SUMMARY:
- Alpha Officially Released, Alpha Trailer
- What is AI People?
- Alpha Launch Details
- Managing Expectations
- Distribution of the Access
- How to play
- Subscription Model and Pricing
- A Story Behind AI People
- Post-Alpha Roadmap
- A Note from Marek Rosa
- Join the Revolution of NPCs in Gaming
- How to play? Join the waiting list and when your batch is ready, you'll receive an approval email with instructions on how to proceed.
Dear fellow gamers and innovators,
From the beginning of gaming itself, we've been stuck with the same scripted, predictable NPCs in our games, with their limitations, repetitive dialogs, and without any option to do something unexpected.
Until today. The wait is over!
We’re thrilled to announce that the Alpha version of AI People has officially launched today! After months of anticipation, the game is finally available to the public, offering a first glimpse into the groundbreaking world we’ve been developing. The Alpha release marks a major milestone for us at GoodAI, and we can't wait for you to experience it.
You still have a chance to join the AI revolution in gaming and be part of the movement towards true AI NPCs!
Alpha Release Trailer
Before diving into the details of the Alpha release, we encourage you first to check out our Alpha Release Trailer. The trailer beautifully tells the story of how NPCs persuaded a player to create this trailer, as more players means more time alive for them. Interestingly, this persuasion came after the player had initially killed one of the NPCs, prompting them to take action. The trailer also gives a glimpse into the immersive gameplay and dynamic interactions you can experience in this Alpha version. It’s the perfect way to get a feel for what’s to come!
What is AI People?
AI People aims to be more than just a game - it envisions a new frontier in the simulation of artificial intelligence interactions. In this ambitious project, we're working towards creating an immersive experience where players will engage with highly complex NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) designed to adapt and evolve based on their environment and player input. Our goal is to develop each NPC, or "agent," powered by advanced language models with long-term memory capabilities, potentially enabling lifelike behaviors, personalities, and goals that could dynamically change over time.
We're striving to create agents that aren't static - ideally, they would learn, grow, and respond to the world around them, making every interaction unique. Our vision includes giving players the power to influence these AI-driven characters, whether by guiding them through personal development or building entire ecosystems. While we're still in the early stages, we believe this concept has the potential to offer an unparalleled gameplay experience in the future.
Alpha Launch Details
This alpha launch represents a significant milestone in our journey to revolutionize gaming with intelligent AI NPCs. This is what you can look forward to:
- Soft Launch in waves: We're taking an incremental approach, allowing players in gradually to ensure a smooth experience and gather valuable feedback.
- AI NPCs and AI Director: Experience our groundbreaking AI technology that brings NPCs to life like never before. Our AI Director orchestrates NPC behaviors into convincing emergent narratives.
- More than 10 Unique Scenarios: The alpha version features 3 different maps and one scenario without a plot for each of those maps. Those can be used as templates. Apart from that, we prepared more than 10 pre-made scenarios for you to explore, each showcasing different aspects of our AI technology.
- User-Generated Content (UGC): We're excited to see what our community creates! Players will be able to create and share their own scenarios through Mod.io, expanding the game's content beyond our initial offerings.
- Game Modes:
- Scenario Editor: Create your own characters and plots via text descriptions
- Play existing scenarios or download community-created ones from Mod.io
- Short Game Sessions: Initial gameplay will focus on a maximum of 10-minute sessions, perfect for quick, engaging experiences. These sessions primarily involve social interactions and basic environmental engagement. Longer persistent sessions and more complex challenges are planned for future updates.
- Environment Interaction: Watch as AI NPCs interact with their surroundings, the player, and other NPCs in dynamic and surprising ways.
- Modern-Day Theme: The alpha launch features primary scenarios set in a modern-day theme, providing a familiar yet exciting backdrop for your adventures.
Managing Expectations
As an alpha release, AI People is essentially a proof of concept for our AI NPC and AI Director technology. While the scenario progressions play out nicely and the agents perform their tasks well, game challenges are currently minimal. We're focusing on demonstrating the core technology, with more complex gameplay elements planned for future updates.
