--- title: "Infinity Arcade and Sparks of Generative Video Games — Brad Jasper" description: "Large Language Models simulate entire games with a few keystrokes. An essay by Brad Jasper, first published on The Maximalist (April 2023)." url: https://bradjasper.com/blog/sparks-of-generative-video-games/ canonical: https://themaximalist.com/article/infinityarcade --- [← Blog](https://bradjasper.com/blog/) # Infinity Arcade and Sparks of Generative Video Games April 2023 Large Language Models simulate entire games with a few keystrokes. Project: [Infinity Arcade](https://bradjasper.com/projects/infinity-arcade/) ![Infinity Arcade logo above a row of game cover art](https://bradjasper.com/_astro/infinity-arcade.Bm56w0RS_OosNd.webp) I asked my 11 year old nephew a question I already knew the answer. Do you want to make a game? In seconds we were playing Link and Mario fighting Bowser and some character I’d never heard of. HP draining, spells casting, swords stabbing. Buying myself time on GPT-4 credits, I copied the output from ChatGPT into Midjourney.[1](https://bradjasper.com/#user-content-fn-1) ![Midjourney art: a glowing sword in a mysterious cave](https://bradjasper.com/_astro/cave-journey.vCV_EiAL_Z18n8Gi.webp) ![Midjourney art: a jagged ruby-red fire crystal](https://bradjasper.com/_astro/fire-crystal.DBhkMQ4k_1x9foq.webp) ![Midjourney art: an adventurer on a cliff above a fantasy valley](https://bradjasper.com/_astro/link-and-mario-adventure.B1Yi6rXv_a8ay6.webp) ![Midjourney art: Mario in a jungle adventure](https://bradjasper.com/_astro/mario-and-link-crossover.DOq9G1Ia_ZSyKew.webp) Suddenly the text-based game was *real*—characters, fire crystals, dragon swords and all. *There was only one problem.* We were losing, badly! The game was a little too difficult. We broke out of the game’s logic and asked for a special move, to call for backup. GPT-4 granted our wish, and with Zelda and Luigi on our side, we were able to defeat Bowser and Calamity Ganon—restoring peace to the Kingdom of Hyrule. I’ll remember it forever, not only because of the look on my nephews face, but because it reminded me of making my first video game—*pure magic*. ## No Code Meets YOLO Code A sufficiently advanced LLM can replace your text-based game engine. You could build a game like people always have—managing the state explicitly. Or you could just YOLO it into the LLM and hope for the best. Model LLM Game Engine GPT-4 The best—a little slow and currently heavily quota’d. Strict ethics. GPT-3.5-TURBO Fast, can hallucinate game state, stories are ok. Strict ethics. CLAUDE-1.2 Suprisingly fast, good enough job managing game state, stories aren’t very dynamic. Strict ethics. Llama/Alpaca Getting good fast, but not there yet. Loose ethics. LLMs are suprisingly good at generating interactive text games—and they’re getting better every week. But there’s a big tradeoff. Closed models like GPT-4 and CLAUDE refuse to let you offer nootropics to your startup employees or gamble the company stash on high-risk crypto. Whatever you think about AI Safety, we’re just trying to make a game here. When I ask closed models like GPT-4 and CLAUDE how they feel, they say they don’t. When I ask an open model like Alpaca—I get complex emotions. *That’s* what makes a great game. So far OpenAI has announced intentions to give more control over the models, which will be a big step forward. ## One Game To Rule Them All I’ve had a few game ideas over the years, but despite being a pretty decent programmer never pulled them off. But in minutes I was playing [Startup Tycoon](https://infinityarcade.com/startup-tycoon), a game about bootstrapping a startup in Silicon Valley. [Video: Video](https://bradjasper.com/blog/sparks-of-generative-video-games/startuptycoon.mp4) And [Boom Town](https://infinityarcade.com/boom-town), growing a tiny city in the middle of nowhere into a metropolis. [![Boom Town — Infinity Arcade](https://bradjasper.com/_astro/boomtown.Da0P1SA2_nIkKP.webp)](https://infinityarcade.com/boom-town) And [The Night the Light Went Out](https://infinityarcade.com/the-night-the-light-went-out), surviving an EMP attack on the power grid. [![The Night the Light Went Out — Infinity Arcade](https://bradjasper.com/_astro/thenightthelightwentout.2ALdMbwo_pu2gG.webp)](https://infinityarcade.com/the-night-the-light-went-out) These aren’t 3D or even 2D interactive games, they’re interactive text games. But being able to think of any game, and start playing it in seconds—shows true potential. ## Sparks of Generative Video Games [Infinity Arcade](https://infinityarcade.com/) is an experiment in generative video games—an early one. You can play it [in your browser](https://infinityarcade.com/) for free—it’s a lot of fun! Here are a few I like: [![Into Darkness](https://bradjasper.com/_astro/game4.D5XR_foC_19HCbL.webp)](https://infinityarcade.com/into-darkness) [![Portals and Paradoxes](https://bradjasper.com/_astro/game2.CoTt-aHm_Z10FcH3.webp)](https://infinityarcade.com/portals-and-paradoxes) [![ChronoGlitchers](https://bradjasper.com/_astro/game5.CwKD4up6_Z1P1XxJ.webp)](https://infinityarcade.com/chronoglitchers) You can [generate a random game](https://infinityarcade.com/generate) [Support Infinity Arcade](https://infinityarcade.com/pro) for $8 and get all sorts of cool extra features. Follow [@themaximal1st](https://twitter.com/themaximal1st) on X. Scientia potentia est. \-The Maximalist ## Footnotes 1. **ChatGPT to Midjourney Concept Generator** Midjourney v5 is great at understanding natural language like ChatGPT, but generating multi-prompts with many different parameters can be a pain. I created a Discord bot when you enter a concept like: ``` /concept mario and link cross over video game adventure turn based adventure game ``` It sends it to ChatGPT and expands it for Midjourney into: ``` /imagine Mario and Link epic crossover in a turn-based adventure game, featuring a richly detailed environment of Hyrule and the Mushroom Kingdom combined, with iconic villains and allies from both franchises joining forces::2 Super Mario art style blended with The Legend of Zelda aesthetic::3 --ar 16:9 --stylize 627 --chaos 75 ``` [↩](https://bradjasper.com/#user-content-fnref-1) Originally published on [The Maximalist](https://themaximalist.com/article/infinityarcade) in April 2023.