It is currently enough to add the term “GPT” to a creation to generate interest. MarioGPT is able to create original levels of an ultra minimalist game. But not enough to revolutionize the world of video games…
Released in 1985, the Super Mario Bros game made the success of the NES console released two years earlier in Japan and established NintendoNintendo like the video game empire — until the arrival of Sony and its PlayStation ten years later. Still today, Super Mario Bros is the 7ebest-selling game of all time with over 57 million units sold.
Let it be said: if such a so-called “board” game (the hero jumps from platform to platform) is addictive, its principle is very minimalist and quite predictable.
Researchers from Cornell University (New York) nevertheless wanted to take advantage of the enthusiasm around ChatGPT to present their creation, called MarioGPT. This tool has ingested all the levels of Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels.
What do we have on arrival? A conversation interface programmed in PythonPython and whose code is accessible on Github. If we manage to install it as it should and run this code, it becomes possible to ask it to create levels by indicating terms like ” lots of enemies, high elevation, few pipes “. Nothing amazing since these are basic levels for a fashionable 1980s game.
To really exploit them on an NES, it would be necessary to be able to convert the result into a code assimilable by this console. We are far from it. So let’s not believe that this creation will revolutionize the video game and create exploitable scenarios for an episode of the series Assassin’s Creed Or other.
In an essay devoted to their creation, the researchers wrote an article where they explain their approach and conclude as follows: This build isn’t perfect, but it’s an encouraging first step to creating more complex, yet playable levels. ».