How can AI be used in game development?

We’ve seen an explosion in artificial intelligence (AI) in 2023. Spanning almost every single industry on the planet, and mobile game development and creation is certainly no exception. With this in mind, we've compiled the top 5 AI tools for mobile game developers.

In an industry that is constantly shifting and evolving, it seems inevitable that mobile game developers will, and are, adopting AI. In their constant search for new tools and methods to streamline their development pipeline and workflows.

There is no denying that AI technology has firmly established itself. It holds immense potential to transform the landscape of mobile game creation, development, monetisation, and gameplay.

For video games in general however, game creators have harnessed the power of AI and has been used to generate a multitude of functions for their players for decades and AI for game devs is not so new at all.

These range from AI generated worlds to adaptive and intelligent behaviours that mimic human-like intelligence, primarily in non-player characters (NPCs), and have been fundamental since their inception way back in the 1950s.

However, it was only a couple of short decades ago that making games was literally a different game entirely.

Game developers would need to program everything from scratch and their expertise was hard to come by and very expensive.

Complex code was required to create physics, controls and lighting and everything else your mind could imagine.

Then enter the Game Engines.

These took care of a large part of the work by baking in systems and structures and wrapping them inside a GUI ( graphical user interface ). This significantly lowered the barrier to entry and made the industry way more accessible to hobbyists, solo developers and small teams.

Now enter AI.

To empower game developers, game artists and game producers into the future, the possibilities for both in-game AI and an expansive suite of tools aim to solve a variety of challenges. The benefits these will undoubtedly bring to production, and ultimately, enhance the user experience for players, will be revolutionary.

We've put together our top 5 AI tools for creating mobile games and if you get til the end of this article, you'll find some more bonus tools that will surprise you. Let's go!

The ultimate list of AI tools, software and plugins for mobile game development in 2023

1. Stability.ai / Dream Studio )

It's time to reimagine your creative toolbox.

https://stability.ai/

Dream Studio by stability.ai (formerly Stable Diffusion) has a very similar feel to Midjourney but has wrapped it up into a intuitive UI and added plenty of sliders to make adjustments really simple.

There's a decent amount of presets to choose from to get things moving including, photographic, anime, fantasy, low poly and neon punk.

Commanded by a text prompt, you can create any image you can imagine by hitting the "Dream" button.

By default, there's a prompt already pre-filled to help you understand the format and some of the key terms you can use. There's also a neat "dice" icon that let's you shuffle the prompts too.

Here's just one example:

Gothic cathedral in a stormy night, with lightning illuminating the sky and rain pouring down, dramatic, atmospheric, high detail, moody

You can also upload a reference image too with one of those aforementioned nifty sliders. This will dictate the weight, or how closer match, you require the output will be to your original image.

Once your inputs have been processed, the AI will get to work on producing your new images and it's pretty fast indeed.

Within a minute or so, depending on the amount of variations you select, 10 is the max per round, you can then tweak, manipulate and revise to your hearts desire.

This is just the tip of the iceberg from the company however as not only do they offer Photoshop and Blender plugins, but their AI tools enable experts to develop cutting-edge open AI models for image, language, audio, video, 3D, biology and more.

2. Scenario.com

Consistent game asset creation, in minutes.

https://www.scenario.com/

After securing a $6m seed funding round back in January this year (2023), scenario has continued to go from strength to strength.

With scenario, game creators with little to no technical expertise or knowledge can train their very own AI to create unique game assets. The real unique selling point is that all created assets can remain consistent in style which is one of the downsides of many existing tools and generators.

You begin by feeding their AI a set of visuals to the specific art style of your choosing and then create a dedicated generator to start producing your game assets.

Once the process of machine learning has completed, you're able to bring new creations to life by typing a description of new assets you'd like, quite incredible.

This is perfect for solo game developers, game designers and small creative teams as it amplifies production time, reduces cost and let's you experiment freely.

Creating high quality, style consistent mobile and video game assets has never been easier and you can use scenario via their web app, the googleplay app or iOS app.

3. Runwayml.com

Advancing creativity with artificial intelligence.

https://runwayml.com/

RunwayML is an artificial intelligence (AI) development platform that allows users to create and run machine learning models. It provides a user-friendly interface and a variety of tools and resources for creating and training models, as well as integrating them into various applications.

Can you use AI to make game assets? Absolutely!

There’s so many options here it can be slightly overwhelming. Their suite is extensive to say the least. With 30+ AI magic tools at your disposal, they’ve got you covered for real-time video, editing, collaboration and so much more.

Whilst targetted more towards the image and creative video aspects of game developement, rather than a development pipeline, Runway excels as an AI tool for UA creative teams.

This is all done within your favourite browser too so no need for any downloads and go be done on the go.

With RunwayML, users can also access pre-trained models, develop custom models using their own data, and share their models with others. The platform supports a range of machine learning techniques, including computer vision, natural language processing, and generative models.

In addition to its core machine learning capabilities, RunwayML also offers a range of features to help users collaborate, manage projects, and deploy their models to various platforms. This includes integrations with popular development tools like GitHub and Slack, as well as cloud-based deployment options.

Overall, RunwayML is a powerful and flexible platform for AI development that can be used by a wide range of users, from researchers and developers to artists and designers.

