Talking a good game

Ana’s not a natural conversationalist just yet – though given she’s an AI, even the odd generic reply doesn’t shatter the illusion. “It almost gives you a get-outof-jail-free card for any weird responses,” Smith says. “You’re not talking to a human like you are in Lifeline, so you kind of get away with it a little bit more.” But the beauty of releasing an early prologue is that Smith can use player data and feedback to make Ana a more capable chatbot. “You’ve got a potentially infinite number of ways players can interact with her,” he says, acknowledging his own playtests can only go so far. “There are ways that people have interacted with Ana that I hadn’t even thought about.”