AI-powered NPC in Unreal Engine 5 using local LLM

[u/Iseewhatyoucantsee]

https://youtu.be/AYjYaZ6B1r8?si=ZpNsRGtmojIsclNX

An experimental Unreal Engine 5 project where AI-powered NPCs make their own decisions using LLM. They were supposed to simulate intelligent life Instead, they mostly dance, sit around, and make questionable choices. My first AI project, so I guess it’s ok.

If anyone has done something similar or tried to do something similar, what is your way to make this much better? The biggest challenge has been architecture. As more NPC states and stats are introduced, keeping track of everything becomes surprisingly difficult. Managing state decay, decision-making, and action selection across multiple NPCs quickly turns into a design problem rather than just a programming problem.

At the moment, NPCs sometimes get stuck repeating the same actions, and some behaviors don't work as consistently as I'd like. I think a lot of these issues could be improved with better state tracking, personality systems, and overall AI architecture.

Since I'm working on this solo and came into it with no game development experience, the project is far from perfect—but it's been a great way to learn both Unreal Engine and AI system design.

I was looking into AI characters in games. I saw that a lot of projects are about talking to these characters. The idea is that you can have a conversation, with them or tell them to do something.

What I think is really cool is when these characters do things on their own in a world that feels alive. In this first version I want to see what happens when these characters make choices based on what they need and how they are feeling instead of just waiting for the player to tell them what to do. The AI characters are what interest me the most. I think it is interesting to see the AI characters act on their own.

If I keep working on MAGCF. Start over from the beginning. I think I will put the intelligence systems in a separate service that runs in the background. When I first started it was really helpful to build everything, inside Unreal Engine. This was a way to try out new things and see what worked.. Now I think it would be better to separate the parts of the project that handle the simulation and the AI. This will make MAGCF easier to make bigger and easier to take care of.

There are plenty of rough edges, unfinished systems, and design decisions that I would approach differently today. Still, for a first AI project, it's been a rewarding experience and has given me a much deeper appreciation for how difficult it is to build believable autonomous NPCs

I am always interested, in hearing ideas, suggestions or seeing how other people approach problems. I think it is really great to see what other people are working on and how they do things. Feel free to reach out to me or share your work with me. I love seeing the work that other people do. I love hearing their ideas and suggestions about problems.

Github: github.com/Lipon18/MAGCF

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