It basically pretends to be one of those old Infocom-style adventure games, but with no limits on what the player can enter. Whatever the input is, it improvises events through prose, to react to them.

While it’s still not up to the level of classic or modern text adventures, and occasionally loses track of situations over multiple turns, AI Dungeon 2 sometimes surprises in the kinds of responses it can generate, and the unexpected directions it can take the user’s adventures.

The game was created by Nick Walton of Brigham Young University’s Perception, Control, and Cognition Laboratory and created quite a stir upon its unveiling, so much that they had to quickly rework it to cut down on bandwidth costs. Walton answered some questions we had about how AI Dungeon 2 was made and where it’s going next.

Who are you, what is AI Dungeon 2, and who helped make it a reality?

I’ve been working on deep learning tech for the past couple years. I interned at a couple autonomous vehicle companies and have been doing research in the BYU Perception, Control, and Cognition Laboratory​, a deep learning research lab at BYU.

I’ve been working on AI Dungeon since I had the idea at a hackathon in March. I continued to work on the idea, getting advice from Dr. David Wingate, the professor I worked with. Eventually it finally came together as AI Dungeon 2 at the beginning of December.

AI Dungeon is a first of its kind game where the story and responses to your actions are entirely generated by deep learning. The awesome thing about this is the game is built on top of a giant machine learning model made by OpenAI called GPT-2 it can adapt and respond to almost any action you can imagine, giving you vast amounts of freedom that players have never had in a game before.

AI Dungeon 2‘s popularity shot up suddenly, almost overnight. What happened?

I had gotten some attention with AI Dungeon 1. A couple thousand people had played it when I had released it back in May, so when I started teasing snippets from AI Dungeon 2 people started paying attention. But when I actually released AI Dungeon 2 it exploded much faster than I had expected.

We had released it as a game people could play in Google Colab, a way for researchers to run code on Google machines for free, but it would download the 5 GB model each time someone played.

Within a few days we had racked up over $20,000 in bandwidth charges from so many people downloading the model. We had to temporarily shut it down until some awesome community contributors put up a peer to peer downloading solution.

Now AI Dungeon 2 is playable as a web and mobile app and a team has come together to work on improving the game. An awesome app developer Braydon Batungbacal built out the mobile apps in a week, my brother Alan Walton helped us build out the infrastructure to host the massive model at a large scale, and Thorsten Kreutz is helping us work on the long term of where this idea can go. We see AI Dungeon 2 as just the beginning of an exciting shift in entertainment.

Yeah there is a decent amount of model and data massaging that happens on the game side to make sure the model plays nicely. We cut off trailing sentences and end of text tokens in the model output as well as do some transforming on the player’s input to make sure it’s in the second person format. I also had to do a decent amount of work to control repetition as that’s a big problem with GPT-2 especially at lower temperature (randomness) settings.

It is a fun hobbyist programmer project to make your own text generator. GPT-2, while a great deal more sophisticated and using a much larger set of data, seems to do a similar kind of thing. Could you give us an overview of how it works?

GPT-2 is a deep learning language model. A language model essentially just means it tries to predict the most likely next word given the previous set of words. The really cool thing about language models is because you can train it on any text (no labeling required) it can learn from the really massive amount of text data that’s out there. The largest model was trained on 40 GB of just text data.

In learning to predict the most likely next word, it learns not just how the English language works, but it also learns a model of the world that allows it to predict the most likely next event (for example if you get stabbed you might die) and that allows you to use it to do some really interesting things.

The GPT-2 system is available for download for people who’d like to play around with it. How would you recommend interested people might get started?

The site for AI Dungeon 2 notes that you’re beginning to sell mobile app interfaces to help fund the server and bandwidth that the game requires. How is that going? Are you still worried that the project may have to end due to financial concerns?

We’ve turned the game into a startup as there’s really no way to make a great experience without having the financial sustainability of a business. We plan on keeping the base version of the game free to play, but will add a premium version of the game that will allow us to cover the server costs.

The premium version will have a lot of interesting new game modes and features so we’re pretty confident we’ll be able to make the game sustainable with that.

Is AI Dungeon 2, as it stands, complete? Are there any improvements, or a sequel, planned? Maybe allowing for more starting points, or to provide greater continuity between turns?

We have a lot of different things we’re working on. In the near term, we’re working on adding multiplayer and text to voice support, but we’re also looking at more innovative improvements in the future.

Text generation will continue to be a big part of what we’re trying to make with AI Dungeon and its sequels, but we’ll also start adding in other forms of AI content generation with music, images, and voice as we’re able to.

