Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 357 - 366 AI Plot

Chapter 357: Chapter 366 AI Plot

Gu Fan nodded, "Mm, I don’t see any problems with this character setting.

"After all, being the first character, it is right to be conventional."

As a romance horror game, "Heartbeat Dream" would certainly have many female characters, such as the cold mature lady or the tsundere loli and so on.

But obviously, none of these were suitable to appear as the first character, and even less fitting to serve as the guide in the game.

From this perspective, Elios’s character design was quite appropriate. As for how attractive she would really be, that was something to look forward to from the art team.

Given Heavenly Games’s consistent style, though, the art team was probably the least likely to disappoint.

Zhou Yang sighed, "Alright, let’s leave this requirement document as is for now, we can call it done.

"But, President Gu, I really can’t think of what sort of bug could save this game..."

Upon saying this, the three of them fell silent.

Gu Fan thought for a moment, "Zhou Yang, you are now the producer of the game; this question can only be answered by yourself.

"Besides, the occurrence of bugs, while requiring effort, also needs innate conditions."

Zhou Yang appeared pensive, "Innate conditions..."

...

At night.

Lilith, with her legs crossed, flipped through the design document in her hands.

This design document was just an initial concept draft, totaling only four pages, which was the result of Zhou Yang’s rushed work during the day.

"No problems with the first character, let’s settle on that.

"However..."

Lilith flicked her fingers lightly over a few lines of text on the next page, "What do these two points mean?

"Why are you applying to use fake-AI?

"And why are you asking for permission to adjust the world setting of the game at any time during subsequent development?"

Clearly, Lilith’s gaze at Zhou Yang carried a hint of suspicion.

The concept draft was incomplete, for Zhou Yang had only spent a day writing it, and much of the content was still only described in one or two sentences.

That included the AI design for the game and the world setting design, both of which were still imperfect.

In the AI design section, Zhou Yang applied for the use of fake-AI technology; while in the world setting design, he simply laid out the basic setting of "Eden," such as its location on an island with various facilities, etc. However, he added an extra line at the end: In the subsequent development process, he wished to adjust the background setting at any time without needing to submit for approval or review.

Lilith’s first instinct for both requests was to refuse.

She did not want to agree!

The fake-AI technology had been employed before, both in "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon" and "City Forsaken by Gods," and one could only say that the initial intentions of using this technology were good, but the outcomes were not!

This technology did indeed have many issues, possibly resulting in confusing plotlines that could generate negative reactions from players. But as seen from the experiences with "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon" and "City of the Abandoned Gods," this AI technology also held too many possibilities; it could inadvertently lead to a significant improvement in player experience due to some type of bug.

Therefore, Lilith was already instinctively resistant to fake-AI.

Moreover, does a game like "Heartbeat Dream" really need such complex AI?

This game was essentially a bait-and-switch; the romance aspect was merely there to lure players in before killing them off, so couldn’t the related dialogue simply be written by the copywriters? It doesn’t seem like there’s any reason to use fake-AI technology.

Furthermore, Lilith, currently suspicious of every employee as a potential traitor, naturally had her doubts.

Zhou Yang hurriedly explained, "President Li, at first I also thought AI was completely unnecessary, but after giving it some thought, I realized it’s indispensable.

"Using fake-AI has three advantages:

"First, it can quickly generate a large amount of text, thus significantly shortening the game’s development time and allowing for an earlier launch.

"Second, while tuning the fake-AI, we can adjust its direction to naturally produce some unimaginable horror plots, further frightening the players.

"Third, using this technology poses almost no risk or negative effects for us. After all, our game has already turned into a horror game, so even if the AI loses control, it will not change the essence of the game.

"Moreover, President Li, it’s one thing for games like ’Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon’ and ’City of the Abandoned Gods’ to have their plots—that we can manage. But writing romance stories? We just can’t do it!

"How about you write those plots? If that’s the case, we wouldn’t need to bother with AI at all."

Lilith’s face turned dark in an instant: "How would I write that sort of thing!"

Zhou Yang spread his hands: "That’s what I thought!"

I must say, Zhou Yang’s points were quite persuasive.

Writing dialogue for romance games is indeed a technical task that requires professionals. And embarrassingly, Nitiandang really didn’t have such professionals.

This was a very young gaming company with mostly single folks, and even for those who weren’t single, writing the kind of sappy love stories required for the game was quite a tall order.

As for Lilith, being a Hell Demon, she was even less capable of such tasks.

To accomplish such stories, one would need to hire someone specifically, and if the right person couldn’t be found, it could easily affect the development cycle of the game.

Compared to that, using fake-AI to write these stories, and then having Nitiandang staff tune and adjust it, would greatly reduce the workload compared to writing them directly.

And as Zhou Yang said, using fake-AI really had no downsides!

Why did ’Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon’ and ’City of the Abandoned Gods’ crash after using fake-AI?

In the end, it boils down to one thing: both were narrative games, and the AI’s behavior could affect the direction of the story!

For instance, in ’City of the Abandoned Gods,’ some errors with the AI allowed players to perform actions beyond the original game mechanics, significantly reducing the negative emotions generated by the game.

This was unacceptable to Lilith.

But "Heartbeat Dream" was different; the romance game was just a facade—it was actually a horror game. Once players entered the horror content, they would be relentlessly pursued.

fake-AI technology was applied only to character dialogue generation and was unable to affect characters’ behavior within the game.

From this point of view, using fake-AI to generate dialogue was indeed a good choice.

After considering for a moment, Lilith nodded, "Hmm... okay then, we can use fake-AI, but! It must not affect the gameplay in any way because of the fake-AI."

Zhou Yang nodded, "Of course, President Li, that won’t happen."

Lilith continued, "Then the next question, why apply for the ability to adjust the game’s worldview and background during the subsequent development?"