Unleashing the Power of AI User-Generated Content for Game Creation
An overview of the current state of generative AI and its potential impact on the gaming industry.
In the ever-evolving gaming industry, User Generated Content (UGC) has emerged as a force to be reckoned with. Games like Roblox and Minecraft have proven that empowering players to become creators can lead to explosive growth and unparalleled creativity.
But what if we told you that we are on the brink of a new era, where generative AI will transform the UGC landscape and democratize game creation like never before?
Welcome to the world of AI-powered UGC (AIGC).
The Rise of UGC
In a 2020 market report, Newzoo, the leader in video games and gamer data, highlighted that the gaming industry’s global revenue surpassed $175 billion. Continuing on the same path ever since, the exponential growth is even more so fueled by the increasing engagement of players-turned-creators.
A closer look at the pioneering UGC platforms, Roblox and Minecraft, boasting 56 million and 17 million daily active users (DAU), provides valuable insights into the power of UGC and its impact on the gaming ecosystem. These platforms have opened up exciting opportunities for millions of individuals to partake in the excitement and complexity of crafting virtual experiences and games for others, by significantly enhancing the accessibility of creation tools.
The games constructed within these platforms have grown in scope and magnitude, often comparable to projects undertaken by professional development teams. To illustrate this, take a look at the gameplay comparison between Roblox Mega Fun Obby and Roblox Frontlines from January, showcasing the remarkable progress achieved.
Roblox, introduced in 2006, emerged as a user-generated content platform primarily aimed at young children. Its inception was inspired by founder David Baszucki's realization that the educational physics tools he had developed were being used to construct games. Roblox was designed to be modular, featuring shape primitives resembling LEGO blocks and a simpler scripting language known as Lua.
On the other hand, Minecraft captivated players through its fundamental gameplay mechanics centered around building and survival. Originating in 2009 as a modest indie game called "Cave Game," Minecraft was created by Swedish programmer Markus "Notch" Persson, who drew inspiration from games focused on base-building and block-mining.
As the capabilities of Minecraft's creative tools expanded, players began constructing awe-inspiring cityscapes, such as the renowned Minas Tirith from The Lord of the Rings.
Both platforms successfully harnessed the creator-content-player flywheel, resulting in a robust network effect that attracted more players and creators. They built strong toolsets, allowing for the exploration and construction of a wide range of innovative rulesets and game mechanics.
They fostered vibrant communities, focused on social and organic growth, within an ever-growing creator/developer ecosystem.
Ensuring live-service attention and providing moderation teams, as well as financial incentives, they managed to drive user engagement and retention.
The Transition to AIGC
As we enter the era of AIGC, the convergence of generative AI and UGC platforms opens up exciting possibilities. Startups and incumbents alike are exploring the integration of generative AI tools into their ecosystems, focusing on building AI-human co-creation tools, prompt sharing and search platforms, novel game mechanics, content discovery solutions, monetization strategies, and robust moderation systems. These pillars will define the success of AIGC platforms in this early phase.
With the global AI market projected to reach $190.61 billion by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.62% (source: MarketsandMarkets) and the VC investments in the gaming industry reaching a record high of $4.3 billion in 2020 (source: Digi-Capital), it is fair to say the possibilities are limitless for AIGC.
In the first phase of AIGC, which focuses on accelerating existing UGC tools, Minecraft and Roblox have demonstrated the potential of generative AI. However, the second phase aims to go even further by utilizing generative AI to power the underlying creation engine.
We predict that creation engines built from scratch for generative AI could introduce new paradigms and user experiences, incorporating custom rendering capabilities and employing programming languages specifically designed for AI-powered creation.
These AI-native engines may operate in the cloud, featuring innovative technology and data architecture tailored for rapid iteration and real-time creation on any device. Consequently, it would be exceptionally challenging for current UGC platforms to thrive in this phase, as it would necessitate rewriting their entire technological infrastructure and migrating their established ecosystems.
So, what paths could potential startups explore?
Two possibilities:
A vertical path and a horizontal path, similar to the evolution of UGC 1.0.
Startups choosing the vertical path would initially focus on a specific genre, offering purpose-built creation capabilities tailored to the needs of a particular type of game and its associated creators. Examples include companies like Hidden Door (specializing in storytelling games), Roleverse (focused on tabletop RPG games), and Regression Games (developing competitive battle bot games).
By concentrating on a narrow scope, these startups can quickly deliver products, attract users, gather feedback, and ultimately achieve product-market fit.
This success allows for deliberate reinvestment in enhancing the tools based on user input. Building purpose-specific tools within a limited scope facilitates easier onboarding for creators. However, these same creators may encounter difficulties or become disengaged when attempting to venture beyond the boundaries of their chosen genre.
Nonetheless, due to their expertise in a particular field, they might be capable of revolutionizing the creation process, akin to how Minecraft transformed digital building with Lego-like blocks.
On the other hand, horizontal AIGC startups will resemble game engine companies, as they aim to integrate generative AI capabilities at the foundational infrastructure level, enabling innovative creation workflows and toolsets. Just as a modern search engine prioritizes answering user questions rather than relying solely on indexed keywords, AIGC-enabled game engines have the potential to introduce fundamental changes to game creation.
For instance, these new AIGC engines could render the Scene Graph paradigm obsolete. Similar to creators generating videos without traditional animation software or rendering pipelines, novel techniques are likely to emerge, potentially displacing the current real-time rendering methods.
Moreover, companies like Luma Labs are exploring novel 3D scanning and asset generation technologies that could power new game creation engines. Imagine a scenario where instead of using text prompts, AI automatically generates meshes, textures, and fully rendered levels in a game based on a video of a real-world environment.
Embarking on the horizontal path entails greater risk, necessitates substantial capital investment, and requires strong research teams. However, it also holds the potential to redefine game creation on a grand scale.
Key takeaway
The AIGC revolution is upon us, promising to transform the gaming industry and empower millions of individuals to become both gamers and creators. It will enable enthusiasts to tap into their inner gamers and become game developers themselves, leading to an unprecedented surge of creativity in game design that will permanently transform the gaming landscape.
The Blox, as a startup accelerator operating at the convergence of multiple realms such as AI, FinTech, and Web3, recognizes the immense potential of AIGC and we are proud to actively support and invest in the pioneers who are shaping this landscape. If you're an enthusiastic founder eager to develop generative AI tools that will unlock the potential of this new generation of creators, don't hesitate to get in touch!