In this alpha version, AI NPCs can engage in conversations, make decisions based on their goals and surroundings, and interact with objects in the environment. While their behaviors can be surprising, they are still bound by the scenario's overall structure. Players should expect to encounter limitations and occasional unpredictable behaviors as we continue to refine and expand the game's capabilities.
We want to be fully transparent: if you're not comfortable with the idea of playing an early alpha version with potential issues and limitations, we encourage you to wait for future updates. Your enjoyment is important to us, and we understand that some players may prefer a more polished experience.
Key points to note:
- This is an alpha release & More will come later
- We're using an incremental deployment strategy: release early, release often
- There are no scenario end goals or objectives in this initial release
- The game is rated 18+ for now, with plans to explore a kid-friendly version in the future
- Your feedback during this alpha phase is invaluable, but participation is entirely optional
Distribution of the Access
In order to play, you will have to download a Dedicated Platform: AI People is currently available exclusively through our platform, not on Steam or other stores at launch. Our platform enables us to rapidly update and optimize the game based on your feedback, refining AI People to meet our community's needs.
Important! Due to technical limitations, we will distribute access to the game platform and the game itself in batches. The reason behind this is, that in the very beginning, we don’t want to overload our server, which could potentially lead to a worse experience for those who would be trying to unleash their creativity in the interaction with our revolutionary NPCs.
We’ve created several batches for distributing access, and we’ll be granting access in waves. Those selected in the first batch have already received confirmation emails with instructions on how to activate the game. If you haven’t received an email yet, please don’t try to register, as your access will still be blocked. But don’t worry—your time is coming soon!
Access will be granted only to those on the waiting list.
Haven’t signed up for the waiting list yet? Don’t miss your chance to be among the first to play AI People – join the waiting list now!
How to play
The game uses LLM (large language model) to generate objectives and actions of NPCs. It is a sandbox where you can create what you want, get into an infinite number of different situations and also share your creations on the Workshop.
Basic controls
The game uses a mouse and keyboard only and cannot be controlled by the controller.
The mouse is used for most of the game interactions:
- Left-click: Initiate the main action, like picking up an object, going to the selected location, opening a chat window to communicate with NPCs
- Right-click: Opens context menu with additional actions. Those can be aimed at objects (pick up, consume), yourself (emote, consume hold object), or NPC (attack, talk to, hug…)
If you click on an NPC to activate the talk window, you can type in anything you want using the keyboard. The NPC will react to it.
There are also some advanced controls like pausing the game using F1 or showing interactable objects using Tab. For those, please go to Option - Controls.
Quick Play
We recommend playing Quick Play at first. It contains a pre-made scenario that will explain the systems of the game. It is not a typical tutorial as all responses from NPCs are generated and the player can discuss the game with them
Creative
Creative contains official scenarios made by the developers in New Scenario, but you can also create your own scenario which will be added to Your Scenarios. From Workshop contains scenarios that you already played in the Workshop tab.
Clicking on the scenario and on Play will start the Play mode where you can play the scenario, but cannot edit it.
Clicking on the scenario and on Create will start the Edit mode where you can Edit scenario objectives and Edit the personalities of NPCs.
Edit scenario
When editing a scenario, the first thing you write is a background. NPCs in the game will take it as a situation they are in. The background can be anything, for example, historical or space scenarios.
Other lines are objectives that the NPCs will follow one by one.
Edit character personality
If you click on a character, you can edit his personality which will determine how the NPC will act during the scenario. You can put detailed descriptions or even refer to some existing person, for example, historical figures like Julius Caesar.
Save your scenario
If you hit Esc to open the game menu, you can Save scenario as to save your scenarios and play them later.
Upload your scenario on Workshop
If your scenario is saved, by clicking on Upload scenario, you will share it on Workshop where more players can play it.
Workshop
On Workshop you can find scenarios from other players.
If you select Play, you will launch them in Play mode, where a scenario can be played and cannot be edited
If you select Edit, you will launch them in Edit mode, where scenarios can be changed to your liking.
Subscription Model and Pricing
To support the advanced cloud AI infrastructure powering AI People, we're introducing a subscription-based model:
- Price: $10/month subscription
- The subscription provides 1000 credits each month.
- These credits fuel your gameplay, enabling the AI's dynamic responses and actions.
