Communications of the ACM
A.I. May Help Design Your Favorite Video Game Character
Blizzard Entertainment is using images from several of its hit games to create concept art for game environments, as well as characters and their outfits.
Credit: Blizzard Entertainment
Intrigued by the potential that generative artificial intelligence holds for video game design, the studio Blizzard Entertainment has trained an image generator on its own hit titles. By feeding assets like the combative orcs of World of Warcraft, the macabre dungeons of Diablo and the vivacious heroes of Overwatch into the machine, Blizzard can effortlessly produce concept art for new ideas.
Because generative artificial intelligence creates art faster than any human can, studios like Blizzard, a division of Activision Blizzard, are hopeful that the technology can cut out some design and development drudgery and make the creation of video games more fun.
Blizzard's chief design officer, Allen Adham, told employees about the initiative last month in an email that was obtained by The New York Times. Its internal tool is called Blizzard Diffusion, a riff on Stable Diffusion, one of the popular image generators that enables anyone to turn text into art.
"Prepare to be amazed," Adham wrote, adding, "We are on the brink of a major evolution in how we build and manage our games."
From The New York Times
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