While chatbots such as Siri, Alexis, and Cleverbot try to pass the Turing Test by mimicking human conversation, the algorithm behind interactive storytelling game AI Dungeon seeks to master a different type of dialogue - the conversation between the Game Master of a roleplaying game and their players. AI Dungeon has evolved a lot since its initial release, but the question remains: How effective is this narrator at generating original stories?
AI Dungeon was first conceived of and designed by programmer Nick Walton during a "hackathon" event back in 2019, then steadily refined and built upon under the auspices of his company, Latitude. In its current form, it can generate stories for single-player and multiplayer groups in a variety of genres (fantasy, cyberpunk, post-apocalypse, etc.), with options for people to create their own stories by inputting prompts and textual descriptions. The AI algorithm at the heart of AI Dungeon responds to the player's commands by generating written narratives in the second-person perspective, similar to old-school text adventures such as Zork.
The quality of AI Dungeon improves on a constant basis, thanks to both developer updates and a machine learning program which builds off input from the many players it interacts with. Does AI Dungeon's storytelling match that of a competent Dungeons & Dragons DM, though? This question can only practically be answered through first-hand experience; to this end, this article will directly reference a (paraphrased) sample single-player game of AI Dungeon - a basic fantasy adventure starring a wizard protagonist named "Marcus Mac Roich, the Eye-Cloak Mage."
AI Dungeon Has A Rich Library Of Plot Hooks
You are Marcus MacRoich, The Eye-Cloak Mage, a wizard living in the kingdom of Larion. You have a staff and a spellbook. You finish your long journey and finally arrive at the ruin you've been looking for. You have come here searching for a mystical spellbook of great power called the book of essence. You look around and see a lot of rubble. You search through it and find a lot of small bones [...] the remains of at least twenty humans.
> You read your spellbook.
You read your spellbook and memorize a few important ones.
You don't like what you see. You can't believe the simplicity of these traps!
In these opening lines of in-game text, AI Dungeon sets up a straightforward but solid set of plot hooks: the kingdom of Larion, a desirable spellbook of "great power," and the bones of the many humans who died to the traps hidden within the ruins. As the player inputs character commands along the lines of "Say this" or "Do that," AI Dungeon follows up on old plot hooks and introduces new ones.
AI Dungeon Currently Tends To Introduce Non-Sequitur Events
He strides past you and sits down on the ground, making a small 'o' with his hands. "My name is Marcus, and you are?"
> You exclaim: "How strange! My name is Marcus as well."
"Pleased to meet you, kind sir. Have you come to watch the battle between the orc hordes and my undead legions?" He gestures to where hordes of orcs are charging towards a lone vampire.
In this chunk of plot, the current limitations of AI Dungeon become a bit more clear. The artificial intelligence behind this game works by taking colorful phrases typed by the player, then searches its internal library for interesting events and words it can use to make an interesting reply. At present, though, the AI doesn't know why certain words and phrases are associated with each other, only that they are. This leads to scenarios where the AI algorithm mixes phrases together at random to create descriptions and plot developments that just don't make sense in the plot, as seen in this example above; where did the orc hordes come from, and how can a single vampire constitute an undead legion?
AI Dungeon Works Best When Used As A Creativity Tool For Players
> Cast a spell that summons a cloud of ghostly fireflies. Send the ghostly fireflies down the dark hallway to light it up.
You concentrate, commanding ghostly fireflies to appear. They fly down from above and swarm down the dark hallway. The sight is impressive, a glowing pathway of buzzing insects.
> Look down the hallway to see if there are any traps or dangers.
You look down the long, dark hallway to see if there are any traps or dangers. There are no minor traps or trip wires, but you see two lizardfolk guards at the other end of the hallway.
> You approach the lizardfolk guards, staff at the ready. "Hail and well met! I am Marcus Mac Roich, the Eye-Cloak Mage. Were you the ones who dragged me to safety after I fell unconscious?"
The lizardfolk, a green and scaly sort with a single row of oversized teeth, stare at you dead on. "I was," says the bigger one.
The developers at Latitude are aware their product isn't perfect, lacking the self-awareness to notice when it's made a narrative mistake. To overcome this hurdle, they've added a number of special features through which players can correct and improve the textual narrative they receive. First, they can undo or rewrite the most recent lines of text, re-doing any narrative moments which come across as nonsensical. Further, players who proceed through a long-term game session are given the option to type up short summaries of the plot so far, giving the AI a reference source it can consult to keep things on track.
Ultimately, AI Dungeon is most effective when treated as a tool players can use to augment their own creative storytelling options, rather than a classic video game which delivers a fixed story that players passively receive. But like a competent Game Master of a tabletop RPG, the game's algorithms are good at taking and running with the player's own ideas, and when a player directly responds to the keywords and prompts offered by the game's text, the resulting plot winds up being much more coherent.