“An AI life sim built from your memories,” Gallium Studios breezes in its trailer for Proxi. Nice…. wait, what?
Proxi is being developed by Will Wright, the original designer of The Sims. Instead of Sims, the game features eponymous AI-driven Proxies, which players can customise and train on their own memories. Basically, it sounds like The Sims reimagined for an emotionally disturbing episode of Black Mirror (and we thought the new Pac-Man horror game was dark).
We’re told that players will be able to customise their Proxies’ height, skin tone, hair and clothing and then train them to embody their own personalities and interact with other characters based on players’ own memories.
The trailer above shows that a player will be able to input their memories by typing, which generates a 3D animated scene that the player can edit and viewfrom different angles. The scene becomes more complete as more memories are added. On X, Proxi suggests adding memories like a child’s first steps, meeting a pet, a graduation ceremony. It even used the hashtag #cozygame.
Players will be able to build communities by adding friends and family Proxies and by playing games together. But once trained, proxies are autonomous. You sit back and watch them interact in a simulated world using your own memories.
Like the Sims, the aim is to simulate the real world, including its tedium, but Proxi blurs the line between the real world and simulation. And it makes some deep claims.
On its website, Gallium says Proxi will allow people to “discover hidden connections between your memories, weaving them together to uncover their deeper meaning and shape their evolving story”.
You can also “map your proxies’ memories to reveal unseen connections, unlocking new insights and layers of their personality”… or should that be, your personality? It sounds suspiciously like Proxi wants to be your therapist.
Some would suggest it could all be a sinister plan to allow AI to not only scrape our photos but scrape our memories too. Gallium Studios was founded by Lauren Elliott. The studio says it’s also working on player-owned assets, NFTs and blockchain tech as well as AI and clones. Everything gamers love then.
There’s a channel for Proxi on Discord. For more gaming news, check out the rumoured Switch 2 name and logo and Unreal Engine‘s dominance of the trailers from the Game Awards.
