The case for adding AI to side quests

Originally conceived as optional objectives or additional challenges for players to explore, side quests are now essential components of many gaming experiences. While main storylines take center stage, side quests offer opportunities for exploration, immersion, rewards, and player engagement. 

AI has the potential to make them even more engaging by giving players more agency over the narrative and allowing for greater customization – while also reducing costs by helping developers add more side quests to their projects without significant extra development time.

No Man’s Sky, which uses procedural generation to create near endless worlds to explore is a great example of how AI can improve side quests. The AI-powered game has hundreds of potential quests you can complete – though there are several core quest lines to follow. These side quests create additional gameplay opportunities and extend the time players can spend in the game world. It’s estimated, for example, that you can spend hundreds of hours completing side quests in No Man’s Sky. 

AI agents can be added to make side quests even more engaging. AI allows you to deploy AI NPCs as narrative directors that can dynamically adjust the game narrative to fit the player’s choices. They can be added as companions or even adversaries with complex motivations and AI-powered actions offering possibilities for new game mechanics and dynamic relationships.

This article looks at the ways adding AI agents to side quests will enhance gameplay and help streamline game development. From the potential for dynamically branching narrative paths and personalized challenges, AI agents have the potential to transform side quests.

AI agents in side quests

The integration of AI agents powered by generative AI is set to revolutionize side quests, offering developers and players alike exciting new opportunities for exploration, immersion, and storytelling. 

Dynamic quest generation

AI agents can act as narrative directors and facilitate dynamic quest generation, creating or recommending side quests tailored to the player's actions, conversation, preferences, and progress in the game. These quests could adapt to the player's playstyle and choices, ensuring that each playthrough offers unique and compelling challenges. 

For example, in an open-world RPG, AI agents could generate side quests based on the player's interactions with various factions, dynamically altering quest objectives and rewards based on the player's reputation and allegiances. Similarly, an AI merchant could recommend a side quest from the list of available quests if the player mentions they’re curious about a specific part of the world. This ensures that players get gameplay experiences aligned with their interests, increasing retention for new players.

Enhanced personalization and customization 

AI agents can provide personalized quest experiences by joining as companions or enemies and responding dynamically to the player's behavior and choices. They can engage in meaningful dialogue interactions with players, strategically plan out the quest in advance, offer branching narrative paths, and tailor their conversation and personality to the player and their interests.

For example, in an adventure game, AI agents can suggest gameplay that the player will find engaging and funny such as using non-traditional and absurd strategies to defeat the enemy or steal the item. This makes the game more engaging and fun and increases retention and replayability. 

Dynamic companion NPCs

AI agents can serve as dynamic companion characters in side quests, accompanying players on their journeys and providing assistance in combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving. These AI companions could possess unique personalities, skills, and abilities. Their personalities could even be customized by the player in advance. 

For example, in a fantasy RPG, AI companion NPCs could join the player on side quests while offering valuable AI-powered insights, dynamic and adaptive assistance in battles, and additional quest objectives based on their individual backgrounds and motivations.

Player-driven quest outcomes

AI agents can enable player-driven quest outcomes, allowing players to influence the course of side quests through their decisions and actions. AI-driven systems could track player choices throughout the quest and create player-driven outcomes and branching storylines. 

For example, in a choice-driven RPG, AI agents could react dynamically to the player's decisions and alignments, altering quest outcomes and story developments based on the player's moral choices, alliances, and relationships with NPCs.

Benefits of adding AI to side quests

Agentic behavior 

AI agents can engage in dynamic and adaptive interactions that respond to the player's actions and decisions through agentic behavior. This creates a more dynamic world where NPCs are able to respond organically and complete complex tasks in line with the player’s unique choices. 

Enhanced player agency and engagement

AI agents allow for more agency through personalized quest experiences, customization opportunities, choices with meaningful consequences, and NPCs who respond and react in real-time to the player’s actions and comments. That doesn’t just ensure that each playthrough offers unique and compelling side quest experiences – it also allows players to create gaming experiences that are optimized for their enjoyment. 

Companion NPCs for solo players

For solo players, AI agents can serve as invaluable companions in side quests, offering assistance, guidance, and companionship throughout their journeys. AI-driven companion NPCs can be created with unique personalities, skills, and abilities to provide players with companionship as well as valuable support in combat, exploration, and puzzle-solving activities.

Streamlined quest development

AI agents can streamline quest development by automating certain aspects of quest creation and reducing the need for some manual scripting and content creation. With AI-driven characters involved in quests, developers can generate a vast array of side quests that can be easily tweaked to adapt to the player’s interest ensuring a steady flow of fresh and engaging content for players to explore.

Increased replayability and variety

AI NPCs contribute to increased replayability and variety in side quests, as each playthrough presents new opportunities for exploration and discovery. For example, you could choose from the AI NPCs in the game to accompany you on side quests – something that could lead to funny or interesting gameplay depending on your choice. With AI, developers can create endless permutations of quests, ensuring that players always have fresh and diverse experiences.

The future of AI agents in side quests

By integrating AI into side quests, studios can add more dynamic content, give players more agency, and streamline development. That could lead to games with more side quests and quest lines for players to explore while reducing development costs and schedules.