Artificial intelligence is a touchy subject in the creative industry right now, which makes it even more heartwarming to see AI being used in the right way — and that’s for some good ol’ blood sucking fun.
Suck Up is a unique AI-driven game where you play as a vampire, trying to secure your next meal through clever disguises and conversations with your neighbours. Each of the town’s eclectic residences are powered by Gen AI, which allows them to respond to your custom messages in real time.
In the early access version of the game, you can choose to record your voice for a fully immersive experience, or type your message manually. Your message is sent to a server that handles the AI interaction, then the NPC will respond with a tailored message that matches the tone and topic of conversation.
According to the official game website, Suck Up manages to achieve this impressive feat through the usage of AI Tokens. AI Tokens are the currency that power AI-based projects, applications, and services. In the context of the game, an AI Token is spent for every single NPC interaction in the game.
Game developers Proxima explain that personal computers today are simply not powerful enough to run the AI models required for their game. In order to balance fair value for entertainment and sustaining operations for their indie studio, their solution is to provide players with 10,000 AI Tokens which translates to approximately 40-50 hours of gameplay.
However, pushing the boundaries of gaming experiences comes with its own problems. Proxima shares their concerns that some players may hit a hard cap with the game once they finish all their AI Tokens. They are currently exploring ways to increase the token limit and add ways to top up tokens at a fair price to players.
They also share their belief that AI Tokens will no longer be required one day, as AI models become more efficient and PCs get more powerful. Proxima is working towards that future with their experiments in applied AI in gaming, with Suck Up being their first game and most ambitious project thus far.
If you’d like to support Suck Up, it is currently available in early access for USD15.99 on the official game website.
What are your thoughts on applied AI in gaming? Do you like the concept of Suck Up? Let us know in the comments below!
