How AI Could Bring Halo and Other Classic Games Back to Life
a16z's Anish Acharya and Jonathan Bi discuss how AI is shrinking game development time, which took 12 to 13 years for GTA 6, and opening the door to mods, remakes of classics like Halo, and niche genres.
The gist
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Anish Acharya used Opus 55 to build a Habbo Hotel-style 1990s record shop, then a street where other players add storefronts with new mechanics.
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Jonathan Bi notes Counter-Strike began as a Half-Life mod and League of Legends grew from Dota, and says AI now makes modding and remixing easy.
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Jonathan Bi expects AI to revive costly niche genres like RTS, citing Starcraft, and Anish Acharya recommends Dune 2000, which has been ported to Mac.
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Jonathan Bi wants to remake Civilization II with every unit as an agent, and the host says Crusader Kings III already works much that way.
Anish Acharya uses it
"So this was with Opus 5.5. I gave it a shot. I gave it just a couple Habbo Hotel reference art components and it super exceeded my expectations, because not only did it generate the room, it also somehow grabbed all kinds of '90s music."
▶ Play at 14:45253 creators recommend it, including Riley Brown, Chris Koerner, and This Week in Startups.
See all on the Claude page"I probably put thousands of hours into League of Legends, and some of my best friends and friendships have been made in that game. So I think that has to be probably my most played game."
▶ Play at 38:32"Probably closely behind that is StarCraft. So I've played all of the versions, you know, back to Brood War, to StarCraft 2 and so on."
▶ Play at 38:48
Anish Acharya recommends it
"The other game that I actually adore is Dune 2000. That was my favorite RTS growing up. It's so, so good. And actually somebody had already ported it over to play on Mac, and it's as good as it ever was. So for RTS fans, if you haven't played that, I highly recommend Dune 2000."
▶ Play at 38:133 creators recommend it, including Jimmy Donaldson and John Rallo.
See all on the Dune page"I'm a big Civilization player, and I think the original Civ 2 generated some of my most endearing childhood memories... It's not playable today anymore. It's a 16-bit executable. But I would love to recreate that game on a modern hardware stack."
▶ Play at 41:25
a16z recommends it
"I'm a big Crusader Kings 3 fan... I describe it to people who don't know about it as like the Sims mixed with Age of Empires... you have to manage schemes and different people's personalities and their opinion of you... it actually feels the closest to me to a kind of never-en..."
▶ Play at 39:35What they recommend · 7 picks
Media & entertainment
6 picks · a16z, Anish Acharya, and Jonathan Bi
"I'm a big Crusader Kings 3 fan... I describe it to people who don't know about it as like the Sims mixed with Age of Empires... you have to manage schemes and different people's..."
"Oh, for me, I've played Witcher 3. I've completed it twice, half-completed it a bunch of times, and I just absolutely love it."
"The other game that I actually adore is Dune 2000. That was my favorite RTS growing up. It's so, so good. And actually somebody had already ported it over to play on Mac, and it..."
a16z, Anish, Riley and Claire agree on 23 things
See what they all use, in their own words. Paid ads are left out.
See what they all swear by Or pick your own peopleOther picks
1 pick · Anish Acharya
"So this was with Opus 5.5. I gave it a shot. I gave it just a couple Habbo Hotel reference art components and it super exceeded my expectations, because not only did it generate..."
Anish Acharya
3 picks · guest
"So this was with Opus 5.5. I gave it a shot. I gave it just a couple Habbo Hotel reference art components and it super exceeded my expectations, because not only did it generate..."
"Oh, for me, I've played Witcher 3. I've completed it twice, half-completed it a bunch of times, and I just absolutely love it."
"The other game that I actually adore is Dune 2000. That was my favorite RTS growing up. It's so, so good. And actually somebody had already ported it over to play on Mac, and it..."
Jonathan Bi
3 picks · guest
"I probably put thousands of hours into League of Legends, and some of my best friends and friendships have been made in that game. So I think that has to be probably my most pla..."
"Probably closely behind that is StarCraft. So I've played all of the versions, you know, back to Brood War, to StarCraft 2 and so on."
"I'm a big Civilization player, and I think the original Civ 2 generated some of my most endearing childhood memories... It's not playable today anymore. It's a 16-bit executable..."
a16z
1 pick · host
"I'm a big Crusader Kings 3 fan... I describe it to people who don't know about it as like the Sims mixed with Age of Empires... you have to manage schemes and different people's..."
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