Flashspoter - Ubisoft has unveiled Teammates, a prototype generative artificial intelligence-based game designed to test how players can interact with in-game characters through voice commands and visual context in real-time. This project is a continuation of the Neo NPC experiment showcased at GDC 2024, but with a much wider scope because Teammates can already be played in a closed playtest by hundreds of players.
Teammates was developed as a research project, not a commercial product, but the entire mechanics are designed like a conventional FPS game. Players become the part of the resistance in a dystopian future where they have to go to an enemy base and find the team members that were left behind. During a few levels that are available, the player fights against the enemies, finds the last memory of the previous team member, and talks with the companion AI.
In this prototype, Ubisoft introduced three AI characters: Jaspar, Sofia, and Pablo. Jaspar serves as a digital assistant in the game that is able to understand the context of the world, highlight important objects, set game options, to assist in player onboarding. Sofia and Pablo are non-player character teammates, which means that they are a part of the game world physically and can be given a direct instruction through voice.
The main features of such a system is the AI to be able to comprehend the visuals around, rather than just the spoken words. Just in case the player tells “hide behind the barrel”, the AI-controlled character would figure out where the player is looking and where the object is accordingly and then go to the place that is closest to the barrel. This ability is intended to imitate the behavior of Real teammates who can independently assess the situation.
In the early stages of the game, these abilities are directly tested. The player has not been given a weapon, while two armed NPCs are on the player's side. To cope with two enemy guards, the player will have to give instructions to Sofia and Pablo, from using environmental protection to determining the moment of attack. Ubisoft mentioned that the voice commands of a player would have such a major influence on the storyline that every player can in fact have different play styles.
Besides the technical side of things, Ubisoft is also working on the AI characters having more lifelike personalities. In playtest, players can choose character sets, including unique choices such as “Bad Cat and Good Boy”, which affect the way Pablo and Sofia talk and react. Although it is still in its early stages, it gives an idea that NPC personalities can help shape the gaming experience.
The technology behind Teammates doesn't just work in this game. Ubisoft stated that the middleware system they created is already compatible with two of the company's internal engines: Snowdrop and Anvil. In other words, the same technology can be likely extended to other Ubisoft titles if this study is carried out successfully.
Also, the Teammates game has an internal API whose main function is to oversee the safety of AI usage, among other things, lessening the probability of bias, toxicity, hallucinations, and the misuse of voice commands. By means of this API, the dev team is allowed to impose restrictions on AI to ensure that its behavior is in line with the narrative and the game world.
Ubisoft has been using AI as a part of its method for quite a while. Last year one of the first results of their research was Ghostwriter, an AI made to help with the writing of the non-player character dialogues for the opening scenarios. They have also received criticism after publishing AI-generated loading screen art on the Anno 117 game without being manually re-polished. Even so, the company insists that the goal of Teammates is not to replace human creativity, but to expand the interaction space and help developers create new experiences.
At the moment, Teammates are still an active experiment. Feedback from the trial participants becomes an important part to determine the direction of further development. Ubisoft also plans to release an explanatory video to show how the entire system works, as well as open up a broader discussion regarding the future of generative AI-based gameplay.
Source news.ubisoft, engadget, variety
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