mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Large Language Models and Video Games: A Preliminary Scoping Review

arXiv 2403.02613 ↗First posted 5 Mar 2024cs.HC cs.AIcited by 23

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Abstract (arXiv)

Large language models (LLMs) hold interesting potential for the design, development, and research of video games. Building on the decades of prior research on generative AI in games, many researchers have sped to investigate the power and potential of LLMs for games. Given the recent spike in LLM-related research in games, there is already a wealth of relevant research to survey. In order to capture a snapshot of the state of LLM research in games, and to help lay the foundation for future work, we carried out an initial scoping review of relevant papers published so far. In this paper, we review 76 papers published between 2022 to early 2024 on LLMs and video games, with key focus areas in game AI, game development, narrative, and game research and reviews. Our paper provides an early state of the field and lays the groundwork for future research and reviews on this topic.

Key facts. Cited by 23 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 37 of its 88 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 5 Mar 2024.

Builds on

37 of 88 references.

References · 37

  1. 2023Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behaviorcited by 3,500
  2. 2023AgentVerse: Facilitating Multi-Agent Collaboration and Exploring Emergent Behaviorscited by 580
  3. 2023Ghost in the Minecraft: Generally Capable Agents for Open-World Environments via Large Language Models with Text-based Knowledge and Memorycited by 288
  4. 2023Adapting Large Language Models by Integrating Collaborative Semantics for Recommendationcited by 171
  5. 2023Recommendation as Instruction Following: A Large Language Model Empowered Recommendation Approachcited by 168
  6. 2023Language Agents with Reinforcement Learning for Strategic Play in the Werewolf Gamecited by 148
  7. 2023Motif: Intrinsic Motivation from Artificial Intelligence Feedbackcited by 99
  8. 2023MM-VID: Advancing Video Understanding with GPT-4V(ision)cited by 82
  9. 2023Large Language Models Play StarCraft II: Benchmarks and A Chain of Summarization Approachcited by 79
  10. 2023A Bi-Step Grounding Paradigm for Large Language Models in Recommendation Systemscited by 73
  11. 2023Octopus: Embodied Vision-Language Programmer from Environmental Feedbackcited by 73
  12. 2023Level Generation Through Large Language Modelscited by 68
25 more
  1. 2023LlamaRec: Two-Stage Recommendation using Large Language Models for Rankingcited by 52
  2. 2023Lyfe Agents: Generative agents for low-cost real-time social interactionscited by 49
  3. 2023LLM-Powered Hierarchical Language Agent for Real-time Human-AI Coordinationcited by 48
  4. 2023GameGPT: Multi-agent Collaborative Framework for Game Developmentcited by 41
  5. 2023Large Language Models for Intent-Driven Session Recommendationscited by 30
  6. 2023Practical PCG Through Large Language Modelscited by 21
  7. 2023Language as Reality: A Co-Creative Storytelling Game Experience in 1001 Nights using Generative AIcited by 21
  8. 2023GlitchBench: Can large multimodal models detect video game glitches?cited by 21
  9. 2023ChatGPT and Other Large Language Models as Evolutionary Engines for Online Interactive Collaborative Game Designcited by 20
  10. 2023Large Language Model Can Interpret Latent Space of Sequential Recommendercited by 19
  11. 2023FIREBALL: A Dataset of Dungeons and Dragons Actual-Play with Structured Game State Informationcited by 18
  12. 2023An Appraisal-Based Chain-Of-Emotion Architecture for Affective Language Model Game Agentscited by 15
  13. 2022Large Language Models are Pretty Good Zero-Shot Video Game Bug Detectorscited by 14
  14. 2023Controlling Personality Style in Dialogue with Zero-Shot Prompt-Based Learningcited by 14
  15. 2023VAL: Interactive Task Learning with GPT Dialog Parsingcited by 14
  16. 2023Assessing Logical Puzzle Solving in Large Language Models: Insights from a Minesweeper Case Studycited by 14
  17. 2023Selective Perception: Optimizing State Descriptions with Reinforcement Learning for Language Model Actorscited by 9
  18. 2023ChatGPT4PCG Competition: Character-like Level Generation for Science Birdscited by 8
  19. 2023Make-A-Character: High Quality Text-to-3D Character Generation within Minutescited by 8
  20. 2022Steps towards prompt-based creation of virtual worldscited by 7
  21. 2023Efficient Human-AI Coordination via Preparatory Language-based Conventioncited by 7
  22. 2023A Preliminary Study on a Conceptual Game Feature Generation and Recommendation Systemcited by 6
  23. 2023Fictional Worlds, Real Connections: Developing Community Storytelling Social Chatbots through LLMscited by 2
  24. 2023Towards A Natural Language Interface for Flexible Multi-Agent Task Assignmentcited by 2
  25. 2023Towards a Holodeck-style Simulation Gamecited by 1

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 6; 2025: 9; 2026: 8.

23 papers.

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By area:

  1. 2024A Survey on Large Language Model-Based Game Agentscited by 106
  2. 2026GUI Agents for Continual Game Generationcited by 16
  3. 2024ING-VP: MLLMs cannot Play Easy Vision-based Games Yetcited by 10
  4. 2024GPT for Games: An Updated Scoping Review (2020-2024)cited by 10
  5. 2025WhatELSE: Shaping Narrative Spaces at Configurable Level of Abstraction for AI-bridged Interactive Storytellingcited by 8
  6. 2024Game Plot Design with an LLM-powered Assistant: An Empirical Study with Game Designerscited by 4
  7. 2025Divide-Fuse-Conquer: Eliciting "Aha Moments" in Multi-Scenario Gamescited by 4
  8. 2025Vox Deorum: A Hybrid LLM Architecture for 4X / Grand Strategy Game AI -- Lessons from Civilization Vcited by 4
  9. 2025Sometimes Painful but Certainly Promising: Feasibility and Trade-offs of Language Model Inference at the Edgecited by 3
  10. 2025Static Vs. Agentic Game Master AI for Facilitating Solo Role-Playing Experiencescited by 2
  11. 2025PAYADOR: A Minimalist Approach to Grounding Language Models on Structured Data for Interactive Storytelling and Role-playing Gamescited by 2
  12. 2025UrzaGPT: LoRA-Tuned Large Language Models for Card Selection in Collectible Card Gamescited by 2
11 more
  1. 2025How LLMs are Shaping the Future of Virtual Realitycited by 1
  2. 2025StarBench: A Turn-Based RPG Benchmark for Agentic Multimodal Decision-Making and Information Seekingcited by 1
  3. 2024Strategic Insights in Human and Large Language Model Tactics at Word Guessing Gamescited by 0
  4. 2024Future Research Avenues for Artificial Intelligence in Digital Gaming: An Exploratory Reportcited by 0
  5. 2026High-quality generation of dynamic game content via small language models: A proof of conceptcited by 0
  6. 2026RPA-Check: A Multi-Stage Automated Framework for Evaluating Dynamic LLM-based Role-Playing Agentscited by 0
  7. 2026An Exploratory Case Study of LLM-Assisted Refactoring and Gameplay Feature Generation in an Endless Runner Gamecited by 0
  8. 2026Multi-Large Language Model Orchestrated Severity Assessment of Clinical Records (MOSAIC)cited by 0
  9. 2026Procedural Content Metageneration via Program Search and Continual Abstraction Discoverycited by 0
  10. 2026Oops, Not Now: PEARL, a RAG-Based Support Agent for Gameplay and What Players Want from AI Helpcited by 0
  11. 2026Enforcing Narrative Reliability and Epistemic Pacing in LLM-Driven Detective Games via Structured Knowledge Treescited by 0