A Ludic PSY AI-Game-Engine for Utopia: Exploring Pl[AI] for a Viable Future

This paper examines human-AI co-creation through art-based gaming via a case study of the "Ludic PSY AI-Game-Engine," a research project at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. The central output is an AI-driven experimental game engine, built with the open-source Godot Engine and a Wave Function Collapse algorithm, in which players build utopian environments in collaboration with AI. The authors frame gameplay through the "Ludic method," positioning participants as ludic citizen researchers who reflect on ethical questions such as user profiling, technological freedom, and the emancipatory potential of AI in relation to climate change.

The project was tested in a 52-day public exhibition in Vienna in 2025, with 527 participants. Facial Recognition Technology was used to scan players' faces and personalize gameplay, a choice the authors deliberately made to surface privacy and surveillance concerns as subjects of artistic and ethical inquiry. Players could influence their profiling through emotional expressions. Gameplay also tracked an ecological tension: building concrete-like structures required sacrificing greenery, so the game served as a test-bed for thinking about biodiversity loss and climate change. Algorithmically generated creatures evolved across 486 behaviors and 402 creature types, with light emerging as the most common evolutionary trait.

Behavioral observation found that initial reluctance toward facial recognition gave way to intrigue and acceptance once data processing was explained, and more than two-thirds of players attempted to trick the system. Roughly half played primarily for pleasure, while many others engaged with the critical issues embedded in the game. Future work will expand biometric profiling categories, refine real-time LLM-driven creature evolution, and strengthen data protection through minimization, anonymization, and encryption, with exhibitions planned for 2026 and 2027.