Bundaberg children use AI to turn game ideas into playable projects

Children aged eight to 13 in Bundaberg have used artificial intelligence to turn ideas for racing, quest and trivia games into playable projects, in workshops designed to put creativity ahead of conventional coding skills.

About 20 young people took part in the sessions during October. They first used 3D printing to make a console and learned to wire a controller, then developed game concepts and instructed an AI system to produce them, ABC Wide Bay reported.

The workshops were originated by Don Meadows, who grew up in Bundaberg before moving overseas to pursue game development, and local creative David Quarrell. Their ambition is to establish a regional games hub that would allow young people to work in the sector without having to leave the Bundaberg area.

Quarrell developed the approach after seeing his 16-year-old son Oscar, who cannot read or write, communicate with AI. He said the system could extract the substance of Oscar’s speech despite pauses and filler words, and that removing the need for reading and writing allowed participants’ imaginations to be captured.

Meadows described game design as a discipline distinct from animation and coding. Quarrell said game development was not yet a prominent community activity in Bundaberg, but saw no reason it could not become one. Eleven-year-old participant Alekai Sprague said seeing his imagination become a game was “quite a wonderful thing,” while nine-year-old Chase McGibbon said he wanted to make games when he was older.

The project comes as Queensland’s games sector expands. A Queensland Government statement said 20 new games projects in development were expected to support 330 local jobs and contribute $23 million to the economy, while full-time games-industry employment had risen four-fold to more than 665 roles. More recent industry statistics cited by the University of the Sunshine Coast put Queensland at 25% of Australian game studios, behind Victoria’s 28%.

Cody Phillips, a senior lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, said Australia’s games industry generated about $600 million a year but that regional Australia was producing relatively few titles. He called AI a new frontier for opportunity and said there were few barriers to publishing an independently made game, while cautioning that stronger safeguards and copyright rules for AI in games still needed to be resolved.