4. Ludo.ai

Create your next hit games with Ludo.ai.

https://ludo.ai/

When it comes to game ideation it's fair to say that everyone will have their own process and techniques. Inside the Homa Academy, we have a comprehensive suite of training videos to help you along the way but it shouldn't stop there.

Ludo.ai uses AI and aims to take your creativity and x10 it by boasting the World's 1st Research & Ideation Tool for Game Designers and Developers.

With the power of AI, Ludo.ai identifies trends and patterns in the market making it easier than ever to chose themes and content for your next hit game.

You can search through 1000's of games in the top Charts, view their stats and promotional images too. These are consolidated in one handy destination to unlock endless AI-generated ideas to fuel your creativity.

You can quickly generate new game concepts, game design elements and game mechanics to fuse new ideas and it even produces the game icon, screenshots and description.

The user interface is intuitive and before you know it you'll be presented with fresh new games ideas in seconds. What's great is that if you're happy with the AI generated game idea, you can save this for later and continue on experimenting.

Their website also offers trending topics and new games gathering momentum to ensure your up to date with the latest trailblazers and by generating game ideas at the push of a button is kind of thrilling.

Of course, Ludo.ai also offers a roll of a dice approach too and you can see a random idea based on stats and data. The AI aggregates games by topics and lets you know what’s trending so no more digging through top chart lists.

You can also filter through millions of games, game icons and game screenshots to really dial in the tone, game style and vibe you're going for.

You can check out our very own in-house ideation expert Jorge taking Ludo.ai through its' paces live over on the Homa Academy Youtube channel.

In this live demonstration on generating new mobile game ideas, Jorge creates fresh ideas and challenges you to think differently when using AI to make games.

5. Layer.ai

Level up your game art.

https://layer.ai/

Layer.ai aims to drastically reduce the time and expertise needed to fully invent, iterate and expand on your game assets.

The premise is pretty simple and once logged in, their onboarding does a fantastic job of getting results straight away.

You’re given a few options to focus in on beit character design, backgrounds, models, GUI (graphical user interface) and more.

Once chosen, you can then provide a prompt and let the AI do it’s magic. But this is just scratching the surface as by uploading existing assets in an image format, a sketch, pose or even a depth map, layer then takes your references and creates a style guide.

Where layer really excels however is taking your existing assets and creates a suite for you.

You start by uploading 6-25 reference images of a character, group of items, or backgrounds ensuring only to add 2 or 3 of each category. Label your game assets intentionally and hit that

For instance, include a close up on the characters face, clothing references and poses and layer can create an unlimited amount of variations, amazing.

Honourable Mention

PicFinder.ai

Infinite image generation powered by AI.

https://PicFinder.ai

PicFinder makes image generation as fast as image search. As a game designer, artist, or producer, it's easy to put in a prompt and get hundreds of results quickly, so you can collaborate, create new characters or assets, and do it much faster than with other services.

PicFinder now also supports multiple generation models, so you can get your art in a variety of styles, at the click of a button.

Even more of the best game dev AI Tools

In no particular order, here's the rest of the list for you to explore and experiment with and will change the way you create, develop and make games forever.

• Leonardi.ai - Create stunning game assets with AI.
• InWorld.ai - AI character creation.
• Pixel Vibe by Rosebud.ai - AI Game Assets.
• Charisma - Conversational AI Characters.
• GANimator - Neural Motion Sequencing.
• Resemble.ai - Complete generative voice AI toolkit.
• Midjourney - Discord platform for AI images.
• ChatGPT - Text to code and so much more.
• TextureLab.xyz - Instant textures for your next game.
• DALL·E 2 - Create realistic images and art from text.
• Pixelicious - Convert Your Images into Pixel Art.
• in3D.io - Realistic, custom avatars on your phone.
• Unakin.ai - An AI copilot for game studios.
• Cascadeur.com - Character posing, physics and more.
• Murf.ai - Text to speech AI voice generator.
• Elai.io - AI Video from text.
• Skybox.ai - 360 degrees skyboxes for Unity.
• Machinations - Predict game economies.
• Unity AI Beta - AI ecosystem directly within Unity.
• Adobe Firefly - AI right inside Photoshop.
• Fotor - AI Game Assets Generator.

Wrapping up

There's no doubt that these AI tools targeted specifically towards mobile game development and creation offer numerous advantages.

From improved workflows, unlimited asset creation and, as with most if not all ai tools, the best outcomes result from the quality of information you feed them.

It’s well worth the time investing in exhaustive descriptions and being as specific as possible to maximise your results and get the desired outcomes.

However, developers must also consider the challenges and limitations associated with AI, such as increased complexity, resource requirements, ethical concerns, and potential lack of creativity.

Thank you for joining us on this journey, and we look forward to sharing more insights and discoveries with you in the GenAI series.

Join us inside the Homa Academy!

If you're a mobile game developer interested in creating Hybridcasual, Arcade Idle and Hypercasual games and would like to take your game building to a whole new level, then join us inside the Homa Academy.

Inside you'll discover our extensive library of training videos, resources and market insights to turbo charge your game development.

Don't forget to head on over to the Homa Academy Community Discord Server for all the latest games to hit the stores, industry insights, game feedback and support for your games.