{"612183":{"#nid":"612183","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Researchers Develop AI That Can Create Entirely New Games","body":[{"value":"\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cem\u003EUsing a method dubbed \u0026#39;conceptual expansion,\u0026#39; the system studies old games to create unique mechanics and designs\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe first machine learning-based automated game design tool from a team of researchers at Georgia Tech could empower anyone to make their own games. Utilizing what the researchers dub \u0026ldquo;conceptual expansion,\u0026rdquo; the method recombines machine-learned models of games into new, playable games.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EPrior automated game design approaches have used hand-authored or crowd-sourced knowledge, which requires a human author to write instructions for the system to produce games. This approach, however, limits the scope and applications of such systems, according to the Georgia Tech team.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EConceptual expansion, on the other hand, takes in an arbitrary number of games \u0026ndash; Super Mario Bros., Kirby\u0026rsquo;s Adventure, and Mega Man, for example \u0026ndash; and then outputs original games with unique mechanics and level designs.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;By having this done using machine learning, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t require me or anyone else to author additional content,\u0026rdquo; said \u003Cstrong\u003EMatthew Guzdial\u003C\/strong\u003E, a Ph.D. student in Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s School of Interactive Computing (IC) and the lead on the project. \u0026ldquo;I can just give it a new game to learn on, and it will immediately change its output based on what it sees. If I want a game like Pong and game like Tetris, I show two videos to the system and, bam, here are 30 games or however many it comes up with.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis research builds on \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gvu.gatech.edu\/ai-uses-less-two-minutes-videogame-footage-recreate-game-engine\u0022\u003Eprevious work\u003C\/a\u003E by the team, which includes Guzdial\u0026rsquo;s adviser, IC Associate Professor \u003Cstrong\u003EMark Riedl\u003C\/strong\u003E. That work attempted to empower artificial intelligence (AI) with creativity through the use of video games. Past iterations have looked at learning level design for a game \u0026ndash; Super Mario Bros., for example \u0026ndash; but this led to output levels very similar to those already in the game.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn an alternative method, the researchers drew on an approach called conceptual blending that allowed them to create entirely new types of levels, like underwater castles, which aren\u0026rsquo;t present in the original franchise.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe latest work has used that foundation to produce entirely new content, though challenges still exist, Guzdial said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;What we have to do now is define some way for the AI to know what is good and what is bad,\u0026rdquo; he said. \u0026ldquo;That\u0026rsquo;s the trick. We haven\u0026rsquo;t quite figured it out yet. We\u0026rsquo;ve gotten some bad stuff out, too.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESome examples: An enemy was invented that couldn\u0026rsquo;t move and couldn\u0026rsquo;t die and a power-up that moved further away any time a player was within a certain distance.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;So, those aren\u0026rsquo;t great,\u0026rdquo; Guzdial said. \u0026ldquo;There\u0026rsquo;s no intentionality there. It\u0026rsquo;s frustrating, but it\u0026rsquo;s interesting to see how it builds these new relationships. At the end of the day, right now, we are looking for something new and something playable. Have I ever seen this before, and can I actually play this game?\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe goal, Guzdial said, is not to replace human game designers but to provide non-game designers with the ability to produce original content on their own. He\u0026rsquo;s often heard others describe games as being a combination of multiple games they\u0026rsquo;ve played before.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Why not empower them with the ability to create on their own?\u0026rdquo; he said. \u0026ldquo;I have no illusions about whether experts can make a better game than this engine, obviously. But can we let people who don\u0026rsquo;t know how to make games become developers on their own?\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis research is published in a paper titled \u003Cem\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/arxiv.org\/pdf\/1809.02232.pdf\u0022\u003EAutomated Game Design via Conceptual Expansion\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E, which will be presented at the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.google.com\/ncsu.edu\/aiide-2018\/home?authuser=0\u0022\u003E14\u003Csup\u003Eth\u003C\/sup\u003E AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment\u003C\/a\u003E on Nov. 13-17 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Conceptual expansion takes in an arbitrary number of games and then outputs original games with unique mechanics and level designs."}],"uid":"33939","created_gmt":"2018-10-01 20:25:49","changed_gmt":"2018-10-04 12:20:43","author":"David Mitchell","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2018-10-01T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2018-10-01T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"595803":{"id":"595803","type":"image","title":"Super Mario Bros.","body":null,"created":"1505147296","gmt_created":"2017-09-11 16:28:16","changed":"1505147296","gmt_changed":"2017-09-11 16:28:16","alt":"Super Mario Brothers","file":{"fid":"227053","name":"mario2-cloned_engine.gif","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mario2-cloned_engine.gif","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mario2-cloned_engine.gif","mime":"image\/gif","size":4784356,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/mario2-cloned_engine.gif?itok=UwWF9XB6"}}},"media_ids":["595803"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/public.tableau.com\/views\/Firstmachine-learning-basedautogamedesigner\/Dashboard1?:embed=y\u0026:display_count=yes\u0026:showVizHome=no","title":"Guzdial\u0027s Gaming Research Evolution"}],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1299","name":"GVU Center"},{"id":"576481","name":"ML@GT"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"2835","name":"ai"},{"id":"2556","name":"artificial intelligence"},{"id":"2449","name":"video games"},{"id":"146631","name":"Matthew Guzdial"},{"id":"66281","name":"Mark Riedl"},{"id":"166848","name":"School of Interactive Computing"},{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"179255","name":"automated game design"},{"id":"179256","name":"super mario brothers"},{"id":"179257","name":"kirby\u0027s adventure"},{"id":"179258","name":"mega man"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDavid Mitchell\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECommunications Officer\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:david.mitchell@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Edavid.mitchell@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}