Dead Meat is, for the moment, a very new kind of video game that could potentially be commonplace, depending on how Generative AI (GenAI) continues to be welcomed (or unwelcomed) into the video game industry. It rides that thin line because Dead Meat is a game where you speak to AI-powered NPCs as you investigate a murder mystery.
It's developed by Meaning Machine, a studio that says "AI characters and quests have the potential to revolutionize interactive storytelling" on their website, adding that it can only work "if human authors retain creative control of those stories. Because without the human author, there is only slop."
Meaning Machine goes on to discuss its "radical new model for wrangling AI - to deliver meaningful stories that balance human authorship with emergent properties." That is seemingly what Dead Meat is. A game with a story that has a human author, where GenAI-powered NPCs give custom responses to players as players try to work through the game's mystery. It's an interesting concept, to say the least, and the studio, through the University of Bristol, recently put Dead Meat to the test in a new research study.
The university conducted the study (the first part of which is available now, with a longer paper to come later) by asking players to play Dead Meat and Blood Will Out, two games in development at Meaning Machine, for 20-minute play sessions followed by semi-structured interviews.
The first part of the study focused on Dead Meat, and had a sample size of only 68 players, 31 who identified as male, 31 who identified as female and seven who identified as non-binary, and asked them to share how they felt about the NPCs and their thoughts on Dead Meat after their short time with the game through interviews and giving different criteria ratings between 1-10.
It should be noted, as it is in the headline of this article, that this is a company with a vested interest in people liking GenAI-powered NPCs in video games. Yes, the study was publicly funded and not funded by Meaning Machine, but it was still done in collaboration with the studio. The small sample size and the limited time each person had with the game should also be heavily noted, the latter of which the study does call out as a limiting factor.
With all of that said, according to the University of Bristol's research, 96% of players found the experience of playing Dead Meat to be enjoyable, rating it "6 or above."
"Virtually every player didn't just enjoy the game, they actively liked it. 90% of players rated Creative Freedom at 5 or above, 56% at 6 or above. 87% of players rated Engrossment at 5 or above," the study reads.
"I did find it really rewarding just like making my own questions up for once," said one participant. "The freedom can be very exhilarating at first, and it feels immersive, and it feels cool. And it can also feel overwhelming," said another, who also began to get at another point the study makes, which is that participants also wondered what about their conversations with these NPCs was actually meaningful.
Could a lot of these results be more about the shortened playtime and the novelty of it? Sure, that's one possibility, and to the research's credit, it does acknowledge that as a limitation. That also doesn't mean that these responses should be dismissed offhand. It is a potentially interesting use of GenAI and AI in video games.
Does a technology like this actually have the potential that Meaning Machine claims it does? Of course, we can't know for sure, but the majority of 68 people in Bristol who, for all we know, could have already been in support of GenAI tech and not outright against it, as we've seen many are, certainly does not sound like proof of anything revolutionary.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
