A Valve engineer used ChatGPT to find a new matchmaking algorithm for Deadlock, and now it's in the game

A survey conducted about a year ago found that 31% of game developers were already using generative AI in some way. I'd wager that the percentage has increased significantly since then.

We know Valve is using it: Fletcher Dunn, an engineer who's been with Valve for over a decade, has been posting his «ChatGPT wins» on X, saying today that OpenAI's large language model is an «amazing» tool.

Dunn is more or less using ChatGPT as an advanced search engine, and the interaction that amazed him recently saw him describe a hypothetical kind of algorithm he wanted to use for Valve's MOBA-shooter, Deadlock, and receive an accurate recommendation for a real algorithm matching his specifications. The algorithm ChatGPT recommended is in fact now being used in Deadlock matchmaking, according to Dunn.

«I'm gonna keep posting my ChatGPT wins, because this thing keeps blowing my mind, and I think there are some skeptics who don't get how amazing this tool is,» he wrote. «A few days ago we switched Deadlock's matchmaking hero selection to the Hungarian algorithm. I found it using ChatGPT.»

Dunn acknowledges that he could have found the same answer with the right Google search terms, but says that the point is that he didn't have to: ChatGPT immediately returned what he was looking for even though he described it vaguely. 

"'Find me this thing that I don't really know the right search terms for, but I will attempt to describe' is just a *killer* app," he said in a reply to another poster. «If it is wrong or hallucinates (which does sometimes happen), you'll figure that out pretty quickly.»

I'm gonna keep posting my ChatGPT wins, because this thing keeps blowing my mind, and I think there are some skeptics who don't get how amazing this tool is.A few days ago we switched Deadlock's matchmaking hero selection to the Hungarian algorithm. I found it using ChatGPT pic.twitter.com/dyLPDPyBJ8October 2, 2024

This use of ChatGPT reinforces something I suspected when I covered that survey back