As a small indie game studio, Arius Black Studios, we often find ourselves juggling multiple roles and tasks in order to create engaging, fun, and polished games. In an effort to optimize our workflows and reduce the burden on our human team members, we decided to explore the use of AI in game development. We chose our latest project, Dragon Nurturer, as a test to see how useful AI could be in the early stages of development.
Dragon Nurturer is a self-care game where players take care of adorable dragons by taking care of themselves. The game utilizes a task management system where players focus on their own health and well-being by completing tasks in categories such as diet and nutrition, rest and relaxation, achievement and progress, growth and learning, organization and planning, nurturing relationships, and self-reflection and meditation. As players complete tasks and level up, they unlock new dragons and customize their Dragon's Haven to create a cozy, welcoming home for their dragons.
The idea for the game came from our desire to make use of the Tiny Dragon Asset we had on hand. We wanted to create a game that focused on self-care and well-being, with the idea that dragons are known to have strength, power, and wisdom. We wanted to create a game that captured the spirit of these traits and allowed players to focus on their own personal growth and development.
To assist us in the prototyping process, we turned to two AI tools: ChatGPT and Midjourney. ChatGPT was particularly helpful in generating basic to intermediate code for Unity, which allowed us to get the broad strokes down for some of the game's features. We were then able to focus on connecting things and designing the larger systems at play. The collaboration between human and AI helped us streamline the prototyping process and allowed us to focus more on the design aspects of programming.
ChatGPT was also instrumental in helping us refine our ideas for the game. We knew we wanted the tasks to be split into categories, but we weren't sure what to call them. After hours of brainstorming on our own, ChatGPT came up with the D.R.A.G.O.N.S. acronym, which perfectly separated all of the self-care tasks into categories and picked the most fitting words: Diet and Nutrition, Rest and Relaxation, Achievement and Progress, Growth and Learning, Organization and Planning, Nurturing Relationships, and Self-Reflection and Meditation.
With our categories defined, we needed a way to present them in the game. That's where Midjourney came in. Our 2D artists are busy working on Art For Five Cats In A Trench Coat, Which we hope to be releasing soon, so we used Mid-journey's AI-generated images to create a user interface that fit the aesthetic of the game. This Allowed us to experiment with various art styles for the UI rapidly, which will help our 2D artists later down the line when its time to replace the Temporary AI-Generated Sprites, because we already have tested several style and feelings and found one that fits the game very well. The 3D assets themselves were assets we had purchased a long time ago as part of various Unity bundles that just never got used. The AI-generated images allowed us to quickly create a prototype UI that matched the look and feel of the game.
The result of our AI-powered prototyping is a game that we're excited to continue developing. It's still early in the process, but we're confident that with the help of AI, we can create a polished and engaging game that players will love. For small indie studios like ours, AI can be a valuable tool to optimize workflows and reduce the burden on human team members. We're excited to see where AI-powered prototyping can take us and our game development process in the future.
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