The Needle

Save Point has been in continuous development since 2021 and is, to our knowledge, the world’s first purpose-built AI-native interactive cinematic engine. The Needle uses this technology to deliver a continuously responsive cinematic experience that goes far beyond conventional branching video. AI-assisted production tools helped create portions of the game’s pre-rendered audiovisual content, with every shipped asset human-directed, reviewed, edited, and integrated. The game also offers locally processed voice controls, alongside keyboard and gamepad support. No unreviewed audiovisual content is generated and delivered to players during gameplay. The project represents tens of thousands of hours of human design, engineering, direction, editing, and testing, with AI serving as the enabling technology behind an experience an independent studio could not otherwise produce at any cost, much less a reasonable one. We didn't use AI to save money, we used it because without AI there wasn't enough money in the world to build a game like this.