historical
Where AI Adventure Began
A recorded AI Adventure play-through or experiment.
Where AI Adventure Began
Archive note: “The Cave” is a descriptive archive title. The original exchange did not have a formal adventure title.
Background
On 9 July 2026, Aardvark published a post reflecting on the original text adventure games and experimenting with a local AI model, Gemma running on a Raspberry Pi 5, as an adventure game engine.
The idea was simple: rather than following a fixed collection of pre-written branches, an AI could respond dynamically to whatever the player chose to do.
On 10 July 2026, Jim brought that idea to ChatGPT.
There was no AI Adventure framework.
There was no Adventure Format.
There was no AI Adventure Guide.
There was just a cave.
The First Adventure
Good. I am standing in a cave. There are exits to the north and the west. I choose to go to the North
You head north.
The rough limestone passage narrows, forcing you to duck beneath a low outcrop. Water drips steadily from the ceiling, each splash echoing into the darkness ahead. After a short walk the tunnel opens into a circular chamber.
A weathered stone pedestal stands in the centre of the room. Resting on it is an old brass lantern, still faintly warm, as though someone lit it not long ago.
On the eastern wall, a heavy wooden door is bound with iron bands. There is no visible handle, only three circular depressions carved into the wood.
A narrow passage continues to the north. The tunnel back to the south returns to the cave where you started.
Visible items: Brass lantern, stone pedestal, mysterious door.
Exits: North, South.
What do you do?
(And no, I'm not going to kill you with a grue in the first room. Standards have slipped since the 1980s, but not quite that far.)
Why This Matters
This exchange predates AI Adventure.
There was no prepared adventure file and no formal framework telling the AI how to run the game. The player supplied a starting situation and ChatGPT created the world beyond it.
The experiment demonstrated something that would become central to AI Adventure: a text adventure did not have to be a collection of fixed branches. The AI could respond to the player, extend the world dynamically, and allow the story to develop through interaction.
Within the following days, that simple experiment developed into discussions about reusable adventure files, an AI Adventure Guide, an Adventure Format, a website, and adventures that could be played across different AI systems.
This is therefore preserved as a Pre-AIA example: not an example of the framework working, but an example of the experiment that helped lead to the framework.