•According to an opinion piece by Mat Jones for IGN, artificial intelligence could not have created “Biddy Blas,” the beloved supporting character in Star Wars: Galactic Racer, a game Jones describes as one of the best new things to happen to Star Wars since Andor.
“Give an AI as long a time as it needs: it couldn’t have made Biddy Blas,” Jones wrote. “Blas is an icon.”
Biddy Blas, described as a crocodile man knee-high to a Tauntaun with unresolved rage, belongs to Galactic Racer’s supporting cast and has dominated social media feeds for gaming enthusiasts.
The Video Game Industry’s Instability
Jones frames his argument against the backdrop of what he sees as growing instability in video games as a medium. He notes that studios are shutting down “in the name of brand restructuring,” that electronic component prices show no incentive to reduce, and that production costs rise due to energy supply issues and efforts to end physical ownership.
“It’s hard to imagine what the future of the medium looks like, regardless of AI’s role to play in it,” he wrote. But Jones added that games continue to exist “because of the passion of the people involved” and are often better than ever.
Epic Jeux’ AI-First Approach
The piece points to Epic Jeux’ apparent push for an “AI first” production model, which Jones says has reportedly delayed a secret Star Wars and Marvel crossover shooter. That project will apparently be developed with AI tools on both the coding and art sides.
“I can’t speak to the quality of a supposed game that is an indefinite time away from release, especially one that no one outside of the Epic offices has seen a frame of,” Jones wrote. “But I can’t see this approach being able to emulate Galactic Racer’s secret weapon.”
The Human Element
Jones argues that while AI companies have worked hard to ensure their products can do voices, the value lies beyond vocal performance. He cited Will de Renzy-Martin, lead actor on The Blood of Dawnwalker, who recently told a recent episode of My Perfect Console that “the least interesting thing about what I do is the way my voice sounds.”
“[AI]’s not replicating my personality and the things that I do when I’m in the room, and the choices that I make, which is all the reasons that a director or a producer would want to work with me,” de Renzy-Martin said. “Actors are pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things. And if you end up with an AI that can produce the right noises, you’re going to need somebody who can interact with it and get the performance that you want attached to those noises – and they’re going to be much more expensive than an actor is.”
Jones illustrated this point with Biddy Blas’s signature nonsense Huttese catchphrase. He wrote that while AI might have been able to write a nonsense phrase, only Galactic Racer’s writers could have decided one of those sounds was “Scrib Doon,” and only the character’s performer, Richard Summers-Calvert, could make the decision to deliver it as ridiculously as he did.
“It’s that combination of creative human decisions, that living understanding of what’s genuinely funny, that turned Biddy Blas from a collection of script and polygons into an icon.”
A Broader Concern
Jones suggested Epic’s approach might make sense for a company he describes as having spent the past decade turning Fortnite into a platform rather than a game. He argued there were no reference materials to train AI on before those properties existed.
Beyond Star Wars, Jones pointed to Valve’s hybrid MOBA-shooter Deadlock, which he says players have picked up in record numbers following its most recent patch. He credited the game’s creative flair for characters like the Rat King and Chess-hustler Solomon, whose abilities involve individually performed dialogue barks and weapons featuring historically important endgames chosen by the design team.
“I see the continued use of AI in ideation and initial production as an existential issue for the medium that we’ll one day be course-correcting away from,” Jones wrote, comparing it to what he sees as CEOs once chasing live-service models. “For all of the efficiencies in the process, for all the promise of profitability, I’m not sure how you can actually sell any of this stuff without the unique spark of newness.”
Jones is a Senior Social Producer for IGN based out of London, UK.
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