Level Infinite was on show at the past week’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2024, and we brought our AI smarts to the stage floor.
At the Level Infinite booth, visitors were able to try Honor of Kings at our mobile stations ahead of the game’s global availability later this year. The world’s biggest MOBA already has 100 million daily active players and is set to grow further as new regions launch.
The booth also featured a suite of Tencent’s own AI tools for game development. Our generative AI engine GiiNEX is focused on aiding game development across genres, from MOBAs to FPSes and MMOs.
Speaking to a full-house audience, Tencent AI Lab product expert Kai Qin said there are three elements that make a game come alive—believability, dynamism, and personalization.
Making a game come alive comes down to believability, dynamism, and personalization
That’s where AI comes in, to make the game “complex and ever-changing” as the player journeys through. AI engines can also help games react to the user as they play, keeping the user immersed, he said.
Yundong Zhang, a senior engineer with Tencent’s AI Lab, demonstrated a city builder toolset that is meant to dramatically cut down on development time for tedious, repetitive tasks.
In the demo, Zhang showed how a developer can upload a group of photos of building facades arranged across onto a road map. With this information, the engine can generate a 3D rendering of those buildings, allowing a developer making a city game to generate their canvas more easily.
He said a task like this which used to take a level designer some five days to create, can now be done in just under 30 minutes.
‘Gaming is the perfect mix of technology and art’
Eddie Chan, Level Infinite’s chief strategy officer, said: “GDC is always one of the highlights of the year for us. It’s a great opportunity to see all of our friends and partners in the industry all together.
“Being able to see all of our colleagues together in one place, to be able to talk with each other and learn from each other, it’s great.”
“I think gaming is the perfect mix of technology and art. As technology continues to get better, it just unlocks more and more ability to do more creatively, and allow players to experience more immersive, engaging experiences.
“At the end of the day, it’s about making great games that people like to spend their time on and want to play.”
“My focus is how do we do the right things for our studios to be able to get to the future,” said Chan.
