AI generated text-based adventures

Running a crowd-sourced adventure generated by ChatGPT on Twitter

This week, I was playing around with the idea of text-based adventure games created by ChatGPT (with little pushes here and there from me). To see if it could be interesting, I’ve been running a small adventure via Twitter, crowd-sourcing the main character’s choices.

iliekcomputers @iliekcomputers

(experimenting) Welcome to a text-based adventure game set in ancient India (written by chatgpt)! You find yourself in the bustling city of Varanasi, a hub of spirituality and trade. You are a young adventurer seeking your fortune and fame. What would you like to do first?

The story is nearing its ending, and has been quite fun. Want to follow along? Vote for the next choice here:

iliekcomputers @iliekcomputers

You try to reason with the thief, telling him that you are only trying to help recover the stolen gemstone and that there's no need for violence. The thief hesitates before finally lowering his sword. "Alright," he says. "I'll give it to you. Just don't turn me in to the police."

Given that a number of people were interested, I’ll consider automating this and making a separate Twitter account for it.

The thing that it really opens my eyes towards is collaboration between human and AI. I’ve never been one for creative writing. It’s hard for me to invent fictional scenarios and characters. But with ChatGPT, a lot of this becomes easier as I can just nudge it in different directions (“make things more action packed!”, “introduce a group of people for the protagonist to talk with”) and then use the best thing that ChatGPT comes up with. Things are easier when you can use a tool to come up with hundreds of ideas and then use the best one.

If you use any of these tools for creative purposes, I’d love to talk to you about your workflow.