About

We are Mic Check, a graduate student project team for Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology’s Master’s program. Our project aims to leverage Generative AI through the medium of rap to empower players to express themselves creatively. To achieve this, we creating a game where the player competes in a Rap Battle against AI opponents to emerge as a rap legend!

Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that uses machine learning algorithms to create new content based of large amounts of data. As more and more people begin to turn towards AI to assist in game creation, we want to explore what Generative AI is capable of and how to make it fun.

What Gen AI is good at:

Generative AI technology is constantly growing and advancing, but there are a couple of things that we know the models currently can do well:

  • Produce diverse outcomes
  • Interpret human langauge/converse
  • Respond to user prompts

What Gen AI is…not good at:

There are still many areas for AI to improve. Hopefully our project can push the conversation of Generative AI forward, but until then, here are some current limitations:

  • Only as good as the models we train it on
  • Not energy efficent
  • Very costly making it had to interate on

Meet Our Characters

Ace (Player Character)

Players get to play as Ace, a small-town country herding dog with a dream to make it big in the rap game. They’ve grown up watching Rhyme Riders on the web but have never been exposed to rap culture in their hometown. One day, they packed up and set out to begin their career. Having only the online impression of what a rapper is, they dress in trendy, off-brand clothes in an attempt to fit in.

Fly Gull (AI Opponent)

Fly Gull is a young rapper/producer from the Bay who has risen to fame because of her sister a popular music producer. As the product of nepotism, she’s always had an easy, rich life. Fly Gull is super chill, laid back, and loves to vibe. Her fans, the Sunbeams share Fly Gull’s mellow attitude and are supporting her in her race to win the RHhyme Rider Competition.

Fly Gull raps in a G-Funk style, taking inspiration from Warren G, Snoop Dogg, DJ Quik, Egghead from Disco Elysium, and Lil Mariko (check out the sample track below). She is bad at flying, is on a diet misses greasy food, and doesn’t understand how her nepotism has benefitted her.