It started out as just a prototype asking what happens if you task an LLM with generating crafting recipes for every combination of items in a game (which was already super fun), but it's exploded into all kinds of crafting, harvesting, and item manipulation systems that literally weren't possible in games just 5-10 years ago.
Now we're working on NPC simulations based on last year's Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior [1] paper. Dialogue and persistent memory are obvious, but we're also using the ReAct pattern [2] to give NPCs an influenceable decision loop that dictates what actions they take throughout each game day. And there's some other fun stuff like quest generation and using LLMs as a decision engine to determine if certain player actions complete these dynamic quests.
There's still a lot of work to do to make it feel more like a polished game, but we've been focused on the underlying systems and getting them feeling great and I'm really excited to see the game come to life.
[0] https://store.steampowered.com/app/3039840/Elixir_Emporium/