Your First Game with AI

Don't play, be played with: Experience how AI narrates an interactive adventure — and you make the decisions.

Why We Start with a Game

Writing text is passive. You give a command, AI delivers a result. Done. But a game is different — it's a dialogue. You make a move, AI reacts, you respond, the world changes. That's interaction.

And that's exactly what shows you something important: AI can't just generate content. AI can be a game master. It can tell worlds that adapt to your decisions, invent characters that pose puzzles to you, build scenarios that branch out.

Before we talk about the mechanics, you should experience it.

Your Task: Play Your First Game

Open your favorite AI tool. ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini — doesn't matter which. Then write something like this:

I want to play an interactive text adventure. Let me enter a fantasy world. You are the game master and describe the scene. I respond with my actions. Let me start at the edge of a village where an opportunity awaits. Make it exciting, but not too long — one paragraph per description. I'll choose what I do.

Then: Don't wait for perfection. Your first prompt doesn't have to be flawless. Just write what comes to mind. You're testing whether AI understands you — and it will.

Once the AI describes the first scene, write your first action. For example:

I walk to the well and ask the old man what's happening here.

Now magic happens: AI will react to your action, advance the story, create new options. You play. It improvises. You write together.

Play at least 5–10 turns. This isn't about a perfect adventure — it's about seeing: This is interactive.

What to Observe — This Is Important

While you play, watch three things:

1. Where AI is brilliant

Where does AI describe a scene you can visualize? Where does it use senses — sounds, colors, smells? Where did it quickly invent an NPC (a person in the world) that's interesting, without you asking?

That shows you: AI can build worlds.

2. Where It Creaks

Where does AI forget something you just said? If you say "I give the NPC a coin," and two turns later AI says "you have no coins" — that's a problem. Or when AI breaks the world's logic: "You open the door" — but the door was never mentioned.

That shows you: AI doesn't hold long thoughts in mind.

3. Where It Gets Weird

There are moments when AI does something that's not quite right, but not completely wrong either. A description that sounds literary but too smooth. An NPC who accepts your player action too quickly. A puzzle that's solved too easily because AI "knows" you're supposed to solve it.

That shows you: AI understands the game but not the balance.

The Finish Line of This Lesson

You don't need to play a perfect game. You just need to see:

• Interactivity works. AI reacts to your input in real time.
• Improvisation works. It fulfills roles (game master, NPC).
• The limits are real. It will make mistakes, the world will become unstable.

After the game, write down: What surprised me? Where could I have played better? Where could AI have responded better?

These notes are gold for the next lesson.

A Thought to Take Away

Some people say: "AI can't be creative because it just mimics." That's partly true. But improvising is not the same as imitating. And when you sit side by side with AI — your idea, its reaction, your adjustment — something happens: collaborative storytelling.

This is not magic. But it's more than mechanical repetition.