It was 2021, the whole products under the flag of Facebook, went down for a few hours. I remember that most of my friends just started messaging me on Telegram instead of WhatsApp and also no new post or story was uploaded on Instagram.

A few hours passed, everything went back to normal, except one. Zuckerberg made a huge announcement and then told the whole world Facebook will be known as Meta and he also announced the Metaverse as a weird alternate life game where you can pay actual money and get a whole lot of nothing.

I personally liked the idea of metaverse (and at the same time, I was a co-founder of ARMo, an augmented reality startup company) so you may guess, it was basically mu job to follow the trends and news about metaverse and what happens around it.

It’s been a few days I am thinking about metaverse again. Because I have a strong belief about the whole thing becoming a hype again. Specially with this bull run on bitcoin and other currencies. I also concluded that metaverse has a big missing circle, which I’m going to discuss in this post.

A little backstory

Since I started Mann-E, as an AI image generation platform, a lot of people messaged me about connecting the whole thing to the blockchain. Recently, I just moved the whole payment system to cryptocurrencies and I’m happy of what I’ve done, not gonna lie.

But for being on the chain, I had different thoughts in mind and one of them was an ICO, or even an NFT collection. They may seem cool but they also always have the righteous amount of criticism and skepticism as well. I don’t want to be identified as a bad guy in my community of course, so I left those ideas for good.

As you read prior to this paragraph, I have a history in XR (extended reality) business and currently, I have my own AI company. I was thinking about the connection of Metaverse and AI, and opportunities of both!

Before going deep, I have to ask a question…

What did we need to access the metaverse?

In 2021, when it was the hot topic of every tech forum, if you asked Okay then, how can I enter the metaverse? No one could answer correctly. At least in Iranian scene, it was like this.

I did a lot of research and I found these to enter a metaverse of choice:

A crypto wallet: Which is not a big deal. Pretty much everyone who’s familiar with tech and these new trends, owns a crypto wallet. They’re everywhere. You can have them as web apps, native apps, browser extensions and even in hardware form. If you want to waste a few hours of your life, you also can build one from scratch.
Internet browser: Are you kidding me? We all have it. Currently most of the applications we’ve used to install on our computers turned into SaaS platforms. We need to have a good browser.
A bit of crypto: The problem in my opinion starts here. . Most of these projects however had a token built on ETH network (or accepted Ethereum directly) but some of them had their native currencies which were impossible to buy from well-known exchanges and as you guessed, it increased the chance of scam! But in general it was a little odd to be forced to pay to enter the verse without knowing what is happening there. I put an example here for you. Imagine you are in Dubai, and you see a luxurious shopping center. Then you have to pay $100 in order to enter the center and you just do window-shopping and leave the shopping center disappointed. It’s just a loss, isn’t it?

But this is not all of it. A person like me who considers him/herself as a builder needs to explore the builder opportunities as well, right? Now I have a better question and that is…

What we need to build on Metaverse?

In addition to a wallet, a browser and initial funds for entering the metaverse, you also need something else. You need Metaverse Development Skills which are not easy to achieve.

If we talk about programming side of things, most of the stuff can be easily done by using libraries such as ThreeJS or similar ones. If you have development background and access to resources such as ChatGPT, the whole process will not take more than a week to master the new library.

But there was something else which occupied my mind and it was 3D Design Skills which are not easily achievable to anyone and you may spend years to master it.

And this is why I think Metaverse needs AI. And I will explain in the next section.

The role of AI in metaverse

This is my favorite topic. I am utilizing AI since 2021 in different ways. For example, I explained about how I could analyze electrical circuits using AI. Also if you dig deeper in my blog, you may found I even explained my love of YOLOv5 models.

But my first serious Generative AI project was the time GitHub’s copilot becoming a paid product and I was too cheap to pay for it, so I build my own. In that particular project, I have utilized a large language model called BLOOM in order to generate code for me. It was the beginning of my journey in generative artificial intelligence.

A few months after that, I discovered AI image generators. It lead me to the point I could start my own startup with just a simple ten dollars fund. Now, I have bigger steps in mind.

Generative AI for metaverse

There is a good question and that is How can generative artificial intelligence be useful in the metaverse? And I have a list of opportunities here:

Tradebots: Since most of metaverse projects offer their own coin or token, we may be able to utilize AI to make some sort of advice or prediction for us. Honestly, this is my least favorite function of AI in the metaverse. I never was a big fan of fintech and similar stuff.
Agents: Of course when we’re entering the matrix, sorry, I meant metaverse, we need agents helping us find a good life there. But jokes aside, Agents can help us in different ways such as building, finding resources or how to interact with the surrounding universe as well.
Generating the metaverse: And honestly, this is my most favorite topic of all time. We may be able to utilize different models to generate different assets for us just in order to build our metaverse. For this particular one, we need different models. Not only LLMs, but image generators, sound generators, etc.

What’s next?

The next step is doing a study on every resource or model which can be somehow functional or useful in the space. Also we may need to explore possibilities of different blockchains and metaverses in general. But first, the focus must be on AI models. The rest will be made automatically 😁

It was a long time that I did not write any thing in this blog. Now, I decided to write a topic about “video games” (as I wrote in my Persian blog). I was member of a game development team for about three months and I learned a lot. At least, I know the way they were doing the job was “How to not make a video game”. So, When I left the team, I decided to research about game development process. In this topic, I explain everything I found (experience and research result!)

