Microsoft unveils Muse, a tool for generating gameplay with AI

Microsoft has just unveiled a big part of how it plans to use AI for game creation with the announcement of Muse, a generative AI model that can generate gameplay. While Microsoft says it doesn’t plan to use AI to replace human game developers, it does believe in using AI to aid developers in creating new and unique gaming experiences.

That’s where Muse comes in. This new generative AI model can help developers ideate parts of a game. The model is capable of understanding several factors about the game experience on both the creation and the player side. Microsoft says Muse has a “detailed understanding of the 3D game world.” It’s also capable of understanding “game physics and how the game reacts to players’ controller actions,” Microsoft says.

With these capabilities, Muse can use AI to render parts of gameplay. It was developed in partnership between Microsoft Research and Ninja Theory, one of Microsoft’s first-party game studios. Ninja Theory is the development studio behind games like Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, DmC: Devil May Cry, and Bleeding Edge.

The Muse AI model was trained on Ninja Theory’s Bleeding Edge

For Muse to be truly helpful, Microsoft Research would need the tool to be able to render gameplay environments. To do that, Muse would need training like any other AI model. While some AI models have been trained in questionable ways, Microsoft and its Microsoft Research division conducted training with in-house sources. Specifically, Muse was trained on Ninja Theory’s Bleeding Edge. A multiplayer online battle arena game that was launched on PC and Xbox One back in March 2020.

As noted by The Verge, this allowed Muse to gather “the equivalent of seven years of human gameplay.” As a result, it was trained on a billion image action pairs. That being said, Muse still can’t generate gameplay in a very high resolution. Most games these days render in 1080p or above. Muse can only render in up to 300 x 180. Still, this is an improvement over what was previously possible.

Faster creative ideation, and reviving classic games

Since Microsoft doesn’t plan for Muse to be a replacement for human developers, what does it plan to use the model for? According to its Xbox Wire post, two potential uses would be faster creative ideation, and reviving classic games.

The game development process has gotten extremely complex and for some titles, can take several years. Muse aims to help speed up certain parts of the process. More intriguingly, Microsoft says Muse could be a way to help revive classic games. This would be so they can be played on almost any modern device.

“Thanks to this breakthrough, we are exploring the potential for Muse to take older back catalog games from our studios and optimize them for any device. We believe this could radically change how we preserve and experience classic games in the future and make them accessible to more players,” Microsoft said.

Muse is still in the early stages of its research so it might be a while before players see any games that have used it in one way or another. Microsoft has already experimented with AI in games. Back in November, it revealed an Xbox AI chatbot that would be used for support services.