Project Runtime (Name Pending)

Introduction:

We are Team Bit_Byte: a group of game designers striving to create a game exploring the concepts of artificial intelligence and cyber security and how it affects us. Our mission as a team is to make an immersive, player-centered experience focused on the recent effects of AI on our world. We want to make a game centered around player choice and interactivity, while showcasing the various effects AI has on industries, communities, and individuals.

As a team of four, we are all passionate and eager about exploring this concept and creating a unique player experience that explores these.

Team roles: 

Eva: 2D /3D Art, Graphic Design

Juan: Programming, Audio, Documentation

Ryan: Documentation, Narrative, Sound effects

Sydney: Project Lead, 2D/3D Art, Data analyst, Scrum Master, Generalist

Results of research:

We researched a spread of concepts in both the areas of artificial intelligence and cyber security. Through our research, we came across a lot of information and conceptions about AI, its utility, and its dangers that we may want to address and focus on in our game.

• The largest concern regarding AI is the novelty of it and how little of it is properly researched and studied, it’s potential being fairly unpredictable
• AI is not inherently catastrophic or dangerous. Many sci-fi depictions depict powerful AI machines as world-ending and corrupt, but AI itself cannot be evil as it requires human influence to do anything bad.
• AI is not inherently good. It was made as a tool to help people, but that doesn’t mean it knows right from wrong. AI models can be taught malicious behaviour and can be misused or corrupted with human influence.
• AI is developing very fast, and will likely be used as a tool for more and more larger companies and cooperation over time, and not just individuals.
• AI is built upon through iteration. Hence the term “learning algorithm”

Game Concept:

We intend to make a 2D point and click game, where the player plays as the backend of an AI tool, going through multiple stages of use. The player will receive requests from users, and have a selection of options to choose out of their various functions for how they want to address the request they were given. Various results can be achieved depending on how they choose to fulfill a request. At the end of the chapter, the player receives a report based on how they did and the results of their decisions, before moving to the next chapter.

Each chapter, the AI is upgraded, and the player is given new functions and a new job. For example going from just a tool for individuals, to an organizational tool for a business. However, while they are given new functions for the new requests they are given, they still retain their original functionality and knowledge, and can use those as they want.

Overall, through what they choose to do and how the player chooses to complete the requests they are given, they get to see the result it has not just on individuals, but on the world around them as they are given results reports after each chapter.

Why did we choose this concept?

One of the biggest reasons we wanted to proceed with this concept is flexibility. With the simplicity of the game, we can be very flexible with narrative, art, and coding, by letting our scope decide how much work our team can reasonably manage. Things can be easily added or cut without changing the overall functionality and concept of the game, allowing us to make the game how we want while reducing concerns related to scheduling.

This game builds off our three core design pillars that we wanted to focus on:

• Player choice : We wanted to give the player choice so they could create their own story. By having the various functions that they gather as the AI is upgraded, they can deal with the requests they receive in a variety of ways, from completing things more efficiently than expected, to doing something completely different than what was asked.

• Subtle Storytelling : Through the lens of an Artificial Intelligence, the player will only be able to see what is inputted, and as such storytelling is more limited. This will give players freedom to interpret the story and it’s messages without being told how to.

• Gameplay evolution : As players move through the game, we wanted the gameplay to evolve as they progressed, keeping things interesting and preventing the player from getting bored or entering a repetitive loop, and by having the progressing chapters, it makes it easy to achieve this.

Conclusion:

Our entire team feels this game concept has a lot of potential to be explored. It’s flexible, and complements our design pillars. We want to play to our individual strengths as a team, and are overall very excited to begin production for the game. We believe we have a lot of strong concepts and ideas with a scope we can work well with. Some ideas will need to be finalized during development and some nuances will need to be clarified but we look forward to seeing how we work together as a team to bring this concept to life.