OpenAI and Korea's first-generation game developers gathered to discuss the future of game development using artificial intelligence (AI).
OpenAI held OpenAI Game Builders Seoul on the 31st at Graphic by Daishin in Seoul. The event drew Song Jae-kyung, former XLGAMES CEO who developed The Kingdom of the Winds and Lineage, and Song Byung-joon, Com2uS chair who pioneered Korea's mobile game market.
Oliver Jay, OpenAI International managing director, said in a welcome address, "This event is a meaningful gathering of those who built the history of Korean games and developers who will newly define the future of the AI era," adding, "I hope Korean developers actively harness AI and boldly take on new forms of gameplay."
Taking the stage as the first keynote speaker, former CEO Song Jae-kyung shared his experience developing a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) using OpenAI's AI coding tool Codex. According to Song, after introducing Codex, coding throughput increased more than eightfold compared with before.
Song said, "We should not view AI merely as a tool to make software faster," adding, "It should be designed as a new participant and agent that sees, judges, and acts on its own within the game." He then proposed a next-generation game ecosystem model in which humans and AI interact under the same rules.
Chair Song Byung-joon recalled developing mobile games 25 years ago for black-and-white feature phones with 24 kilobytes (KB) of memory. He emphasized, "Then and now, the essence of games is delivering fun to users within given technical limits."
Song said, "As OpenAI opens the AI era, 'the democratization of creation,' where anyone can make a game with just an idea, is taking place," predicting, "Going forward, launching and operating games in the actual global market will become much faster and simpler."
At the event, Com2uS also unveiled Hive Axil, an AI game backend platform built on game service know-how accumulated over 25 years. Leading domestic game developers joined as mentors to share their experience and know-how applying AI code generation tools to real-world development.
Song Bo-young, the OpenAI advisor and Artoo CEO who organized the event, said, "I'm pleased to host OpenAI's Game Builders event in Korea for the first time," adding, "Starting with the Korea event, we will expand to Japan next month and then to the United States and Europe to help the game industry use AI technology efficiently."
In the afternoon, 40 preselected teams will simultaneously hold a "3-minute speech" to present the structure and features of AI-based games and a "live hackathon," developing games for five hours to match themes revealed on-site.