A: Of course.
A: Yes. We have already spent a lot of time doing experiments, programming demos and simulating portion of the world using AI. And it really works. We just need to bring it to a larger scale.
A: There are two. The first is that you will never again have to abandon your favorite game world, just because there is nothing more to do and all quests are completed. The world will evolve and keep changing, creating new challenges and stories.
The second is that NPCs will appear almost alive and unique. You will be able to interact with any NPC in a variety of ways and no cutscene, invisible wall or plot armor will stop you. On top of that, you can say anything you wish to any NPC. Didn’t you wish to give piece of your mind to some NPCs you’ve met in other games?
There may be some moral issues. If the NPCs appear sentient, it is ok to hurt them or use them? If the current model can fool Google engineer, what about those, that come in the future and may be utilized in the game? It will be very interesting to observe, how players react.
A: There are already games and other story-related projects that utilize language model AI. But we haven’t seen any, that actually tries to control complex sandbox without any preset future. Existing projects are usually more traditional with the AI as a helper for the dialogues or small story details. We plan to create an extremely detailed world lore and then let the AI do whatever it wants, as long as it stays within the constraints of the lore.
“The devil is in the details” – there are a lot of ways to approach this problem. For example, how to fit all important information into single query, how to filter output, how to make sure it actually makes sense. We believe that, as long as the human language models are concerned, we found the sweet spot.
A: Our goal is not to compete with the great games. We just want to bring another one into the light of day. But there may be one aspect where we can excel. Didn’t you feel emptiness inside after you finished some great game? Didn’t you wish for an additional story content? What happens to Shepard next, what happens to Geralt? I need to know.
We won’t be able to match the best games out there in storytelling, we understand that. But we believe that the adventure we bring to you is still good and you will love all the characters. And the best part is, your adventure doesn’t end, until you decide it ends. This is our ultimate goal.
A: No, just no.
A: Only cosmetics and without random lootboxes. Just typical old school shop, where what you buy is what you get.
A: Yes, this is a typical complaint regarding open world games. We had a lot of discussion around this topic during planning phase, but we have decided that for the sake of immersion, we will keep the whole continent as is, meaning there will be a lot of unused space. This will be compensated by the ability of the player to travel really fast, either by teleporting or fast flying.
Every patch of land can be converted into something, for example a town or player's base or something else. In the end, this approach can really improve the role-playing aspect of the game. We will see. This is an experiment after all.
A: It’s our belief, that to fully “live” through the story, the player needs to be left alone to experience the world in their own pace and under their own conditions. It’s not about competition, it’s about the experience.
This kind of sandbox is ideal to experience alone or with several good friends. A multiplayer, but not a massive multiplayer, is planned in the future. We just don’t want to overpromise now.
A: We plan to release the game on consoles. Everything we will program will be able to run on consoles. We just don’t want to overpromise. When the game is released for the PC and the bugs are fixed, we will start working on the console ports.
If we are able to collect enough funds to hire dedicated people for the console ports, we will work on them at the same time. Either way, the console ports are definitely planned.
A: There is always a chance of that. The decision to give out a lot of details has two reasons.
We are asking for a lot of money for something new and unusual. To prove to the potential backers that this is not a scam, that we have a real plan and the project is all doable, we need to explain every detail. If someone backs this project, they know exactly what we will do and what they can expect.
The other reason is that we are gamers. Why don’t have more projects with the same goal? If someone else delivers this kind of experience, be it a large studio or a small indie team, we will be glad. Having more games to play and more worlds to experience is a good thing. Gamers can only benefit.
A: The goal we set is enough to pay 18 months of salaries of up to 15 people – that is the team we deem capable of delivering the alfa product. It consists of four programmers, two UE5 dedicated developers, two dedicated AI developers, four 3D/2D artists, testers, editors, AI trainers and HR/QA. Running costs for servers, cloud and other facilities are also included.
If we get past the stretch goal, we will keep the team as is, until we get to the 26-month mark.
If we get past that, we will expand the team with following roles getting the priority:
We plan to be completely transparent and send our spending report to all backers quarterly.
A: No … wait, what?
A: Yes.