Finish Video Game about AI Girlfriends and Social Peril

Project summary

Engagement Lead is a satirical, choose-your-own-adventure, web-based video game. Play as the newest hire at Bigger Tech Corp, charged with maximizing engagement as the human-in-the-loop for an AI girlfriend product. The branching story is complete with a hero’s journey, Faustian bargain, and third-act twist!

The game and storylines are finished and in player testing. The final step is to hire human illustrators.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

Everybody has a socially inept cousin or nephew; and if he gets an AI girlfriend, he is never going to socially recover.

For many in the AI policy space, societal dysfunction via AI girlfriends is not a top risk vector. However, the general public cannot emotionally metabolize the seemingly far-fetched threat of ASI doom. But we can all immediately feel the threat of tech companies using AI girlfriends to engage our youth.

Prosocial AI advocacy needs more creative media, and fewer microsites. We need to engage the general public, 20% of whom have never heard of ChatGPT, and 33% of whom have never used it.

With high-quality human illustrations for the game, Steam store assets (game will be free), and marketing materials, we will be ready for a big launch! I believe this game can easily win indie dev game awards, get featured in the Steam winter sale, and spread our message wide and far.

EA orgs who do community outreach have expressed interest in using this game in their live demos.

How will this funding be used?

I need to hire human creatives to finish the game.

Minimum Raise (Struggle budget): $3k
Goal: At this minimum budget, we would hire artists who use AI to make graphic assets.

Illustrations: $2k

Sound: $800

Publishing: $200 (hosting, lovable, Steam publishing)

Goal 1 (Shoestring budget): $8k

Goal: Deliver a complete game experience illustrated/soundtracked by humans.

Illustration: $5.5k (~50 game stills, icons, thumbnails, logo, banner)

Sound: $1k (soundtrack, SFX)

Marketing: $1k (teaser trailer, promo assets)

Publishing: $500 (hosting, lovable, Steam publishing)

Goal 2 (Realistic budget): $20k
Goal: Elevate Engagement Lead to a professional indie standard for browser and Steam.

Illustration: $9k (+potential basic animation)

Game UI/UX: $4k (typography, stat graphs, framing, experience design, copy)

Sound: $2.5k (soundtrack, custom SFX, audio mixing)

Marketing: $2.5k (full trailer, promo assets)

Game Dev: $2k (Keaton hires a pro to properly port from web to Steam)

Sample Vendors:

Illustrators:

https://www.fiverr.com/s/8zQ1Peq

https://www.fiverr.com/s/pdeDN5R

https://www.fiverr.com/s/8zQ1PVv

https://www.fiverr.com/s/BR15Pl1

Game UI/UX:

https://www.uxpriya.com/

Music/SFX:

https://on.soundcloud.com/wemME7H4ZqxzBpRVAs

https://on.soundcloud.com/AAUViL5ECtcqgw2jDn

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

I have been the solo dev on this indie game. With this funding, I will bring in creative director Anthony Bellissimo to ensure that the final illustration and distribution of the game is handled professionally (https://www.anthonybellissimo.com/).

I demoed this game 1-on-1 with 40+ people at EAG NYC. People were excited because it is obviously clever, and better outreach than another microsite.

#1 feedback: cannot wait for it to be finished.
#2 feedback: cut shorter demos for use in EA org community workshops.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

It would be thematically inconsistent to publish this game with AI illustrations. If I had no funding, I would have to do so, hope to gain traction, and then raise again to re-illustrate with humans.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

Zero. I have made this game in my free time.
100% of the grant will go to illustrators. Zero will go to me.

This game will be distributed for free. I will make no money.

About me:

I was recruited to the US Intelligence Community at 18 years old for computer science. In the decade since, I have consistently achieved agency-wide and firm-wide awards. I recently earned an MPP from Harvard Kennedy School as a Belfer Young Leader student fellow. My areas of competence include space policy, missiles, East Asia, North Korea, nukes, and computer science.

I currently serve as a foreign policy senior consultant at a US defense agency, where I am often the first and last (working level) pen on international policy documents. I am also the international engagements lead for my desk.

Work Samples

A microsite “Machinic Anarchy,” including my loosely held, essentially offensive-realist take on ASI.
An AI Futures Compass Test which achieved 25k views and 500+ responses in 24 hours from a mere feeler-post on reddit /r/ControlProblem (a very small sub).
A YouTube channel about techno-political-philosophy.

Here is my LinkedIn and my master’s thesis.