When I was in the team…

It was in October (2017), a person sent me a message in Telegram, and the message was like this :

Mr. Haghiri, we need a musical composer for our game, we did a search and we found you. Please come here Wednesday 4:00 PM to talk about the project and your role.

Wednesday, I went to their office. That guy greeted me so nicely and started talking to me, about their project. I found the game is a horror game (horror games are popular in Iran, but there’s no “good” horror game “made in Iran”.) and it made me happy! Because it was the first time I heard about an indie team decided to make such a great game. They let me two weeks to research about “Sound and Music” in Unity Engine and I did it. I composed two pieces and also I tried to learn some tools for mixing and mastering sounds in the game (But it wasn’t actually my role, I just did that as a sample!).

After two and half months, they said “Mr. Haghiri, you don’t do what we wanted you to do”, anyway, they haven’t paid me even a “rial” in those days and expected me do great music composition, and they also wanted me to do what wasn’t my actual role. And this was not a good experience actually. But in those two months, I learned Unity game engine and I also met other “game developers”. And, I decided to publish my experience on my blog.

Why movies?

Recently, I read a book called Making Short Films : Complete Guide from Script to Screen, by Clifford Thurlow. In the book, I found great names like “Salvador Dali” or “Charlie Chaplin”, and also great movies and books also mentioned in the book, like “One Flew Over Cuckoo’s Nest”. Everything was perfect, In I think about process of making a video game! It’s so similar to process of making a movie!

But I realize game and movie have lots of differences. The biggest difference is that games are interactive and players interact with the environment or other characters, but movies are not. Anyway, the main procedure – I mean “writing” – is %90 the same! So, I decided to mention some movies I watched, then tell you how I make a video game like them!

Great movies gave me ideas!

An Andalusian Dog

Movie is written by Louis Bunuel and Salvador Dali. I think these names are enough. But, after I watched the movie (it’s now available on YouTube and other video-sharing platforms, you can easily find and watch it), I discovered “product of a melancholic and depressed mind”. And both “Melancholia” and “Depression” are good subjects for a story or game.

Phantom of The Opera (Musical)

The book is about a musician, in a better word, a “genius” and smart person who hided himself. Andrew Lloyd Webber, just made that sad and creepy story to a romantic story by his music! First time I watched the movie, I could not understand it well. Because it’s not following the book’s story, and I’m not a native English speaker! I watched that movie 4 times. I watched the live performance 2 or 3 times and finally, I got the concept.

It has “Misanthropy” and “Romance” at once. I think these two things are also good for people who want to make video games (Please go and check “INSIDE” by Playdead! It’s the Misanthropy! Pure Misanthropy!)

School of Rock

It’s a bit different, School of Rock is comedy, and it’s also attractive for children. Because the topic is about a guy who teaches a bunch of 4th grade children to ROCK! Yes, he teaches them how to play electric guitars, bass, drums and keys. I think the concept of “Music” can be a good idea, too! Specially if you plan for a game like “Guitar Hero”.

Only Lovers Left Alive

If you like Vampires, please watch this movie. This movie has no “teenager” content, but it still tells stories about two vampires who married for centuries. Movie is directed by Jim Jarmusch and he also made music for his movie, in his rock trio SQRL. This movie has two things for game developers. It’s and independent movie and it can be a good idea bank for indie developers and also, it has “Romance” and “Fear” and “History”. All of these three factors can make a game great!

Ok, I talked a lot about movies! Let’s find “how can I make a game like a movie?”

Finally, let’s make a game like a movie!

The most basic thing you must have for a movie is “plot”. Plot is the main idea, it’s developed and tells people your concept, but it’s not a completed “script”. Writing plot in both games and movies is the same. To write a good plot, you need to study and read books, scripts and other plots. I prefer printed (and Persian) books in this case.

You will need research on the topic you want to write a plot about. For example, if you want to write about a middle eastern civilization (for example : Sassanid Empire or Ottoman Empire), you have to read history of Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. If you want to write a plot about Satan, you have to search about Satan’s role in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and find which belief is closer to what you want. So, you need to have a background.

After you wrote the plot, you have to write the script. But, writing script is different here, you have to clarify where and when the scene is interactive and when and where is not. The best example, is “Bioshock Infinite”. You know why? Because when you’re not interacting with the environment, you still can move camera and see what happens around you. I’m not a good script writer (But I try to be!) and I will write a post about how to write script from plot, when I manage to do that.

After you wrote the script, you have to make your basic ideas in the engine. Please! Please! Please! Call an experienced game developer before doing that, because the experienced one can help you find experienced character/concept and environment artist and game-play designer. After that, I can say you’re ready to start making your game! With a good team, you can make a good game!

Finally, I wrote this article but it wouldn’t be the last article about games in my English blog. I try to continue this, because I even couldn’t find good articles about being “game script writer” or “game director” even in English! I hope you like my post 🙂

Tag: game development

Let’s build Metaverse with AI : Introduction