mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Large Language Models and Games: A Survey and Roadmap

arXiv 2402.18659 ↗First posted 28 Feb 2024cs.CL cs.AI cs.HCcited by 91

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Abstract (arXiv)

Recent years have seen an explosive increase in research on large language models (LLMs), and accompanying public engagement on the topic. While starting as a niche area within natural language processing, LLMs have shown remarkable potential across a broad range of applications and domains, including games. This paper surveys the current state of the art across the various applications of LLMs in and for games, and identifies the different roles LLMs can take within a game. Importantly, we discuss underexplored areas and promising directions for future uses of LLMs in games and we reconcile the potential and limitations of LLMs within the games domain. As the first comprehensive survey and roadmap at the intersection of LLMs and games, we are hopeful that this paper will serve as the basis for groundbreaking research and innovation in this exciting new field.

Key facts. Cited by 91 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 91 of its 191 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 28 Feb 2024.

Builds on

91 of 191 references.

References · 91

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50 most cited of 91 All 91 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 33; 2025: 36; 2026: 22.

91 papers.

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  1. 2024A Survey on Large Language Model-Based Game Agentscited by 106
  2. 2024A Review of Prominent Paradigms for LLM-Based Agents: Tool Use (Including RAG), Planning, and Feedback Learningcited by 74
  3. 2025MedAgent-Pro: Towards Evidence-based Multi-modal Medical Diagnosis via Reasoning Agentic Workflowcited by 71
  4. 2024Game Generation via Large Language Modelscited by 24
  5. 2024Evaluating Large Language Models with Grid-Based Game Competitions: An Extensible LLM Benchmark and Leaderboardcited by 22
  6. 2026GameDevBench: Evaluating Agentic Capabilities Through Game Developmentcited by 21
  7. 2024Surveying the MLLM Landscape: A Meta-Review of Current Surveyscited by 20
  8. 2025Agents of Change: Self-Evolving LLM Agents for Strategic Planningcited by 20
  9. 2024Word2World: Generating Stories and Worlds through Large Language Modelscited by 18
  10. 2026GUI Agents for Continual Game Generationcited by 16
  11. 2024Unbounded: A Generative Infinite Game of Character Life Simulationcited by 14
  12. 2025Robust LLM Training Infrastructure at ByteDancecited by 14
38 more
  1. 2026OpenGame: Open Agentic Coding for Gamescited by 12
  2. 2024VideoGameBunny: Towards vision assistants for video gamescited by 11
  3. 2024CharacterGPT: A Persona Reconstruction Framework for Role-Playing Agentscited by 10
  4. 2024DreamGarden: A Designer Assistant for Growing Games from a Single Promptcited by 10
  5. 2024GPT for Games: An Updated Scoping Review (2020-2024)cited by 10
  6. 2025Gatekeeper: Improving Model Cascades Through Confidence Tuningcited by 10
  7. 2025Agents Play Thousands of 3D Video Gamescited by 9
  8. 2026GameGen-Verifier: Parallel Keypoint-Based Verification for LLM-Generated Games via Runtime State Injectioncited by 9
  9. 2024Open-Ended Wargames with Large Language Modelscited by 8
  10. 2024Atari-GPT: Benchmarking Multimodal Large Language Models as Low-Level Policies in Atari Gamescited by 8
  11. 2025Multi-Actor Generative Artificial Intelligence as a Game Enginecited by 8
  12. 2025GVGAI-LLM: Evaluating Large Language Model Agents with Infinite Gamescited by 8
  13. 2024GRASP: A Grid-Based Benchmark for Evaluating Commonsense Spatial Reasoningcited by 7
  14. 2024Grammar-based Game Description Generation using Large Language Modelscited by 7
  15. 2025Using LLMs to Advance the Cognitive Science of Collectivescited by 6
  16. 2024Measuring Diversity of Game Scenarioscited by 5
  17. 2024LLMs May Not Be Human-Level Players, But They Can Be Testers: Measuring Game Difficulty with LLM Agentscited by 5
  18. 2025The Procedural Content Generation Benchmark: An Open-source Testbed for Generative Challenges in Gamescited by 5
  19. 2025Codifying Character Logic in Role-Playingcited by 5
  20. 2024Making New Connections: LLMs as Puzzle Generators for The New York Times' Connections Word Gamecited by 4
  21. 2024Game Development as Human-LLM Interactioncited by 4
  22. 2024Leveraging Large Language Models for Active Merchant Non-player Characterscited by 4
  23. 2025STORY2GAME: Generating (Almost) Everything in an Interactive Fiction Gamecited by 4
  24. 2025DipLLM: Fine-Tuning LLM for Strategic Decision-making in Diplomacycited by 4
  25. 2025Can Large Language Models Master Complex Card Games?cited by 4
  26. 2024Instruction-Driven Game Engines on Large Language Modelscited by 3
  27. 20243D Building Generation in Minecraft via Large Language Modelscited by 3
  28. 2024Instruction-Driven Game Engine: A Poker Case Studycited by 3
  29. 2025From Entity-Centric to Goal-Oriented Graphs: Enhancing LLM Knowledge Retrieval in Minecraftcited by 3
  30. 2024Interacting Large Language Model Agents. Interpretable Models and Social Learningcited by 2
  31. 2024LLMs as Method Actors: A Model for Prompt Engineering and Architecturecited by 2
  32. 2025Can Large Language Models Capture Video Game Engagement?cited by 2
  33. 2025Cardiverse: Harnessing LLMs for Novel Card Game Prototypingcited by 2
  34. 2025Static Vs. Agentic Game Master AI for Facilitating Solo Role-Playing Experiencescited by 2
  35. 2025Grammar and Gameplay-aligned RL for Game Description Generation with LLMscited by 2
  36. 2025PAYADOR: A Minimalist Approach to Grounding Language Models on Structured Data for Interactive Storytelling and Role-playing Gamescited by 2
  37. 2025Guiding Generative Storytelling with Knowledge Graphscited by 2
  38. 2025ScriptDoctor: Automatic Generation of PuzzleScript Games via Large Language Models and Tree Searchcited by 2

50 most cited of 91 All 91 (JSON)