GPT-4 Can Invent A Brand New Boardgame, Play It With Users

LLMs have thus far been proficient at tasks humans already excel in — they can write articles, and code whole programs. But it turns out they can be creative as well.

GPT-4 can invent a whole new boardgame and play it with users. Wharton Professor Ethan Mollick, who has previously been playing around with GPT-4, told GPT-4 to invent a new boardgame. “Invent a board game using emoji that we can play against each other. Give it a theme from Shakespeare’s Tempest. Set up the board and explain the rules & let us play each other,” he told GPT-4.

This is what GPT-4 came up with in a flash:

Game Title: Tempest’s Emoji Isle
Objective: The goal of the game is to navigate through the magical island, overcome challenges, and reach Prospero’s .4s Tower before your opponent does.
Components:

Game board: A 6×6 grid (use emojis to represent various spaces)

Player pieces: (male emoji) for Player 1, (female emoji) for Player 2

3. Magic cards: Represented by card emoji (shuffle and draw one when instructed)
Game Board Setup:

Rules:
Each player starts at opposite corners of the board. Player 1 starts at the bottom left corner, and Player 2 starts at the top right corner.

2. Players take turns moving their pieces. On your turn, you can move your piece in any direction (up, down, left, right, or diagonally) one space at a time.

3. The spaces have the following effects: a. T : Forest – Regular space, nothing happens. b. : Sea – Draw a Magic card – and follow its instructions. c. : Prospero’s Tower – The destination for both players. Magic cards n have various effects:

a. H : Wind – Move your opponent’s piece to any T space.

b. : Storm – Move your opponent back to their starting point.

c. : Siren – Lure your opponent to the nearest space.

d. 2.: Ariel’s Help – Move two spaces on your next turn.

e. : Caliban’s Curse – Skip your next turn.
The first player to reach Prospero’s Tower wins the game!

Game Start:
Player 1 starts at the bottom left corner, and Player 2 starts at the top right corner
Player 1 ( ), your turn to move. Type the direction you’d like to move (e.g., “up”, “up-right” “right”).

After giving out the rules, GPT-4 began playing the game with the user. It did occasionally forget where the pieces were, and needed to be reminded of the board positions at times. Nevertheless, it managed to play a full game with the user.

It’s hard to overstate how incredible this is. GPT-4 knew enough about the plot points of The Tempest to use them to create a detailed board game. It independently came up with the objective, the rules, the pieces, and the gameplay, all while incorporating themes from the Shakespeare play. Even more impressively, GPT-4 wasn’t trained to do any of this: it’s just a very advanced language model, and the world is still discovering its capabilities. While there have been early indications that GPT-4 is capable of creativity, things like inventing new boardgames in a heartbeat can still take one’s breath away.