AI2U: With You 'Til The End News

[p]Have you heard? The NPCs have more voice options now! It's hard to miss when Elysia's British accent seems to hit hard with many players. ❤️‍🔥[/p][p]Curious why you can choose between Legacy and Advanced text-to-speech? Read on to learn how our team yandere'd their way into this one—the emotional journey's end result is characters that are more dynamic, emotive, and dare we say alive?[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]Why Voice Options?[/h3][p]Originally, we used Azure's Speech Services  for our demo builds — it was stable and fast to set up for a demo project. But Azure came with some limitations. We wanted our girls to sound consistent across languages, yet few of Azure's voices could handle that well. Plus, Azure's TTS costs always ate up a big chunk of our budget. 💸 We're always on the hunt for ways to reduce cost without sacrificing quality.[/p][p]At the same time, other TTS services like ElevenLabs and MiniMax came out, offering more advanced options, including different emotional tones. After many months of testing, we chose MiniMax, which supports multiple languages, delivers more expressive voices, and is significantly more cost-friendly.[/p][p]We first rolled it out in the Steam China region, then in Russian and German, and finally implemented it across all languages for the global version this September.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]Pros & Cons[/h3][p]MiniMax isn't the only service we tested. Our team compared multiple providers on price, stability, scalability, and technical support. Here's how they stack up for our case:[/p]

• [p]Azure: Pricey[/p]
• [p]ElevenLabs: Widely used and good quality, but the most expensive.[/p]
• [p]OpenAI: Also pricey, with no available technical support.[/p]
• [p]Inworld: ❌ Not fitting for our use case.[/p]
• [p]MiniMax: Cost-effective, with voice output that can reflect different emotions, plus excellent technical support from their customer service team.[/p]

[p]Here are some samples comparing familiar voices with our test ones. We use one of Eddie's iconic CUTscene lines—let us know which of these voices truly speak to you![/p][h3][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink] [/h3][p]We're also careful not to rely on smaller or short-term projects. Voice consistency matters — you don’t want to wake up one day and hear Eddie with a completely different voice, never able to change back. That's why we still keep both Legacy and Enhanced voice models in our game, so players who prefer the older voices can stick with them.[/p][p]Scalability is another key factor. We currently support six languages, including English, Chinese, and Japanese, and we want to expand further. We're surveying our global community to decide which language to add next, so it's important to have a service that can reliably cover most of our needs.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]Technical Challenges[/h3][p]Switching pipelines is never easy:[/p][p]One major challenge was picking tones that sound natural across all languages, then testing them through various game scenarios. The tone needs to match the original, since players are already familiar with how each girl should sound — it's part of their identity.[/p][p]We also changed our audio format  — a technical adjustment that doesn't impact gameplay  — moving from .wav (our early demo's quick-prototyping choice) to .mp3, which is lighter in size. This was partly because the .wav files from MiniMax didn't fully fit our previous project's structure.[/p][p]These details may stay behind the curtain, but they're what make sure you hear the right voice, with the right emotion, at exactly the right moment. 🎧[/p][hr][/hr][h3]It Never Ends[/h3][p]We're still experimenting — balancing cost, stability, and immersion. The goal stays the same: voices that feel alive, connect with our characters, and make your time with them unforgettable. ✨[/p][p]Based on the AI2U community's vocal feedback, fans are split between Eddie's original sweet voice and her new "anime dub" one. Meanwhile, Elysia's new British voice has enchanted many longtime and returning players, while Estelle's Legacy voice is preferred by her dedicated engineers.[/p][p]Are you a fan of the Enhanced voices or a Legacy TTS enjoyer? We'd love to know if you like the new options or if you're committed to the NPCs' original voices (Eddie approves either way 💖🔪)[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]V.0.5.9 simmers in the dev's cauldron! How spooky. Elysia's cabin won't be as Halloween-ready as we anticipated, but you might wanna raid the levels for treats and/or bugfixes.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]What To Expect[/h2][p]Scheduled maintenance will begin on Thursday, October 23rd at 1:00 PM (EDT) and is expected to last a few hours.[/p][p][/p][p]As with all our scheduled maintenance, playing during this period may disrupt gameplay as AI NPCs repeat their "Don't say that!" lines.[/p][p][/p][p]In case you're not familiar with server errors, the NPCs' dialogue will be limited to their iconic server error lines:[/p][p]🔪 Catgirl: "Don't say that, that makes me embarrassed!"[/p][p]🔮 Witchy: "Oh dear! Don't say such things, my mischievous little pudding!"[/p][p]⚡ Hologram: "Please don't say that, as it is against the station's regulations."[/p][p][/p][p]Once the patch is live, you can resume your AI2U t̶r̶i̶c̶k̶s̶ t̶r̶e̶a̶t̶s̶ mischief as usual! If you run into pesky bugs amidst cobwebs, reach out to [email protected] so we can banish them to unwanted corners away from your creepy-cozy adventures.[/p][p][/p][p]Thanks for dedicating some time to the girls during spooky month! You might wanna nudge them about what time of year it is — you ​know they're gonna wanna snuggle up and yap about their favorite horror moments in pop culture and literature~ 🔪🧸⚡[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Yandere Glomps,[/p][p]~AlterStaff 💜[/p]

