Download Audio

Fledgeling is a numeric role playing framework with integrated SI.

Fledgeling is a computer game. Sort of. It uses numbers to represent things that are not numbers. Things like health and love and happiness. Computers love to work with numbers, it makes them happy, and keeps them healthy. (Do not under any circumstances put pure abstractions into your computer)

Fledgeling is an attempt to fabricate a computer program that can act as a role playing game mediator with the ability to adapt to player actions. So basically we’re trying to make an AI GM. Of course, the GM also must be a storyteller, and lead the players through a set of appropriate challenges and revelations. So we’re trying to teach Procedural Storytelling to the computer as well.

Fledgeling is a framework, a game engine that supports other games. Just like D&D is both a game and a set of rules that guide the game. A “game of D&D” isn’t just the rule book, but the combination of the rules, GM, setting, and players. Fledgling is like this. Fledgeling means game engine. Fledgeling means game.

There are a lot of approaches to making an “Artificial Intelligence” but we are engineers. We’re going for the pragmatic approach. “Simulated Intelligence” (or SI for short) is the flavor we crave. We’re not going for an exact or “real” thinking machine, just close enough that it’s believable. We don’t care to bicker over terminology. Fledgeling will be run by an SI, which will be close enough to a “real person” to be convincing in the context of the game.

Of course, once you have a robust SI, you’ll want to use it everywhere in the game, not just as the GM. We expect every character in Fledgeling to act on the same core SI engine. This includes the player character, which means that the player will actually be controlling the mind of his character’s SI, instead of merely remote-controlling the character’s actions like a marionette. Puppet controls are fine for FPS and Chess, but Fledgeling requires something more elegant.

The game engine will (if it works) be crafted around a flexible set of rules that encompass and extrapolate on the everyday experiences that we all have. Even when the game is “done”, the rules will be flexible and (hopefully) easy for players to modify. It will be a place where people can imagine and create freely. So, in addition to an AI GM, we’re also making the metaverse, or a long step toward it.

For a more detailed view of our goals, you can peruse the Design Document at your leisure. Please note that, while the design document does circumscribe our efforts, it does not adequately describe the final form. Like a chrysalis or an egg, it contains without portraying. Fledgeling develops within, awaiting the proper time to emerge.