Candy Crush tech guru on how ‘really exciting’ AI is supercharging work on one of world’s most popular games
Never mind typing on WhatsApp, swiping on Tinder, or scrolling on TikTok; even after all these years, few apps are able to turn you into a phone-obsessed zombie quite like Candy Crush.
More than a decade since it debuted on Apple and Google‘s app stores, the colourful tile-matching puzzle game remains an entertaining time sink for 238 million people worldwide.
It’s in many ways helped redefine what it means to be a “gamer”, now someone perhaps just as likely to be a commuting mother as a pasty teenager in a blacked-out bedroom.
Indeed, most Candy Crush players are women, and its huge player base has helped it make north of $1bn (£800m) in annual revenue for years.
Developer King has delivered more than 14,000 levels and thousands of hardcore fans have finished every one, no doubt melting away many bus and train journeys in the process.
Each time they polish off the latest new stages they’re made to wait a few weeks for the next batch, hopefully not enduring some kind of existential “what do I do now?” crisis during the downtime.
But those already pretty short gaps between level releases could well get shorter before too long, as every tech executive’s favourite buzz term – generative AI – makes its mark on game development.
“They are undoubtedly changing the way people work,” says Steve Collins, King’s chief technology officer.
“We have great talented artists, designers, and developers and these tools enable our teams to do more.
“It’s really exciting for us – we are really only able to deliver to our players a small fraction of what’s in our head, so anything that removes barriers is a fantastic thing.”
King’s chief technology officer Steve Collins
AI will ‘help creative people do more’
From writing novels to recording music, generative AI that can produce human-like content on a whim is arguably threatening the norms of the creative industries more than any others.
Why wait for a new Drake track when you could make one yourself? Does a money-driven film studio need to hire actors when deepfakes look indiscernible from reality?
Similar questions have started to penetrate the gaming industry, notably among voice actors, who could join their Hollywood counterparts on strike.
Collins insists AI cannot replace the work of his London-based team, but rather enhance it.
“This is about putting tools in the hands of really creative and skilled people and letting them do more,” he says.
“Generative AI and large language models are really great at solving some repetitive and rule-based tasks, and that frees people up to be even more creative and focus on the skills they enjoy using.”
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‘Long history’ between games and AI
Just as this year has seen the likes of Google and Microsoft move to catch up with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, gaming companies will be keen to make the most of the power of AI so not to risk being left behind.
Some games, like the Xbox title High On Life, used the technology to generate art and voice-overs.
And Call Of Duty, which is owned by King’s parent company Activision Blizzard, is using it to listen out for hate speech during matches.
King’s own purchase of Peltarion, a Swedish AI company, last year looks particularly prescient.
Of course, gaming has always been at the forefront of where art meets technological innovation, and AI has been a buzzword within the industry for far longer than ChatGPT has been around.
Hop into an online game of FIFA and it won’t be long before you hear someone bemoan their computer teammates, while single-player games have long offered difficulty modes where AI dictates how tough your enemies are.
At King, bots are being used to test levels – playing through them as if they were humans to help hone the challenge.
Collins says: “We have 238 million players – and we can’t think of all of them as being an average player.
“Some want to be super competitive, some want to make a lot of progress quickly, some want a challenge, so we develop bots to play our games with different personas.”
This, he says, is the kind of utilisation of AI that frees up artists and designers to concentrate on making more and better levels.
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King’s parent company Activision Blizzard is also behind the Call Of Duty series
There’s no doubt video games are becoming increasingly influential.
Whether it’s by leveraging gaming tech to make blockbuster films like Avatar, or turning to them for adaptions like The Last Of Us, other creatives are looking to gaming more than ever for inspiration.
It’s maybe part of why Collins, a computer scientist from Dublin, is optimistic about how his industry will take on a trailblazing role with AI in the years ahead.
“Like everyone, we’re very much in an experimental mode and still learning what this is capable of,” he says.
“Of course there are challenges in how you take advantage of it – you can’t guarantee the accuracy, you need to understand its limitations, there are serious questions to answer around content ownership and copyright.
“But I feel very optimistic about the innovations these technologies can bring.”
If those innovations mean more Candy Crush levels, busy mums and pasty teens alike will likely not complain.
