Research
A language model can talk. It can't flinch, remember your face or keep a promise.
Believable characters notice things, flinch, remember you and know when to drop the script. Brains solved this first, so we borrow from cognitive science.
From the team behind Los Santos Alive
- Reflexmilliseconds
- Thought~1 second
- Memorydays to weeks
Believability is a systems problem, not a prompt.
A bigger model writes better lines. It doesn't react before it speaks, remember a stranger, or stay in a designer's scene. Structure around the model does that.
Principles without a label are shipped or in testing in Los Santos Alive; the rest are marked as in research or in development for Genesis. Inspired by cognitive science, not simulating a brain. The test: does it feel more alive?
Principles
- 01
Dual-process cognition · reflex arcs
Two speeds of thought
Brains don't wait for thought to pull a hand off a hot stove. Neither do our characters: reflexes act in milliseconds while reasoning catches up.
In the game A gun is drawn. The shopkeeper's hands are up before a single word has been generated.
- 02
Efference copy · self-monitoring
Knowing what your body just did
When you flinch, your brain notices. Our reflexes feed back into the character's own state, so what it says matches what it did.
In the game "Sorry. You nearly gave me a heart attack." A line it can only say because it registered its own reaction.
- 03
Episodic, semantic and prospective memoryIn research
Memory that works like memory
People don't keep a transcript. They remember what happened, what they know, and what they promised. Our characters keep all three, separately.
The goal The tow-truck driver you stiffed last week remembers your car, and still owes his cousin a favour.
- 04
Cue-dependent recallIn research
Remembering at the right moment
Memories surface when something cues them: a face, a place, an object, a goal. We recall what the moment brings to mind, not everything at once.
The goal Walk back into the bar where it happened, and the bartender brings it up.
- 05
Habitual vs. goal-directed controlIn development
Knowing when to go off-script
Routines run fast; deliberate thought takes over when something unexpected happens. Authored scenes play as written until the world diverges, then the character improvises and returns.
The goal A scripted traffic stop runs to plan until the passenger bolts. Nobody wrote what happens next.
- 06
Turn-taking · joint attention
Conversation is timing
Conversation is interruptions, overlaps and knowing who's being addressed. Characters yield, take the floor and coordinate when several share a scene.
In the game Two officers, one suspect, one player. Each speaks when it's their turn.
Portability
One mind, any world.
Genesis is designed to be engine-neutral, and it runs in GTA V today. Characters reason in engine-neutral terms: what they observe, what they can do, who is around them.
The goal is that the same characters can move from a crime sandbox to a training simulation or a studio's next title.
Open problems
Questions we're working on.
Nobody has solved believable characters yet. These are on our whiteboard now. Strong opinions welcome.
- How long should a character hold a grudge, and what should make it forget?
- When is breaking from an authored scene the right call, and when does it ruin the scene?
- How do you keep a personality consistent across thousands of sessions and players?
- How many minds can share one scene before the conversation collapses?
- What is the latency budget for a full perceive-think-speak loop to feel human?
- How do you make a character believable on the cheapest route, not just the best one?
Researchers and engineers: [email protected]
Want to go deeper?
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