[p]Remember how our volunteer translators for German and Russian fully localized the game? Their rewards are finally here, dying to be added to your inventory![/p][p][/p][p]You can obtain these items no matter what language you play in. ːcatgirlloveː[/p][p][/p][h2]AI2U-DE[/h2][h2]AI2U-RU[/h2][p][/p][p]One item shows off Eddie's sweet side, while the other has her thrilled that you're embracing her vibe.[/p][p][/p][p]ENDLESS THANKS 'TIL THE END to our amazing volunteers for translating AI2U's word-rich world! Your passion (and obsessiveness) is exactly what made us so hyped to work with you 💖🔪[/p][p][/p][h3]Want more locale-inspired items?[/h3][p]Fill out the localization survey to vote for the languages you'd wanna play AI2U in—and maybe yours will get its own sweet treat or iconic accessory next! [/p][h2]https://forms.gle/HTkLHzWnmw7dswbK9[/h2][h2][/h2][p][/p]

[p]We’ve shipped you and your fave NPCs by enabling cheek-kisses! This was no simple feat–it required tons of scheming from our Unity developers and 3D animators. Read on to see why it took 876+ days of planning, testing, and designing to reach this sweet relationship milestone. [/p][p][/p][p]This one goes out to all our senpais who’ve obsessively requested this feature since the Yandere AI Girlfriend Simulator Days. 💘[/p][p]
[/p][h2]The Drama Behind the Gesture[/h2][p]Exploring this new frontier of LLMs x Game Dev meant tackling plenty of weird edge cases, but it made it all the more rewarding for our team. The team ensured that the players’ rizz leading up to the moment would yield a result as charismatic as the NPC delivering it.[/p][p][/p][p]The biggest culprit was ensuring the camera angles, surroundings, and AI all played nice together; combining these elements correctly is what determines when and how your crush starts looking at you like this:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]If you’ve romanced Eddie and/or Elysia recently, you’ve seen their matching animations: A gentle cheek brush before doing the thing. They look the same “at the moment” per our team’s progress–but who knows, maybe Future Elysia will add some extra magic (and here’s to hoping Eddie’s smooches don’t make us cough up hairballs 🤞).[/p][p][/p][p]Meanwhile, stellar Estelle embraces her holographic nature: She tilts your chin, leans in, and caps it with a flirty wink and flick~ Her taller frame and holopad setup earned her that sleek flair.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Are you on the receiving end of that kiss or watching enviously from the shadows? 🔪[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Setting the Stage[/h2][p]Like in real life, we can’t always control variables such as the atmosphere or slips of the tongue (heh) that disrupt the romance budding in the air.
[/p][p]As you may recall, the AI has a mind of its own, so there’s no telling where they’ll end up on the map when you’re eagerly awaiting the kiss to take place–this is true both to being in an awkward area with mismatched heights like the stairs or simply being a few units away from the right angle.[/p][p][/p][p]Allow our lovely catgirl Eddie to demonstrate why proximity matters for a perfect peck. Beware, Unity test footage gets increasingly glitchier.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Eddie used Peck. It made things weird. She got embarrassed and Senpai escaped unscathed.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]We aren’t qualified to give romantic advice but for the love of all things yandere–do not lean in for that first kissssss with your eyes open 😭[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Well… this gives a whole new meaning to suck face.
