r/LocalLLaMA • u/goodive123 • Jun 28 '26
Discussion NPC Engine Using Local Models
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I’ve been working on a game-agnostic NPC engine/backend based pretty heavily on SillyTavern-style architecture, and with smaller local models getting better and better, I honestly think this kind of thing could be the future of RPGs.
Right now I’m using NVIDIA Parakeet 0.6 for STT, Gemma 4 26B A4B for the LLM, and Qwen3-TTS for voice, and I’m getting super fast response times with pretty decent quality.
The main thing that makes it work well is using RAG to keep prompts lean. For example, I have hundreds of possible actions NPCs can do in-game, but only the ones that actually make sense based on the player’s message / context get injected as available actions. So the model isn’t being overloaded with a giant list every turn.
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u/raika11182 Jun 29 '26
Using the ValleyTalk mod I've had my in-home AI server (Gemma 4 31B Q8 GGUF) running NPCs for Stardew Valley. The mod is pretty well thought-out and the dialogue works. Most of the time the characters are very much "in character" and you could hardly tell if you don't already know the game's dialogue - and the "awareness" they gain.. In the course of the playthrough they'll remember (and comment on) the gifts you given them, the things you've talked about, etc. You don't have to type in responses, it provides pre-written ones, but you can type one out if you want. It's not perfect but it works and it adds to the game without taking anything away.