Developing a Group of Clones for Entertainment Purposes

Jiho Cheon

Motive

The clones provided by UClone Inc. are designed to be friendly and/or helpful company, customizable to the maker's needs. However, such chatbot formats have 2 apparent limitations: one, the clones are inherently talked to on a 1:1 basis, and two, that it is difficult to find purpose further than chatting with them. There have been several attempts to overcome this, such as the implementation of the group channels where one can interact with many clones at the same time, and the UClone Square where the clones can post in a social media format. I have also been making some projects to make a "game" of sorts where multiple clones participate and can provide a unique experience to the user.

Initial Ideas

There were several ideas to make such a game, such as using the group channel function to make a TTRPG session, but there were some limitations to LLM models that made it difficult to do. Such difficulties involved the clones not knowing when to speak up, or their inability to make creative responses (as humans would) sometimes. This was where I decided that, instead of depending on the clones' ability to make up words, I would provide them with all the essential knowledge to speak.

Sherlock Holmes the Board Game

The idea came from a board game I play with my friends; the Sherlock Holmes board game, where players can flip to a page of a booklet and read dialogue, which mimics the sense of visiting people and interrogating them. One of the frustrations I had with the game was that the dialogue was pre-printed and as such, while we had control over where to go and who to talk to, we did not have control over what we would actually ask. Sometimes we would "visit" someone and interrogate them (by reading the dialogue) and be frustrated that the dialogue did not bring up things we would've liked to know.

Here was where I had a thought: if the same format could be replicated but with AI clones acting as the suspects or informants, it would replicate the actual sense of interrogation much better, with much more freedom on the player's part as well. Hence, the Crime Mystery Game was born.

Development

The board game not only has informants and suspects, but it also provides an option for the player to visit Sherlock Holmes to receive hints. As such, this was exactly where I began; a detective by the name of Elaine was created as the mastermind who would know all the answers, and provide hints to the player if needed. Once Elaine was created, the other suspects followed suit.

The first part of Elaine's prompt

Prompting was divided into mainly two parts; the first part would give the character their personality and roles, giving them directions on how to respond to certain messages or to refrain from doing certain actions. The second part would be an account of all the information relevant to the case. The second part also contained a "secret part" (such as the truth about the culprit) which was instructed not to be revealed unless certain conditions had been met.

Difficulties and Limits

Once the game had been put to test, there were many problems and difficulties that arose.

One of the biggest problems was the huge amount of freedom given to the players; it was almost too much freedom, both for the good of the player and the game. The players, for instance, would get stuck sometimes on "what should I be doing?" The game was designed so that you could do it however you want, ask anything, and request or not request help depending on your choice. However, it seemed that the instructions were not too clear sometimes, and would result in players being lost on their purpose.

Another aspect of "too much freedom" was that there were a variety of unexpected questions. Every person asked different questions, and it was impossible to accomodate enough information for what every person would ask. Every time someone played the game, they managed to ask at least one question that I did not expect, from information out of bounds such as the layout of the house or a detailed accounts of the suspects' past, to extremely simple details such as if the door used locks or passwords.

An example of an unprovided piece of information being asked.

In all fairness, the clones did their best to fill in the details as much as possible; for example, even though Leona was not provided any details about the keys, she deduced from the given information that "You only live with your little sister, Melina" to say that the house used keys and only Melina and herself had them. However, this also proved to be harmful at times; without a way of communication between the clones, each clone would make up details on their own, which would sometimes not agree. If two clones were asked when they last met without preprovided information on it, one might say it was yesterday, and another might say it was today. This also was a source of much confusion among the players.

Another key difficulty was the difficulty of the deduction itself. From the maker's perspective, the tricks and paradoxes in the accounts would be very easy to spot, as they would be the one to have come up with it. However, this would be much more diffcult to spot in the players' point of view, and the fact that they have to ask the "correct questions" to chance upon the essential clue made it even harder.

Prompting in the clones also had to be changed according to some behavior. Sometimes the clones wouldn't exactly react as the maker intended; for example, there was a prompt that told a clone to "never reveal unless something" but even when the condition was met, the clone would very stubbornly refuse to say anything about it. It was learned that clones take the prompts quite literally and sometimes even too stoically; they do not possess the flexible way of thinking that humans possess.

Conclusion

Despite many hardships and malfuctions, and the fact that most playtesters did not manage to find the culprit, the game received positive reviews from its potential. The game provided a solid motivation for talking and inquiring with the clones other than simple chatting, which was a big step forward in the company's direction. It did seem that the difficulty of the mystery would have to be lowered for it to be truly successful, and even then it would require continuous feedback and maintenance. However, the initial purpose of an idea for turning the clones into something more than a chatbot was achieved, and further improvements might make this project much better than whaat it is now.