Angelina Jolie says although she appreciates being an artist, she would prefer for her legacy to be “a good mother” and to be known for her “belief in equality and human rights”.
The Oscar-winning actress stars as Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larrain film about the opera singer’s life.
Pic: StudioCanal
She has called Maria “the hardest” and “most challenging” role she has had in her career and put months of preparation into immersing herself into the world of opera.
Jolie, who recently reached a divorce settlement with actor Brad Pitt, told Sky News: “To be very candid, it was the therapy I didn’t realise I needed. I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out.
“So, the challenge wasn’t the technical [side of opera], it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
The biopic combines the voice of the Maleficent actress with recordings of Maria Callas.
Jolie believes it “would be a crime to not have [Callas’] voice through this because, in many ways, she is very present in this film”.
Who was Maria Callas?
Born in New York in 1923, Maria Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants who moved back to Athens at the age of 13 with her mother and sister.
After enrolling at the Athens Conservatory, she made her professional debut at 17 and went on to become one of the most famous faces of opera, travelling around the world and performing at Covent Garden in London, The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan.
Callas’s final operatic performance took place at Covent Garden in 1965 when she was 41 but she continued to work conducting master classes at Juilliard School, doing concert tours and starring in the 1969 film Medea.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Maria focuses on the artist’s final years in the 1970s when she moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.
She died on 16 September 1977 at the age of 53.
Pic: StudioCanal
Jolie on changing motivations as an actor
Maria follows the life of an artist fully consumed by the art she creates and even remarks that “happiness never developed a beautiful melody”.
Reflecting on her own life in the spotlight, Jolie said she noticed her own career motivations change over the years.
“There’s this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation – it’s a connection.
“I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I’ve gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions.
“It’s a matter of life, right? And so maybe that’s interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn’t have understood in my 20s”.
Jolie at the New York Film Festival in September with three of her children (L-R) Pax, Zahara and Maddox. Pic: AP
A family affair
Two of Jolie’s children, Maddox and Pax, took on production assistant roles during the filming of Maria and witnessed their mother perform opera for the first time in public.
She says the film allowed them to create new experiences together and for her children to see her approach to playing a difficult role.
“Everyone in my home, we all give each other space to be who we are and we’re all different.
“I’m the mom, but I’m also an artist and a person and so my family has been very kind and gives me their understanding. They make fun of me, and they support me and just as you’d hope it would be.”
She adds: “When you play somebody who is dealing with so much pain, it’s very important to come home to some kindness.”
Maria is in cinemas now.
Tom Holland’s dad has confirmed his son’s engagement to Zendaya – revealing how the 28-year-old meticulously planned the proposal.
Zendaya, also 28, sparked engagement rumours when she attended last Sunday’s Golden Globes wearing a sparkling diamond on her ring finger.
Neither star has publicly addressed the rumours but Tom’s comedian father, Dominic Holland, has now confirmed the pair are set to wed.
He wrote in a post on his Patreon account: “Tom, as you know by now was very incredibly well prepared. He had purchased a ring.
“He had spoken with her father and gained permission to propose to his daughter.”
“Tom had everything planned out… When, where, how, what to say, what to wear,” he added.
Zendaya arrived at the Golden Globes with a noticeable piece of new jewellery. Pic: Invision/AP
Dominic also noted that while most men worry about being able to afford an engagement ring, he suspects his actor son was “more concerned with the stone, its size and clarity, its housing, which jeweller”.
Tom and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, when they played the titular hero and his love interest MJ, respectively. Their romance was confirmed in 2021.
In his post, Tom’s father admitted fears over whether being in the spotlight could put a strain on the couple’s relationship.
He wrote: “I do fret that their combined stardom will amplify their spotlight and the commensurate demands on them and yet they continually confound me by handling everything with aplomb.”
“And even though show business is a messy place for relationships and particularly so for famous couples as they crash and burn in public and are too numerous to mention […] yet somehow right at the same time, I am completely confident they will make a successful union.”
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Zendaya rose to fame after landing a role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, and became a household name after starring in Euphoria.
Holland – who has starred in three Spider-Man films opposite his now-fiancée – made his stage debut in Billy Elliot the Musical in 2008.
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