One of my favorite parts of Stardew Valley and other farming/life sims is talking to the resident NPCs and getting to know them. I always find the perfect “path” from one point of town to the other, ensuring I do a complete loop so I can check in with (almost) everyone daily. It’s always why I tend to be more easily disappointed by games like Fae Farm with shallow NPCs who don’t have any personality to speak of, or games like Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos whose map is so spread out that visiting all my faves before nightfall is a near impossibility.
Most NPCs in games of this genre have a 1-3 dialogue options per “affection level,” which goes up as you win people over with gifts and conversation. (Unless you go as hard as Fields of Mistria, who had new dialogue daily in the Early Access sample of the game.) But modders have found a new way to leverage generative AI (genAI) tools like Chat GPT, a language learning model (LLM), to make NPC conversations more dynamic.
AI vs. GenAI vs LLMs
Okay, let’s just get this quickly out of the way. “AI” means a lot of things to a lot of different people these days. And social sites like Twitter and Instagram tend to use “AI” and “genAI” interchangeably. But it’s more complex than that. Your car GPS uses AI. Netflix and Amazon recommendation engines use AI. The Google Data Suite for this very website uses AI.
The terms AI, GenAI, and LLMs are all related to artificial intelligence, but they refer to different concepts within a broader field. Here’s how they differ:
1. AI (Artificial Intelligence):
- Definition: AI refers to the broader field of computer science that aims to create machines capable of performing tasks that would normally require human intelligence. This includes problem-solving, decision-making, language understanding, image recognition, and more.
- Examples: AI encompasses things like expert systems, robotic process automation, basic chatbots, and even recommendation systems like Netflix or Amazon use.
2. GenAI (Generative AI):
- Definition: Generative AI specifically refers to AI systems that can generate new content, such as text, images, music, or even video, based on the patterns they have learned from existing data. These models don’t just classify or analyze; they create.
- Examples: Tools like DALL·E, which generates images from text descriptions, ChatGPT, which generates conversational text, or models that create music or video content.
3. LLMs (Large Language Models):
- Definition: LLMs are a subset of AI models designed to understand, process, and generate human language. These models are trained on vast amounts of text data and are particularly good at tasks like text completion, question answering, summarization, and translation.
- Examples: GPT (like the model you’re interacting with), BERT, and others fall under this category. LLMs form the backbone of many generative AI systems that deal with text.
Relationship Between Them:
- AI is the overarching field.
- Generative AI is a type of AI focused on creating new content, often leveraging models like LLMs.
- LLMs are a specific kind of model within the broader AI field, focusing on language-related tasks and often powering Generative AI systems that work with text.
In short, LLMs are a type of AI model, and Generative AI uses models like LLMs to create new content.
OKAY. Let’s move on.
GenAI in Stadew Valley: Convos for Days
I have always thought that genAI conversations would be a killer feature in The Sims franchise as it evolves to become…whatever EA has planned next. The “quirks” of AI conversation will even fit right into the often-hilarious chaos of the game’s automated Sim behaviors when left unchecked by human intervention. It seems like Stardew Valley modders are on the same page as me, as they were fast to develop a genAI dialogue mode for the game.
Modder DualityOfSoul, creator of the mod called “AI Valley” on Nexus Mods, reports that: “The reception [of the mod by players] has been a lot better than I initially thought.” This statement reflects the uncertainty around genAI in creative endeavors such as writing, art, and video games. On one hand, folks in the AI space need to be mindful about creative jobs being replaced by automation, copyrighted works being used without permission, and what it means to take the human soul out of artistic endeavors. On the other hand, there are some things that genAI just makes sense for—and unlimited NPC dialogue is definitely one of them (along with unlimited customization options, in my opinion).
AI Valley relies on OpenAI, the same tech that Chat GPT is built on, to offer a world of new in-character conversations with your favorite characters. The mod lets you run through the vanilla dialogue options first, then introduces the player to a world of dynamic, AI-generated options going forward. Spamming the new AI-generated conversation lines won’t continue to increase your friendship level with the villagers, however. But DualityOfSoul has integrated a number of really cool additional features besides just having new text to read:
- Memory System: NPCs remember past interactions and adjust their dialogue accordingly, making each conversation feel more personalized.
- Customizable Settings: Tailor the AI behavior, dialogue memory, response length, and other parameters to suit your preferences.
- Language: You can also change the language the AI will be asked to speak in. As such this is entirely dependent on how well the AI knows such language. Also certain languages such as Japanese, or Chinese might not work if your game language is different.
Does GenAI Work for Stardew Valley?
Jay Castello of The Verge took a deeper dive into what the genAI dialogue looks like in-game, and their reports are largely positive. Some examples of additional dialogue they ran into were Linus hoping the player has “been finding peace in the beauty of nature” and Pam wishing that the player is “enjoying the season as much as I am.”
For the most part, the genAI dialogue makes sense for the nature of each villager. Linus talks about appreciating nature, for example. Though Castello also points out that the mod cannot distinguish between different friendship levels with various NPCs while generating text. This means that grumpy or untrusting characters like Shane, Linus, and George will seem to forgo their prickly natures as soon as the genAI dialogue starts to roll.
AI Valley seems to match the general cheeriness of Stardew Valley as a whole, keeping incoming additional lines friendly and light-hearted even if it doesn’t make sense for the character in question. But as genAI and the ways we use it evolve, there could very well be a world where lines of dialogue are perfectly tailored to the character’s personality, story events, speaking quirks, and impression of you.
Video games will still need vanilla text, though. Game writers won’t be out of a job. Because carefully constructing an emotive and impactful story takes a totally different set of skills that making up endless streams of background chat for creative flavor and player immersion.
GenAI in Video Games: Pros & Cons
Taking a step back, there are both pros and cons to using genAI in games. Here are my thoughts, as I’ve been noodling over this problem for a while:
Pros
- Endless customization options
- Dynamic, two-way conversation
- Better conversational immersion
- More content for players
Cons
- Big companies will use it as an excuse to hire less or replace creative jobs
- The tech is so new, unforeseen problems will sure arise
- GenAI “conversation” can be pretty stiff and awkward
- GenAI sometimes glitches out and produces horrors beyond our wildest imaginings
- OpenAI charges users per generated line (just a fraction of a cent, but still, it adds up)
- AI uses a ton of power to run
What Do You Think?
So what do you think? Are you going to try the new AI Valley mod for Stardew Valley? Or, have you already tried it? What do you think about using genAI for dialogue in Stardew Valley, Skyrim, Hogwarts Legacy, or Cyberpunk 2077? Personally, I’m anxiously awaiting Stardew Valley 1.6 on consoles so I haven’t even thought about mods for it yet!
Stay cozy, gamers!