AI Video Game Art

If I was still teaching I would definitly be doing a few different units where we explore the use of AI (including debating it's ethics)! My 17 year old brother is going to be be staying with me and will be doing various video game challenges (likely some tutorials and mini exercises using Unity, Unreal Engine or Blender). However, I will also get him to explore how AI can be used to help with brainstorming and for creating basic assets, incluidng characters. There are actual lots of AI tools that can create proper assets, that you can use in your game design, but for this exercise, I will just be using Dall-E to create basic character visuals. (I might get him starter with Craiyon....the results are less cool, but I want him to play about with it to see the potential - his starter exercise might be using Craiyon to create a basic icon or logo).

Before my brother gets started I will get him to do some brainstorming to start developing his character ideas. I have saved lots of character design sheets on Pinterest (made for DnD) that can help him get started too:

Tommy will be generating a range of characters, then adjusting the prompt to improve the visuals. I'll get him to annotate and describe changes he would make. I may also have him use the AI generated art in Procreate or Illustrator, where he can develop the image further.

Here is the information I will give my brother:
Challenge: Create a video game character using AI
What: Dall-E
How: Here are examples of Dall-E generated images and their prompts. Use these to help you write your own prompts. Here and here ​are some styles you might want to add to your prompt.
Examples: The following are some examples I created. I looked at examples on PromptHero, then adapted them. In my scenario, I am exploring character design for a video game featuring a teenager girl skateboarder!

Although I am designing these short challenges to be short activities my brother does while he is staying with us, either to start or end the day, I think this one will lead to a big discussion. We will likely talk about authenticity, craft, originality, bias in the data sets that feed AI, the impact on creative industries and the good and bad potential of AI!

This could be a fun end of year activity. Students could even develop characters based on themselves, another class mate, the IB learner profile, a historical figure or someone else notable or important to them. You could also have all students see how they can use AI to create visuals for the same person (for example, if you are studying a text, get them all to generate visuals of the characters)!