Key Takeaways
- Upheaval Games, founded by gaming veterans, launched early access for “The Dreamer Portal.”
- This free, web-based tool uses AI to help anyone create 3D game content like creatures, items, and worlds from simple text or voice prompts.
- It aims to drastically cut game development time and costs, making it easier to bring ideas to life.
- The tool turns prompts into fully rigged and animated 3D assets usable in game engines like Unreal and Unity.
- Upheaval plans to introduce “Agentic AI” for creating smarter, more autonomous game characters and evolving narratives.
A new tool called The Dreamer Portal aims to change how games are made. Launched into early access by Upheaval Games, a company started by former developers from Blizzard, Tencent, and Unity, it lets creators design game content using AI.
The tool is web-based and free to use during its early access phase. Anyone can try designing creatures, items, worlds, or props simply by describing what they want using text or even their voice.
Aaron Moon, head of product at Upheaval, told GamesBeat that The Dreamer Portal offers a peek into a future where creating game elements is “instant, immersive, and playable.”
The goal is to tackle common problems in game development, such as slow progress and high costs. This tool lets creatives quickly generate fully textured, rigged, and animated 3D models right in their browser, cutting down on production time.
Upheaval says the toolkit brings together several AI technologies to speed up iteration and reduce expenses. It integrates with popular game engines like Unreal Engine and Unity, storing assets in the cloud for easy access.
The company envisions giving creators the power to build games with the quality typically seen in big-budget “triple-A” titles, much like how tools like Dreamweaver simplified web design.
Moon explained the process is designed to be fast. Users can generate images from prompts, edit them, and then convert them into 3D meshes, complete with rigging and animation, with just a few clicks.
Upheaval CEO Jeff Goodsill added that the platform acts as a stable layer between game developers and the fast-changing AI landscape, allowing studios to use cutting-edge tools without constant technical hurdles.
Looking ahead, Upheaval is developing “Agentic AI.” This technology aims to create non-player characters (NPCs) with memory and evolving personalities, capable of autonomous behavior within the game world. Instead of manually scripting every action, developers could let these AI agents drive the narrative forward dynamically.
During a demo, Moon showed how characters created in minutes could interact within Unreal Engine, possessing backstories and unique attributes. He described how such AI could handle complex tasks assigned via natural language, like having a shopkeeper gather resources when inventory runs low.
This could lead to unique experiences each time a game is played, potentially enabling “forever MMOs” where the world constantly evolves based on player interactions.
Concerns about AI replacing jobs were addressed by comparing the shift to when tools like Dreamweaver emerged for web design. Moon suggested that, like Dreamweaver, AI tools could empower creators to achieve more, handling tedious tasks so developers can focus on innovation.
The team, currently small but experienced, built the core technology quickly and plans to expand. They also intend to launch a marketplace and publish their own games using the tools to showcase their capabilities.
Upheaval believes their focus on creating truly autonomous, intelligent game characters, rather than just chatbots or asset generators, sets them apart. They aim to make high-fidelity game creation accessible to everyone.
