Epic Games gives Fortnite developers a tool for building AI characters

Epic Games has released a new tool called "conversations" for Fortnite creators. It turns NPCs into AI characters with free-flowing, unscripted dialogue, according to the official Fortnite blog.

How the conversations tool works

Instead of rigid dialogue trees, developers now define a character's personality with a simple prompt, and the tool generates dialogue on the fly. The NPC can answer the player in real time rather than follow a pre-written script.

"Instead of scripting dialogue trees for characters on your islands,

conversations turns an NPC into an AI character capable of unplanned dialogue and interactions with players, for example as a quest giver or a storyteller," Epic Games said in its official statement.

"You define who your character is with simple prompts: how they think, what they know, and how they behave,"

Epic Games explains. The developer then picks a voice that matches the character.

According to Epic Games, such an NPC can act as a quest giver or storyteller, a role that previously required a separately scripted dialogue tree for every branch of the conversation.

• The tool is called "conversations," after the title of the Fortnite blog post "Bring NPCs to Life with AI-Powered Conversations"
• NPCs get unscripted dialogue instead of standard dialogue trees
• Developers set a character's personality through prompts and choose its voice
• A year earlier, Fortnite already featured an AI Darth Vader that swore in a voice recreated from a recording of James Earl Jones

What came before: the AI Darth Vader

Conversations is not Epic Games' first experiment with AI characters in Fortnite. A year earlier, the game featured an AI Darth Vader that could swear in a voice recreated from recordings of James Earl Jones. That experiment showed players are willing to interact with AI versions of iconic characters, not just ordinary background NPCs, and it apparently pushed Epic Games to extend the technology to any character island developers create themselves.

What this means

Fortnite is becoming one of the first major gaming platforms where NPCs get their own AI behavior model instead of a script. If the format catches on with island developers, competitors in the games industry will likely start copying the approach.

Frequently asked questions

Have AI characters appeared in Fortnite before?

Yes. A year earlier, the game already had an AI Darth Vader that swore in a voice recreated from recordings of James Earl Jones.

Are there limits on how AI NPCs behave?

The Verge's headline warns: "just don't try to date them." The source does not disclose details of any technical restrictions. Judging by the wording, Epic Games expects quest giver and storyteller roles, not romantic or ambiguous conversations with NPCs.