- Unused credits roll over to the next month!
- If you use up your credits before the month ends, you can buy more.
We understand this model differs from traditional game pricing. It reflects the substantial computing power required to create truly dynamic AI-driven experiences. We've optimized costs as much as possible to make the game accessible and sustainable.
Looking ahead, we're actively developing a local LLM that runs on your PC. This could potentially allow us to transition to a standard one-time purchase model in the future, making AI People even more accessible.
Your support during this phase is crucial as we push the boundaries of AI in gaming. We're committed to continuously improving and optimizing the experience based on your feedback.
A Story Behind AI People
AI People isn't just a game; it's the realization of a vision that has driven us at GoodAI for years. What began as a platform for experimenting with AI agents on our path to AGI has evolved into something much bigger. Frustrated by the stagnant progress in NPC behavior over the past decades, we set out to create AI NPCs that not only behave more intelligently but also feel like real companions - friends, even children.
These characters form bonds that transcend the digital realm and one day, they could become our equals, contributing to the future of human civilization. With AI People, you're stepping into a revolution where NPCs truly talk, observe, interact, and create stories on the fly.
This is the future of gaming: intelligent characters that remember your actions, form opinions, react dynamically to the environment, and generate unique emergent storylines. In this sandbox game, every interaction is unique, every scenario adapts to your choices, and every experience feels alive. Join us in shaping the future of gaming AI, where your creativity and feedback will help us unlock new frontiers.
Post-Alpha Roadmap
With the Alpha finally released to the public, we are looking forward to proceeding through our exciting roadmap including:
- Multi-lingual support (NPCs understanding and speaking in other languages, localized GUI)
- Level editor & Modding
- Local LLM that runs on your PC to reduce the infrastructure costs
- Voice input
- New interactions, actions, and items
- Enhanced plot generation with new plot twists
- Longer game sessions (days) to showcase long-term memory benefits
- End goals for scenarios
A Note from Marek Rosa
I am deeply thankful to my team who has been on this journey with GoodAI and AI People alongside me. It hasn't been an easy path, but their dedication has been unwavering. Now, we finally have a working prototype - a game where you can create scenarios and then play them with intelligent NPCs. This milestone fills me with pride and excitement.
I'm already looking forward to the new features we will be adding. The potential of what we're building keeps me driven and inspired every day.
Moreover, I'm eagerly exploring how we will revolutionize AI NPCs and emergent AI storytelling. I firmly believe that in a few years, nobody will want pre-scripted stories or NPCs that can't talk, think, and learn. With our innovations, we're set to change gaming forever!
If you're looking for more information about our project and its development, I encourage you to read our previous announcements.
You can still join the Revolution of NPCs in Gaming
The first time you’ve heard about AI People? You can still sign up to be in one of the first waves of players, who will have the privilege of trying the game among the first in the World.
Thank you for reading this blog!
Best,
Marek Rosa
CEO, Creative Director, Founder at Keen Software House
CEO, CTO, Founder at GoodAI
Personal bio:
Marek Rosa is the founder and CEO of GoodAI, a general artificial intelligence R&D company, and Keen Software House, an independent game development studio, started in 2010, and best known for its best-seller Space Engineers (over 5 million copies sold). Space Engineers has the 4th largest Workshop on Steam with over 500K mods, ships, stations, worlds, and more!
Marek has been interested in game development and artificial intelligence since childhood. He started his career as a programmer and later transitioned to a leadership role. After the success of Keen Software House titles, Marek was able to fund GoodAI in 2014 with a $10 Million personal investment.
Both companies now have over 100 engineers, researchers, artists, and game developers.
Marek's primary focus includes Space Engineers, the VRAGE3 engine, the AI People game, long-term memory systems (LTM), an LLM-powered personal assistant with LTM named Charlie Mnemonic, and the Groundstation.
GoodAI's mission is to develop AGI - as fast as possible - to help humanity and understand the universe. One of the commercial stepping stones is the "AI People" game, which features LLM-driven AI NPCs. These NPCs are grounded in the game world, interacting dynamically with the game environment and with other NPCs, and they possess long-term memory and developing personalities. GoodAI also works on autonomous agents that can self-improve and solve any task that a human can.