Most of our readers are game developers, and some of those use bespoke algorithms to do things like randomly generate terrain to explore. GPT-2 is built to generate text based on other text found on the internet; do you think the underlying system might someday be of use in the production of more traditional types of entertainment software?

Definitely. I think AI Dungeon is just the beginning in a huge evolution in gaming and we’re hoping to help enable that. There’s a lot of exciting potentials this technology opens up and we’re excited to see what that future looks like.

The UK games industry made a record £2.91 billion ($3.84 billion) contribution to the country’s national economy in 2019.

That’s according to new economic estimates released by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS), which reveals the industry contributed £2.91 billion ($3.84 billion) in gross value added (GVA) through development and publishing — representing a 9.1 percent increase on 2018.

Industry trade body Ukie has suggested the latest estimates show the UK video game sector will play pivotal role in helping the region’s economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

It also noted that the latest numbers only accord for the impact of game development and publishing, suggesting the “full size and economic contribution” of the entire UK games industry — including support services, retail, esports, and merchandising — could be even larger.

“These new figures underline how successfully, and quickly, the UK industry is growing. With leveling up firmly on the Government’s agenda, it makes perfect sense to back a sector that has 55 percent of game development roles based outside London,” commented Ukie CEO, Dr Jo Twist, in a blog post.

“That’s why we’re calling for greater and longer-term investment into the UK Games Fund and into an industry matched skills fund. The UK needs to show it can lead the world while backing local communities and the best way to do that is to back the modern, innovative and resilient games sector.”

We might not be getting Cuphead‘s ‘Delicious Last Course’ DLC this year, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily have to go without any Cuphead-themed goodness over the holiday season.

According to a listing on Amazon, PowerA will be releasing a Nintendo Switch Enhanced Wireless Controller based on StudioMDHR’s run and gun. It’s the same controller you may or may not know and love – featuring Bluetooth 5.0, motion controls, mappable advanced gaming buttons, ergonomic design, LEDs and can run for up to 30 hours on two AA batteries.

Cuphead’s PowerA Enhanced Wireless Switch Controler is priced at $49.99 (or your regional equivalent), is scheduled to be released on 15th December and pre-orders are now available. Is this the controller you’ve been waiting for? Tell us below.

Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.

PowerA Enhanced Wireless Controller for Nintendo Switch – Cuphead

• $49.99
• Amazon

This year might have thrown us a curveball (or seven), but bearing in mind the global situation it’s been a surprisingly great one when it comes to quality video games. Nintendo’s slate might have looked relatively empty back in January, but a regular cadence of surprise announcements ended up delivering a rather impressive lineup on Switch.

And now its time to rank them for Game of the Year 2020! We’ll be putting out our Nintendo Life GOTY 2020 Staff Picks in due course, but first we’re asking you to rate your favourites for our reader-ranked list of the Top 50 Best Switch Games of 2020. The end result will be much like those of 2017, 2018, and 2019: the top 50 Switch games of the year as governed by their User Ratings in our games database.

To rate any Nintendo Switch game released this year, simply start typing the title into the search bar at the top, click the star to bring up a rating of 1-10, and click the score you feel it deserves — job done! If you need a reminder on a particular game, feel free to click the game title and check out our review and screenshots.

We’ll publish the results over the holidays, but in the meantime why not reacquaint yourself with some of the Nintendo gaming highlights of 2020?

Reader-ranked end-of-year list incoming! Thank you for rating your favourites. Feel free to discuss your favourite Switch games of the year below, and we’ll reveal the results at a suitably festive time. If you’re looking wondering about previous years, you can also find the Best Nintendo Switch Games of 2017, 2018, and 2019 in our bountiful catalogue of Switch essentials.

The current map in Genshin Impact is already extremely vast and takes even the most seasoned adventurer many hours to explore. Since Genshin released in September, developer miHoYo has released numerous updates for the game that have included extra events, new characters, fresh quests, and much more. To add to the already vast amount of content Genshin Impact has to offer, miHoYo has announced that the brand new snow-covered realm of Dragonspine will soon open to all intrepid explorers.

Dragonspine is a frigid area, so a new Sheer Cold bar has been added to make sure you can keep track of your temperature while exploring the biting cold. This should change up the way players go about exploring Genshin’s more treacherous terrain. A seasonal event is also on the way that will see you investigating a mysterious sword alongside Albedo, the Chief Alchemist and Captain of the Investigation Team of Mondstadt’s Knights of Favonius.

Genshin Impact version 1.2 is titled ‘The Chalk Prine and the Dragon’ and, beyond the new map, will also include two playable five-star characters, fresh ingredients, rare new artefacts, and recipes for multiple four-star weapons.

