Key Points
- Cai Haoyu (蔡浩宇), co-founder of miHoYo (Mihayou 米哈游) and “Father of Genshin Impact,” is launching a new AI game project called Anuttacon, with its first title Whispers from the Star.
- Whispers from the Star is an “AI real-time interaction” FPT (First Person Talking) game where players guide a character named Stella through dialogue, featuring open-ended AI dialogue, memory, and unique endings (over 25 story nodes).
- Anuttacon’s team comprises nearly 50 people, with almost half from miHoYo and the other half from major tech companies like Microsoft (Weiruan 微软), Meta, and Amazon (Yamaxun 亚马逊).
- The game is set to launch on Steam for $9.99 USD on August 15th, offering a more accessible purchase model compared to other AI companion services.
- This venture signifies a broader shift towards AI-native games, with industry leaders and analysts predicting AI as a “fundamental component” for game development, reducing costs, enabling dynamic NPCs, and facilitating user-generated content.
The “Father of Genshin Impact,” Cai Haoyu (Cai Haoyu 蔡浩宇), is back with a new AI real-time interaction game, and it’s set to make some serious waves.
His new venture, an AI game studio called Anuttacon (Anuttacon), just listed its first project on Steam.
The game is called Whispers from the Star, and it drops on August 15th for an expected $9.99 USD (¥72.23 RMB).
Fair warning: it’s launching in English only to start.
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So, What Is “Whispers from the Star”? A Deep Dive into FPT Gameplay
This isn’t your typical open-world RPG.
The entire game centers around one core idea: “AI real-time interaction.”
You, the player, are put into an isolated environment where you have to build a connection with a space girl named Stella.
Your goal is to guide her survival on an alien planet entirely through dialogue.
The team is calling it an FPT (First Person Talking) game. Think First Person Shooter, but your only weapon is your words.
Here’s the breakdown of what makes it unique:
- Open-Ended AI Dialogue: Forget pre-written dialogue trees. Every conversation is unique and driven by AI.
- AI with a Memory: Stella remembers what you say. Your past conversations will shape your future interactions.
- Real Emotions: The character can express complex emotions like fear and joy through her facial expressions and body language, reacting to the situation and her own state.
- Truly Unique Endings: With over 25 story nodes, analysts at Huatai Securities (Huatai Zhengquan 华泰证券) say every choice can lead to a different ending, achieving what they call “irreproducible co-creative narration.”
The A-Team: Who is Anuttacon, the “AI miHoYo”?
Whispers from the Star is being built by Anuttacon, Cai Haoyu’s second major entrepreneurial project after co-founding the giga-successful miHoYo (Mihayou 米哈游).
Even though it’s just over a year old, the company has already built a powerhouse team of nearly 50 people.
Get this:
- Nearly half the team comes from miHoYo. They know how to build a hit.
- The other half comes from a who’s who of Big Tech: Microsoft (Weiruan 微软), Meta, and Amazon (Yamaxun 亚马逊).
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And they’re still hiring.
A quick look at their careers page shows they’re recruiting for highly specialized roles like:
- LLM Pre-training
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
- Intelligent Agents & LLM Application Scientists
This isn’t just a game with an AI feature bolted on; it’s a project built from the ground up by experts in large language models and AI behavior.
Anuttacon’s mission says it all: “Our mission is to create multimodal artificial intelligence with genuine emotional understanding and expressive communication abilities – it can not only think, but also perceive, and establish sincere connections with you through rich and detailed interactions.”
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Is This The Future or Just Another Chatbot? Market Context is Key
This concept of an AI companion isn’t entirely new, but Anuttacon’s approach is.
For example, Grok recently launched a “Companion” feature with its Grok 4 model.
It lets you chat with a gothic girl named Ani or a red panda named Bad Rudy.
But that access costs $30 USD (¥216.90 RMB) per month as part of a SuperGrok subscription.
Whispers from the Star is going for a one-time purchase of $9.99 USD, a radically different and more accessible model.
This is why financial analysts are watching so closely.
Huayuan Securities (Huayuan Zhengquan 华源证券) highlights the importance of the 示范效应 (demonstrative effect). In simple terms: if a major player like this succeeds, it proves the model works, and you can expect a flood of similar projects and a revaluation of gaming companies that get in on the action.
The Bigger Picture: AI is Already Eating the Gaming World
This game isn’t launching in a vacuum. AI is rapidly becoming a core pillar of the gaming industry.
Jensen Huang (Huang Renxun 黄仁勋), the CEO of Nvidia (Yingweida 英伟达), pointed to the stunning game Black Myth: Wukong as a prime example.
“This game uses a lot of AI,” Huang said, “which is why it is so beautiful.”
And Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games (the makers of the Unreal Engine), believes AI will become a “fundamental component” of game engines.
He predicts AI will empower small teams of just 10 people to create massive games with hyper-interactive worlds.
Analysts at Zhongyuan Securities (Zhongyuan Zhengquan 中原证券) agree, noting that the Chinese game industry has stable demand and is ripe for AI innovation.
They see clear applications already emerging:
- Cost reduction in production and distribution.
- Smarter and more dynamic AI NPCs.
- AI + UGC (User-Generated Content), where AI helps players create.
- AI Companionship, as seen in Whispers from the Star.
- Cost reduction in production and distribution
- Smarter and more dynamic AI NPCs
- AI + UGC (User-Generated Content) for player creation
- AI Companionship (e.g., Whispers from the Star)
The consensus is clear: AI-native games are coming, and they could fundamentally revalue the entire gaming industry.
All eyes are on Cai Haoyu’s new venture, as the success of this AI real-time interaction game could write the first chapter of a whole new playbook for the industry.
