Moving AI offscreen: Exploring failures, constraints, and recovery in physical game design
Summary
This case study explores what happens when generative AI moves off the screen and into a physical, walk-up-and-play game. Built by a team of four non-engineers, the project used AI to design and prototype everything from game logic to custom 3D-printed and laser-cut controllers. While AI accelerated early exploration, it repeatedly failed in physical space, where sensor noise, variability, and real players exposed its limits. The case study focuses on how designing for failure, constraints, and recovery ultimately mattered more than making the AI smarter, and what this reveals about trust, responsibility, and design judgment when AI becomes part of a real-world interactive system.
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