New AI tool can generate infinite Super Mario levels

Despite the vast amount of Mario-based games available, more than 200 to put a number to it, many fans still can’t get enough of the Shigeru Miyamoto-created Italian plumber. Luckily for these fans, there’s a new AI tool that can generate an infinite number of playable Mario levels.

MarioGPT uses AI, text prompts, and a predicted player path to generate real-like Mario levels. The AI is trained on levels from two classic Mario games, Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, giving it a solid grasp of assets, enemies and general gameplay to create authentic-looking levels.

“MarioGPT is the first text-to-level model. We also combine MarioGPT with novelty search, enabling it to generate diverse levels with varying play-style dynamics (i.e. player paths). This combination allows for the open-ended generation of an increasingly diverse range of content,” wrote the tool’s creators.

Anyone can currently grab the tool off of GitHub, but you’ll need a degree of game development knowledge to use it. Its creators have released an in-depth paper on its creation and functions for those who want to know more. The code for the levels is generated through Python 3.8, and all levels are random, so the same prompt can produce different levels every time the code is run.

Examples of prompts include “many pipes, many enemies, some blocks, high elevation,” “no pipes, many blocks, some enemies,” and “Some pipes, many blocks, no enemies, low elevation,” as shared by SlashGear. In some cases, the code might not work and the generated level might be unplayable, but running the code again to generate a new level should solve the issue.

MarioGPT is a promising tool for fans and indie developers alike, with the potential to generate an infinite number of Mario levels, and possibly extend beyond the Mario universe to other games. Read more about it here.

Image credit: Github (shyamsn97)

Source: SlashGear