Distill a Tiny Model per NPC Instead of Using Frontier LLMs, Says Quintin Pope
QuintinPope5 · x · 2026-10-15
Quintin Pope argues that giving medieval peasant NPCs realistic intelligence shouldn't mean having a frontier LLM roleplay them—they don't need to code. Instead, highly distill a small specialized model per NPC role for the cheapest possible inference. He adds that co-designing game environments, narrative structure, and ML integration is a high-ceiling skill blending creativity, vision, and technical execution, leaving room for good companies to stand out.
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