I wanted to start with a simple premise. Quests are the heart and soul of many games. Fetch quests, kill quests and everything in between. Some do it better than others. But a lot of factors come into play when it comes to judging whether a quest is good or bad. Sometimes the exact same quest requirement can feel good in one game and boring in another. Context is everything. I won't go into any personal preferences here. I will instead focus on how to get a set of sample quests up and running.

To start with let's take a fictional premise for which a game does not really exist yet. Let's say I was making a game based on one of my favourite sci-fi novels. Children of Time. Below is a short summary of the book.

“Children of Time” is a science fiction novel about the last remnants of the human race who left a dying Earth in search of a new home among the stars. They discover a planet terraformed just for them, but are shocked to find a new and terrifying super race of spiders that has already made the planet their own. The novel focuses on mistrust in science, forced evolution, and false godhood. The story is about an inevitable conflict and eventual understanding between a civilization of sentient spiders unintentionally “uplifted“ by an engineered nano virus and the remnants of human civilization.

The Pitch

Genre: Strategy/Survival

A video game idea based on the novel “Children of Time” could be a survival game where the player takes on the role of one of the last remnants of humanity who has to survive on a planet that is already inhabited by a super race of spiders. The player would have to navigate through the planet’s terrain, gather resources, and build shelter while avoiding the spiders. The game could also include elements of strategy and diplomacy as the player tries to communicate with the spiders and form alliances with them. The game could be called “Children of Time: Survival” or something similar.

Let's say that this is all the background theme input I am giving to the AI. Now we try a simple version that generates quests simply based on this premise.

As a baseline I will use Claude for all purposes as far as I can. There have been instances where Claude gives me a good start but can fail in later stages when it has to generate a larger amount of code. In these cases I will mention clearly that I switched LLMs.

V1

LLM Instructions

Using this information generate a set of 10 quests for the player

LLM Output

Based on the "Children of Time" premise, here are 10 quests that blend survival, strategy, and the unique spider-human dynamic:

Early Survival Phase:

1. First Contact Protocol - Establish a basic shelter within 72 hours while avoiding detection by spider patrols. Gather metal scraps from the crashed landing pod and salvage insulation materials.
2. The Silent Watchers - Investigate strange web patterns near your shelter. Document spider behavior from a safe distance using salvaged recording equipment to understand their patrol routes.
3. Atmospheric Adaptation - Your oxygen recycler is failing. Locate and harvest specific fungi that the terraforming process left behind to create makeshift air filters before your reserves run out.

Resource & Understanding Phase:

1. Decoding the Dance - Capture and analyze spider leg-tapping communications using jury-rigged sensors. Create a basic translation matrix to understand their simple territorial warnings.
2. The Protein Dilemma - Your food supplies are nearly exhausted. Find a way to process the planet's spider-cultivated insects into edible protein without triggering an aggressive response from the local spider farmers.
3. Web Highway Reconnaissance - Map the major web-road network that connects spider settlements. Identify safe crossing points and understand their transportation system for future diplomatic contact.

Diplomatic Engagement Phase:

1. Offering of Understanding - Craft a peace offering using materials that demonstrate human technological capability without appearing threatening. Present it at a spider settlement's perimeter.
2. The Mediator's Gambit - A spider faction seems willing to communicate. Establish a neutral meeting ground and attempt your first structured dialogue using your translation system.

Advanced Cooperation Phase:

1. Symbiotic Solutions - Work with allied spiders to solve a mutual threat: an outbreak of terraforming nanobots that's disrupting both human technology and spider agriculture.
2. Children of Two Worlds - Design and build a permanent settlement that accommodates both human and spider needs, proving that coexistence is possible and laying the foundation for a shared future.

Each quest builds on the previous ones, moving from pure survival through understanding to eventual cooperation, reflecting the novel's themes of evolution, communication, and coexistence.

💭 Conclusions

Now while the quests it came up with might make a mildly interesting read, the truth is that with no additional context the quests don't have the game mechanics to back them up. This is a fundamental difference between how AI and humans would respond. If I gave only this much input to a Designer and asked him/her to come up with a set of quests they would come back to me saying that the information I provided them about the game was not enough to come up with a realistic set of quests. LLMs on the other hand will in most situations come across as sycophantic. It's the reason why if we don't review their results well the outcome will serve little purpose for us.

So the lesson here is that useful out from and LLM can heavily be influenced by the quality of the input we provide to it.

V2

LLM Instructions

Recreate the quests but based them on the fact that there are only the following mechanics available in the game.

• The player can gather resources.
• The player can build various buildings.
• The player can upgrade various buildings.
• The player can have the spiders as allies through alliances.
• The player can capture enemy territory by destroying the spider queens.
• The player can unlock new upgrades by researching the brains of killed spiders.

📄 LLM Output

Based on the available game mechanics, here are 10 quests redesigned for the "Children of Time" survival strategy game:

Resource Foundation Phase:

1. Scavenger's First Steps - Gather 50 Metal Scraps and 30 Organic Matter from the crash site area. Build your first Resource Depot to store materials safely.
2. Establishing Base Operations - Build a Command Center and two Resource Extractors. Upgrade your Resource Depot to Level 2 to increase storage capacity for the coming conflicts.
3. Defensive Preparations - Gather 100 Stone and 75 Metal Scraps. Build three Defense Turrets around your base perimeter and upgrade your Command Center to unlock military units.

Combat & Research Phase:

1. First Blood - Kill 5 worker spiders and research their brains to unlock "Basic Spider Biology" upgrade, which increases damage against spider units by 15%.
2. Territory Expansion - Capture your first spider territory by destroying a Minor Spider Queen. Build an Outpost on the captured territory and upgrade it to establish resource extraction.
3. Neural Network Analysis - Kill 3 warrior spiders and research their brains to unlock "Combat Tactics" upgrade, allowing your defensive structures to target multiple enemies simultaneously.

Diplomatic Strategy Phase:

1. The Alliance Gambit - Build a Diplomacy Center and establish your first alliance with a neutral spider faction. Use this alliance to gain access to 200 Rare Minerals through trade agreements.
2. Collaborative Research - With your spider allies, research 2 captured soldier spider brains to unlock "Hybrid Technology" - allowing you to build Spider-Human hybrid defensive structures.

Advanced Warfare Phase:

1. Queen Hunter - Destroy a Major Spider Queen to capture a strategic territory rich in rare resources. Build and upgrade an Advanced Research Facility on this territory to unlock Tier 3 technologies.
2. Apex Predator - Kill and research the brain of an Elite Spider Commander to unlock the ultimate "Evolutionary Synthesis" upgrade, allowing you to build the final tier of hybrid buildings that combine human technology with spider bioengineering.

Each quest directly utilizes the core mechanics while progressing from basic survival through military expansion to advanced hybrid cooperation.

💭 Conclusions

As we see with the updated results that quests are much more aligned to the game mechanics themselves. While the idea is not to use these quests as is, they serve as a good validation for the depth of your game mechanics. You can keep tweaking the input and varying the mechanics to see the combinations that the LLMs can come up with. They can be a great way to spark your imagination on the way to creating your final set of quests.

In a future post I will delve into using your quest data to generate a simple UI in the game.