STEP 52 OF 67 · YOU ARE THE NPC AND AI DESIGNER
Budget the live AI
Every generated line costs money per player. Cap response length, limit which NPCs use live AI, and use pre-generated lines everywhere else.
How to do it
- Cap response length.
- Limit live AI to the characters that need it.
- Estimate monthly cost per active player.
How AI speeds this up
Ask Duke to estimate the cost per player from your numbers.
Example from a sample game
Ashfall: 40 live NPCs, about $0.30 per player per month.
Before you move on
In Duke Forger, this step's gate checks:
- You write itEstimated live AI cost per player per month ($)
Words to know
- Language model
- The kind of AI that writes text and holds conversations (LLM), used here for NPC dialogue.
- Budget
- A limit you set in advance, for money, time, frame rate or memory.
Do step 52 on your own game
Start freeIncluded in Creator, Academy and Studio. Duke drafts it with you and checks it before step 53 opens.