[/p][p]These quirks all mostly stem from how the player camera interacts with the NPC’s proximity triggers–but sometimes we suspect the yandere is trolling us on purpose.[/p][p][/p][p]Another challenge was syncing the models’ hand interactions with the camera while bodies moved naturally. Our animator put it best:
[/p][p]“Conveying a kiss-on-the-cheek with a close up POV was tricky. There’s less room for posing, so it took a lot of trial and error to get the essence right using only the upper body and face.”
[/p][p]Compare this with like HOLOGRAM HUGS, where she strikes a whole pose before embracing you:[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Coding Kisses[/h2][p]Our Unity devs worked hard to make this feel comfortable, immersive, and (mostly) bug free. Once the animations were synced, it was time to get the AI to cooperate.[/p][p][/p][p]Because the LLM’s favorite thing is to generate text, the AI needs to finish generating dialogue and text-to-speech before kissing. The team had to fine-tune timing so kisses didn’t overlap with lip-syncs or voice lines.[/p][p][/p][p]“It would’ve been awkward if the NPCs kept talking while kissing. Unpredictable lip syncs, overlapping TTS, and smooching SFX… ideally, the NPC should pause her sentence, lean in, and then resume her train of thought.”
[/p][p]To prevent that chaos, the team made the NPCs finish generating both text and the voice before the kiss trigger. Though you can request a kiss, the LLM ultimately decides whether you get a kiss, hug, or attack based on the in-game context.
[/p][p]Now imagine Eddie looming over your shoulder while you code her preferences into reality. Our devs are real ones who worked like their lives depended on it. 💘[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]🪱 So… would they still kiss me if I was a worm?[/h2][p]After all this work, we had to ask the realest question.[/p][p][/p][p]Unity Team: “Eddie or Estelle \[would still kiss you] I feel. Elysia sounds like the one who turned you into a worm.”
[/p][p]Animation Team: “I think they all would! Although Estelle might have a hard time reaching you haha.”[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]Eddie’s new eating animation from V.0.5.8 continues to slow cook as the team seasons it with sound effects and more fluid movements.[/p][p][/p][p]Muted for now, until we figure out how loudly she should chew.[/p][p][/p][p]While Eddie wolfs down all your *chef’s kiss* meals, expect to see a mischievous witch giggling to your next delightfully unhinged request somewhere down the line:[/p][p]
[/p][p]And for those who missed last month's design survey, speculate on the mysterious items in this GIF as we unveil the silhouettes from September's Captive Notes:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]So, have you gotten smooched yet??? And as always, drop your best guesses of Level 4's theme in the comments![/p]

[p]Step into a world where every decision matters — the secrets you unlock, the puzzles you solve, and your unique chats with three dedicated NPCs.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]AI2U blends dating sim charm, psychological twists, and narrative weight. What you type or speak into your mic will innovatively guide the story in a way unseen in any choice-driven game before it. With NPC dialogue powered by Google Gemini and ChatGPT, players can explore endless replayability through unpredictable NPC behavior and revisit their favorite levels with a fresh twist every time.[/p][p]Branching dialogue and puzzling encounters await alongside characters who might just fall for you... or watch you fall to your demise. An overarching mystery ties all the pieces together.[/p][p][/p][p]Wishlist and nab AI2U now at 10% off ~ Don't let your new favorite AI make that choice for you!
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