An artificial intelligence is very good at improvising a conversation. But it does not know how to hold a story to the end. Our engine leaves it a lot of freedom for the details, while checking at every moment that it stays true to what the authors wanted.
Imagine a target. The closer you are to the centre, that is, to the heart of the story, the less the AI is allowed to invent. The further you move towards the edge, the freer it is.
The facts, the tipping points, the changes, the last line. Written by the authors, full stop.
The eight dials (debt, trust, shame…) and what the characters remember about each other.
The exact words, the small gestures, the rhythm, the little surprises.
The atmosphere, the people passing by, the light, the texture of things.
| Level | What the AI is allowed to do |
|---|---|
| 0 | Nothing: it is written by the authors, and the AI recites it as is. |
| 1 | Change the way of saying it a little, not the substance. |
| 2 | Choose the words and add small gestures. |
| 3 | Find its own tricks and cause small surprises. |
| 4 | Invent widely, as long as the tipping point and the change stay the same. |
The machine knows what a character can say, but also what they would almost never say. Dialogue can vary a lot from one game to the next, without the character ceasing to be themselves.
What moment M07 means, the sacrifice that has to be made in M08, the last line of M10: the machine brings these moments to life, but it does not invent their meaning. That is the authors' job.