Ask HN: Are there any enjoyable LLM based text games?

Are there any enjoyable LLM based text games, that are long enough to keep users playing and complex enough to not get boring, fast?

30 points | by sturza 30 days ago

5 comments

  • Digitalghost 29 days ago
    I created an LLM-driven game called "The Fortuna" which anyone can play here: https://www.generativefiction.com/

    It has a caching system to keep things consistent once it's generated the first time and it's a combination of pure LLM responses and some content that was seeded by an LLM but then I edited by hand.

    The way to progress through the game is to learn what the NPCs like talking about and talk about those topics to earn empathy points. You can learn what they are interested in by asking probing questions. The characters are implemented by passing a secret preamble to a conversation LLM.

  • ManlyBread 30 days ago
    "Suck up!" is a game in which you're a vampire and you try to convince people to invite you to their houses, much like in the old legends. It's not long but definitely one of the more interesting attempts of utilizing a LLM I've seen so far
  • solardev 30 days ago
    AI Dungeon has been around for a while: https://aidungeon.com/
  • thebeardisred 30 days ago
    Closest I've seen was shared here yesterday (though not really an LLM that I've seen). It did give me a view of what an LLM based game could look like.

    https://playedgar.netlify.app/

  • aaron695 30 days ago
    I don't get this at all.

    LLMs can't write a book, not even close, why would you want that to write a text game?

    LLM's have no proper memory/state. I don't get why you'd want to use them.... I guess on the old muds there was not a lot of state, but it's not the 90's and LLMs seem worse.

    How much of Infinite Craft is exploring AI vs a game? https://www.reddit.com/r/infinitecraft/top/?t=all To me it's just a clicker game once you get past "AI made a game in 2024 lets explore that" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incremental_game

    Even looking ahead if LLMs become good enough, evidence tends towards they probably never will, but lets say they do. What's the point of playing one of these these thousands/millions/billions/trillions of text games created? It's nihilism. There will be tricks like the "official GoT LLM text game". But with a million others on offer it will de-value the original.