Why tf aren't there voice RPGs yet when LLMs are dirt cheap now?
ok this has been bugging me for weeks. was grinding some gacha trash on my phone (don't judge) and realized... with all the AI hype and voice stuff getting super cheap, where are the actual voice-based RPGs??
like seriously, we have:
voice synthesis that doesn't suck anymore (elevenLabs and co) LLMs that can sorta keep characters consistent for more than 5 minutes webrtc works fine now phones can handle voice processing and i'm STILL clicking through dialogue trees like some caveman. closest thing is probably people jerry-rigging chatgpt voice mode but that's not really a game is it.
i get why AAA can't do this - you can't ship a 70b model with your game lmao. but web devs?? mobile?? just hit an API and call it a day.
is it just that game devs and AI people don't talk to each other? are the costs still too high even with cheaper inference? everyone waiting for apple/google to solve it first?
honestly shocked there isn't even a basic "AI dungeon but you talk to it" thing. the AI character chat apps blew up so there's obviously demand.
maybe i'm missing something obvious here but this feels like such a gimme. am i crazy or is this just sitting there waiting for someone to build it?
anyone actually working on something like this? or know what the blocker is? starting to think i should just prototype something myself but my game design skills are... questionable at best
Voice latency kills immersion. Even 200ms feels broken for real-time conversation. API calls add another 100-500ms depending on your setup. Also, most people don't actually want to talk to their games. They play on the bus, at work, in bed next to sleeping partners. Voice is inherently less private than text.
The few experiments I've seen (mostly AI dungeon clones) had maybe 100 DAU before dying. Market might not exist.