Pushing the boundaries of AI and psychology in darkwebSTREAMER

gamedeveloper.com:

darkwebSTREAMERis a streaming sim and horror RPG that puts the player in front of the camera. Inspired by the strange cultural zeitgeist that has resulted in the emergence of parasocial relationships between streamers and viewers, the game explores how far people will go for fame, fortune or friendship.

I spoke with Chantal Ryan, the lead developer of darkwebSTREAMER to chat about how the game explores the nature of streaming culture and utilizes procedural generation and AI in a way that has never been seen before in video games.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

What inspired you to make a game that explores human psychology and internet culture?

It was percolating my entire life. All roads led to darkwebSTREAMER. 

I was doing a BA of Arts Advanced, Anthropology and English and I was just elbows deep in academia, horror, existential crises. One of my friends and I had been playing World of Horror and Phasmophobia together. We had been talking about how they were really fun but we felt they missed a deeper meaning. Beyond mechanics, going to the why of the game.

I specialize in identity and personhood, so it’s all about what makes a person a person, what makes you ‘you’, what makes me ‘me’, what makes us different, what makes us the same, and really importantly, why do we care about each other? Phasmophobia really highlighted the sense of emptiness that I get in a lot of games. They rarely recognize that you, as the character, are actually having experiences. They don’t acknowledge the past and the summary of the things you encounter in the game.

darkwebSTREAMER is your first game, how did you learn about game making? 

I had never made a video game before. I went to my friend who had also never made