The expansion is set to drop on iOS, Android, PC, PS4, and PS5 on December 23 at no additional cost. You can check out the full trailer for Genshin Impact version 1.2 below.

And for more Genshin Impact goodness, be sure to take a look at our Genshin Impact codes list and Genshin Impact ingredients guide.

The Nintendo Switch is obviously a great device for gaming but admittedly falls short in terms of video and streaming apps.

Sure, we’ve got YouTube, Hulu and a few others, but where are the rest? Well, it looks like the next one that might be on its way to the hybrid system is Funimation’s app.

This service, if you didn’t already know, is designed for anime fans – allowing you to binge up to “13,000 hours” of popular series. There are shows like My Hero Academia, Fairy Tail, Attack on Titan and classics like Initial D.

The Funimation app is already available on the Xbox and PlayStation and has been mentioned for the Switch in the past. Is this an app you would add to your HOME Menu if it did show up on the Switch? Comment down below.

With another week down, this time bringing with it the news of a brand new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fighter and (finally) the launch of DOOM Eternal, we can start to wind down and discuss our weekend gaming plans.

Members of Nintendo Life have done just that, and we’d love for you to join in via our comment section below. Enjoy!

Gavin Lane, features editor

I was feeling the need for speed earlier this week, so naturally I raced to the eShop and picked up… TT Isle of Man 2 on sale. I’ve only spent twenty minutes with it so far playing around with the controls. Switch’s lack of analogue triggers was an immediate issue; there’s no chance I’m putting up with jerky on-or-off acceleration on the default ‘ZR’. Fortunately, you can remap every single input and I’ve already transferred it to the right stick for some authentic throttle threading. Now I just need to decide where I want everything else and I’ll be ready for some serious superbiking.

The requirement for rapidity led me back to Star Wars Episode 1 Racer, too. What a cracking game! I’ll hopefully squeeze in a bit more of that, and I have to play some more Hades before I settle on my GOTY 2020 list. It’s great, of course, but I need several more hours with it to properly grade its greatness. The clock’s ticking…

Stuart Gipp, reviewer

Monster Sanctuary is so lengthy and involved that I’ve spent most of my Nintendo time playing and playing and playing it for review. Thankfully, it’s good. I’ve also been investigating Pixeljunk Eden 2 for its review, which you’ll be able to read soon.

Distressingly, I’ve also been playing The Flintstones, the Game Boy game based on the terrible live-action movie. There’s something oddly compelling about it, like a lot of these old Ocean games. It looks and sounds pretty good, with pleasingly chunky graphics, but it plays like a bit of a dog.

Still, I have chosen my path in life, and it is to be the guy who plays The Flintstones on Game Boy. Yabba dabba doo.

Ollie Reynolds, reviewer

Hello all! I’ll be sticking with Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure Pack this weekend; it’s been such a nice surprise, and I’m finding myself absolutely addicted to Taiko Mode (and I’m the last person you’d catch listening to J-Pop)! Definitely worth playing if you’ve never given the series a go before.

Otherwise, I’ll be plugging away at Animal Crossing: New Horizons; I recently started again from scratch (why, you ask? No idea…) so I’m really only just getting back into the swing of things, hurling those wretched bugs towards Blathers so he can open his museum!

Gonçalo Lopes, contributing writer

A ridiculous week of parcels arriving means I won’t have a minute of boredom this weekend. Unsurprisingly I have decided to once again return to the rings of NHL Hitz 2003 on the GameCube and am making my way through the game’s franchise mode with a team made up of myself and my tiny streaming community. If that wasn’t enough Cube action, Holidays usually equal Lord of the Rings marathon and sure enough I have restarted a new adventure in the criminally underrated The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, running around Middle Earth with my discount/backup Fellowship of the Ring following in the footsteps of the main protagonists.

My game of the week is Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues. There is no mercy on this ‘What Are You Playing This Weekend’. How many legs did you sweep today?

PJ O’Reilly, reviewer

Hello. This weekend I’m going to be helping my son to play through Undertale, a game he’s suddenly become absolutely infatuated with and yeah, it’s actually pretty amazing stuff, tough for a six year old though, so I’ll be on standby to show him how to die in dignity at the hands of its many bosses. I’m also, hopefully, going to be getting a little bit of time on Ghostrunner. I’ve blasted through this one on Xbox already and am really excited to see how the Switch port has worked out. There’s also the small matter of DOOM Eternal waiting to be played in my pile so, all in all, another busy 48hrs of Switch goodness ahead. Take care out there and have a good weekend, whatever you’re up to.

As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave us a comment below with your gaming choices over the next few days…