be less people in the industry but it won’t take everyone’s job.
I mean, obviously eventually they will be creative enough to replace humans. Just not anytime in the next 10 years or so.
Remember that the AI technology we use is throttled and locked down. There is much better AI out there that companies are developing and even using.
[deleted]
That is 100% the way companies will succeed with it and not have to lay off any employees. Empowering their creative team with a new tool. That’s all AI is.
I don’t really think it’s possible to “replace” creativity, just at a conceptual level. AI may eventually produce creative entertainment content from scratch, maybe even the majority of it, but that doesn’t somehow prevent humans from also being creative.
All companies that care only about profits: „Hold my beer.“
AI could.
LLMs cannot, because they are not *intelligent*.
Even if the tools could replace people, it’d stand to reason that for the same reasons that AAA studios might try and do with less people is the same reasons that smaller studios might start to punch above their weight in terms of production with menial tasks. But creative vision will always be firmly with the human side of things.
How I see the future of gaming: MMORPGs that have world building and storylines created and overseen by humans, and most/all of the small details and player-npc interactions are handled by AI. These games will all utilize the same game engine but tweaked to suit their own needs.
Oh it will for some that’s for fucking sure. I have no doubts that AI will be used by soulless corporations to churn out more sludge.
I have no problem with AI being used to make code more effective or iron out dialogue or bugs, but it should not be a crutch.
> It’s not just concept artists being hired either: “We’re hiring writers, so we’re not having ChatGPT write their dialogues,” Vincke says, before adding that he does, however, “see a usage of generative AI.” **Further elaborating on this, the director says: “I think you can have reactive games and that’s where it can have a place.** So you can complement what’s there already. So that’s the thing that we should be exploring because [it’s] how we’ll make better RPGs.”
> Summarising his thoughts, Vincke says he thinks AI’s role in development should be to “augment” something that’s already been crafted by artists, and he doesn’t “buy” into the idea of an NPC being fully generated by AI. **”I buy more that there’s going to be something that’s crafted, and then you’ll have AI that plugs into it to augment it**. And it should be done in such a way that it’s invisible, so you don’t know that it’s shifting around. So I think that’s the thing of the future.”
This is one of the opportunities I’m looking forward to. Writers can only pen so much text, especially for background NPCs, and it can get stale pretty fast. Generative AI can be layered on top of that writing to create fresh variations, augmenting writers’ work. It’ll probably be a while before the tech is ready for that, but it should be pretty neat when it gets here.
If AI can ever have an original, creative thought, we’re in a lot more trouble than just our jobs being lost.
Anything generated with AI has been so because of a creative individual. Ai has just made it accessible to anyone to have “HQ” images of their wildest dreams. I don’t understand why people who have learned how to draw or paint or take photos or create graphic designs can look at these tools and act like it’s bad for their longevity. It’s not like “AI” is sentient and just coming up with its own groundbreaking prompts and starts overshadowing humanity’s creativity. In my opinion being so pissed about people being able to do something easily you could only do with training. Is like being mad at a physically disabled person cuz they have a robotic prosthetic or a top of the line motorized chair. Just cuz u learned how to walk and function without help doesn’t mean other people can/have to. That’s all image generation is. Making the impossible, possible. Everyone’s really gonna be singing a different tune when GTA 6 comes out and AI gives us dynamic movement and unique interiors. it’s always bad until it isn’t.
I guarantee if there’s another one they absolutely will use generative AIs to write dialogue if hiring writers gets particularly expensive.
Unfortunately not all jobs in game studios require a lot of creativity. There are many roles, particularly entry level and interns, that are basically just production under someone’s direction.
This is exactly the right approach for tools like AI and automation, they are tools to empower employees, not replace them.
Finally somebody with an objective rational take on this topic lol. It’s pretty annoying seeing the AI hate from people and artists constantly just because something is AI and the idiot techbros using it for literally everything.
This is generally the take of any professional that uses AI. The only people who are fearful of replacement are those who are less familiar with AI. If you heavily use AI, you’re aware that it is a tool rather than a stopgap.
AI is not creative. Think of a character with intricate details and features and it will be nigh impossible for AI to get it exactly how you’re looking. It can, at best, create a common amalgamation of your ideas, but will not solve for human creativity.
That is the ideal use for it. The sheer cost of man-hours required to create games and movies is absurd, and it reflects in the ‘safe’ style of entertainment we’re getting nowadays.
If they can use tech to cut a thousand staff project down to a few hundred, that really benefits everyone.
Would they cut jobs in the process, yeah. Then those people can join or start other projects. And with the cost of creation decreased, there would be plenty of new and hopefully far more interesting projects.
People read job-loss and act like these highly paid workers in such a desirable field are being executed. Most are likely re-employed within the month.
Pretty much my opinion as well, as a Graphic Designer.
​
AI could be a great tool for cranking out concepts and coming up with / communicating new ideas, but it’s not going to replace creatives because higher-ups *don’t know what they want*. Someone who doesn’t know what they want isn’t going to be able to choose a good design over a bad one – they hire a designer to do that. The designer is able to utilize the AI to do their grunt work faster.
Will it still replace jobs? Absolutely. Just like tractors replaced a lot of people with shovels. You still need someone who knows what they’re doing to operate the tractor. Society will need to adapt and deal with it.
Though I’m sure company execs will see it as “Why hire a team of creatives when we can hire one person to use Midjourney all day?”
as a student dev, that’s how I learned to see and use it, using it to generate basic codes I could do myself can can’t be arsed (generating tons of variables or basic loops and shit) or using it as “rubber duck” when I’m stuck, 99% of the time the chatbot don’t find the issue, but “discussing” it with it help me find it
Not if the finance bros have anything to say about it.