If you’re a gamer, you’re probably familiar with those comment trees and detailed dialogue boxes (think Mass Effect) with pre-written comments for you to pick from. Enter Bot Colony which has already garnered quite a bit of buzz for it’s ability to understand English and respond intelligently. I don’t have to tell you how excited I am. Check out the details and some awesome imges from the game below:
Bot Colony, the first game to use conversational English as the primary way to interact with characters, will enter public Beta Test on Nov. 1, 2013. Kickstarter donors will get the first shot at playing the game.
Bot Colony is an episodic sci-fi adventure game in which one plays as a robot cognition specialist investigating the disappearance of prototype robot sensors, and tracking down a spy across an exotic South Pacific island.
While currently video games rely on dialog trees – the player clicks canned dialog lines written by someone else – in Bot Colony players use their own words to control the outcome. Language comprehension is not limited to commands: players can ask the game’s robotic characters questions, state facts or opinions, and clarify what a character said — and the characters will respond intelligently in most cases. Players can also ask robots to carry out actions and robots will comply, or learn new commands that are not yet part of their repertory. This ability to speak freely with characters increases the player’s immersion into the game and truly makes them part of the story.
North Side intends Bot Colony to offer a first-hand experience of realistic verbal communication with intelligent machines, much like the interactions depicted in sci-fi movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, I, Robot or Blade Runner. This interaction is designed to be both challenging and entertaining. The ultra-literal way in which robots understand language reinforces how much we take for granted in our day-to-day communication with other people.