Bengaluru: 

"Indian professionals are leading global projects, bringing unmatched expertise to animation, VFX, and gaming. Indian artists play a key role in delivering cutting-edge visuals, earning worldwide recognition. Despite a 28 per cent GST, India remains the fastest-growing gaming market, with 23 per cent year-on-year growth, set to hit $3.8 billion by FY 2024. Looking ahead, Karnataka aims to host a national e-sports festival, potentially becoming Asia’s largest esports event,” stated Priyank Kharge, Minister for the Departments of Electronics, IT, and BT, and Rural Development & Panchayat Raj, Government of Karnataka while delivering his speech as the keynote speaker at GAFX 2025 Conference in Bengaluru.

 During one of the sessions on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Games--Shaping the Future of Immersive Experiences--speakers talked about ethical concerns in gaming, content-generating characters, improving systems to avoid fraud, safety measures, game addiction among Gen Z, licensing, and privacy. The panel discussion, featured Khinshuk Sunil (Co-founder and CEO of Second Quest), Goutham Dindukurthi (Director of Holy Cow Production), Tarun Bisht (VP), Jikku Ben Pothen (Principal Game Designer at Gameloft), and moderator Dhruv Garg, delved into the transformative role of AI in the gaming industry.

The three-day conference is being organised by the Department of Electronics, IT & BT, Government of Karnataka, in collaboration with ABAI. The event reinforces Bengaluru’s position as a hub for AVGC-XR and a key driver of India’s standing in immersive media and entertainment.

AI and the game industry:

AI is a great enabler and something that helps us approach a problem with multiple perspectives. Top studios use analytical AI, where it looks at data, visualises it, identifies the problem, and gives solutions based on those problems. AI makes lives easier and helps in narrative design and story art. AI is making the lives of developers easier but it is also making people sluggish.

Talking more about how AI is shaping the gaming industry, the team of experts emphasised AI as a powerful enabler that enhances problem-solving by offering multiple perspectives, much like personal computers did in the past. The panellists said that along similar lines, a shift happened with artificial intelligence.

From a game developer’s perspective, Tarun Bisht said that through AI tools a lot of knowledge is already available and through these insights, various issues are resolved swiftly, and games can be launched with fewer bugs and feedback. The panel also said that the iteration time also reduced significantly. AI recognises patterns and predicts the next move.

AI is revolutionising every single department of Gaming, Goutam Dindukurthi said, calling AI the more intelligent form of Google. AI speeds up the process.

AI's role in enhancing NPCs and boss fights:

Boss Fight understands the player pattern, the general pattern of the public, and then starts responding. These AI tools help resolve every player’s problem with a different and suitable perspective, he added. Experts felt that there was a concern about how to control the dynamism of a boss fight. With a lack of control over how a boss is going to react to the player’s actions.

Discussing Non-Player Characters (NPC) and boss fights, Jikku Ben Pothen said that the scripted behaviour of NPCs is out of the way. He highlighted how NPCs now recognise players based on their actions, making interactions more dynamic and personalised. NPC talks in a limitation and when a user talks meaningfully within those limitations, a similar kind of NPC when the user finds in another part of the world that NPC recognises the user quickly.

The speakers said that for multiplayer games, AI's ability to analyse player behaviour and create dynamic challenges was recognised as essential for engagement. Ensuring that AI-driven opponents feel natural and competitive, rather than artificial, was seen as vital for providing an immersive experience.

Khinshuk Sunil said that for generations game designers have been trying to build these interactions. Through AI technical tools a good designer can find ways to build and create enriched experiences. Human interaction and challenges are the most important aspects of games where AI plays an important role, said Tarun Bisht. He further said to keep training the models through AI by looking at how humans are playing the games and keep responding to NPC bots.

Screen time limitations:

AI can manipulate the players to spend more time on screen but as a mindful approach. Either developers should draw a line or policymakers should draft policy in a manner to stop spending time after a certain time limit. Self-realisation is also a need of the hour, they mused. Discussing integrity, ethics, fraud prevention, and safety of AI, Tarun Bisht said that it is a general principle that no fraud should be allowed in the system. As an ethical concern, panellists agreed that life is outside the screen and there should be a limit on playing time. 

The potential of AI in games:

Designers and developers must recognise that AI is a powerful enabler tool that will ultimately refine, simplify, and accelerate the development process. By enhancing productivity, AI allows humans to focus on more creative and strategic tasks, driving innovation and efficiency. So embracing AI in today’s time is the best solution. According to experts, AI as a boom helps people to think more innovatively and with multiple perspectives of a single mechanism.

For licensing and privacy, Kinshuk Sunil emphasised the importance of maintaining checks and balances, particularly in segregating public data from stolen or compromised data, to ensure privacy and security. Emphasising privacy, Jikku highlighted that sharing data with others always carries risks. However, in organisations like Gameloft, there are stringent protocols in place regarding the data shared with third-party tools, including thorough tracking and monitoring to ensure data security.

In the end, panellists emphasised AI as a tool that enhances efficiency, reduces repetitive tasks, and empowers game developers to focus on innovation and creativity. AI’s capacity to process vast amounts of data and optimise solutions is seen as transformative in various aspects of game development. However, it’s crucial to maintain control over its application to avoid over-reliance.

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