NC AI, NCSOFT's artificial intelligence (AI) subsidiary, said on the 19th that it announced the winners of the "1st Varco 3D game creation contest." NC AI plans to use this contest as a starting point to move in earnest to expand the Varco game AI ecosystem.
This contest was the first game creation competition using the AI-based 3D asset creation tool "Varco 3D." About 200 teams and more than 300 applicants took part. A total of 31 completed games were submitted, and 14 teams won awards, including one grand prize, one top excellence award, and five excellence awards.
Varco 3D is an AI-based tool that can shorten the 3D asset production process—which used to take at least three to four weeks—to around 10 minutes. Participants were required to create more than 50% of the core in-game assets directly with Varco 3D. An NC AI official said, "This is an important starting point where Varco game AI takes its first step with emerging Korean game creators, and a significant achievement that confirmed in reality the possibility that anyone can make a game with AI technology."
The grand prize winner, "Homing Instinct," is a first-person mystery game themed on the spirit-summoning ritual called bunsinsaba, drawing attention for an original gameplay mechanic in which players ask questions to a ghost via voice recognition and uncover the truth of a missing person through O/X answers. The top excellence award went to KU-A Studio's "Reset Protocol," which was praised for its fresh concept in which players become employees of a game management company and cooperatively restore broken stages in a virtual world.
NC AI plans to provide various follow-up support so that the winning teams can continue their creative activities.
Im Su-jin, NC AI chief business officer (CBO), said, "Through this contest, we confirmed that Varco 3D is a tool that can practically resolve the technical and expense barriers of 3D production faced by indie developers," adding, "We will continue to work with various creators to build an environment where anyone can make creative games easily and quickly."