According to Unity's survey, more than sixty percent (62%) of theGame StudioThe assistance of artificial intelligence is utilized during the development of their projects, and these tools are often used to save time and increase efficiency.
In 2022, the average time it took to make a game was 218 days, which has now increased to 304 days. However, 71% of the studios that participated in the survey said that AI has helped them improve the quality of their work. Animating characters was the most common part of creation using AI, followed by assistance with writing code. Creating illustrations and levels, writing scripts, and testing games came next.
Based on feedback from respondents to 68%.The main reason for using AI is to reduce the time it takes to make prototypesIn 2023, 96% studios spent less than three months on prototyping, compared to 85% a year ago. another area of AI application is world building, with 56% studios using AI for this part of their work. Of these studios, 64% used AI to create non-player characters (NPCs) to populate the game world.
A report from Inworld, a company specializing in AI, confirms this. Last year, the company struck a partnership deal with Microsoft to start offering AI-based tools to developers. About three-quarters of developers are satisfied with AI-created non-player characters. the developers surveyed by Inworld used generative AI most often to design animations and textures, followed by NPC creation, with 40% studios using AI to create NPC characters.
Unity also pointed out some of the reasons why studios don't use AI. Of the developers who are hesitant about AI, 43% are interested in new solutions but don't have the time to implement them; 24% lack the necessary technical knowledge. The remaining respondents were either unaware of AI's capabilities or unaware of its uses. A further 3% of developers chose the "other" option, which may be related to ethical considerations.
The study, published by Unity, was conducted in 2023 with 300 respondents, and is likely to be more geared towards smaller handheld projects using the Unity engine.
Unity's research shows a slightly higher percentage of AI applications than a recent survey of developers and other industry personnel at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), which showed that only 31% staffers used theGenerative AI toolsThe 44% is used in business and finance. Writers, artists and quality control specialists predict AI will have a negative impact on the games industry, while those working in business, marketing and programming are more optimistic.
As a result, AI is already widely used in the gaming industry, and its integration is only going to increase as development costs and time increase, which is one of the reasons for mass layoffs in the industry.
However, an experiment conducted by Keywords shows that AI is not a complete replacement for humans either. the experts at Keywords tried to develop a 2D game using only AI tools. They researched more than 400 tools, but ultimately had to turn to the resources of seven studios, proving that AI tools are still only a time-saving tool for professionals.