I’ve been a gamer all my life and I especially enjoy long, story-driven RPGs. But with long breaks, I’d come back and couldn’t quite remember who all the characters were, where I left off, or which story threads mattered. So I started leaving breadcrumbs for future me, and somewhere along the way, I stumbled onto a use of AI that I hadn’t really considered before.
The first version of solving this problem was Compadre. I built it as a kind of Notion for gaming – one notebook per game. I jot down a few lines on where I am, who the characters are, and what’s next.
It also has reminders, which ended up being great for my World of Warcraft habits. Raid resets, dungeon lockouts, mob spawns – all of that little admin. That was the original fix. Just leave enough context so the game is ready for future me without relying on memory alone.
Coming back to Baldur’s Gate 3
One of my more recent big story game challenges was Baldur’s Gate 3. Which isn’t new for me. I’ve finished every Mass Effect game (who can forget the end run?), so long games with too many characters and story threads are very much my thing.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was just the latest one to expose the pattern – long gaps, hazy context and no easy way back in. It’s a massive game with main quests, side quests, companions, character arcs and little threads everywhere.
In my case, I’d been away from it for about a year. And yes, I built Compadre for exactly this kind of problem, but I also did what people do – I didn’t keep particularly good notes. When I came back, I had the usual “I sort of remember some of this” feeling. I knew I cared about the story, but I didn’t have the full context in my head anymore, so I set out to find another way back in.
Giving AI the right context
So I decided to solve this problem with the thing that seems to be on everybody’s mind right now – AI. But before I could ask it anything useful, I had to prime it with where I was in the story. The model knows the whole game. I didn’t.
I snapped a photo of my quest log on the TV. That gave it my current quests and enough breadcrumbs to know where I was. Then I could ask for what I needed, spoiler-free. Who’s this person again? What story threads should I remember? What have I already done? What was I trying to do?
Once it had context, the conversation felt natural. With voice, it became even more useful. I could just talk through the things I was fuzzy on and get back into the story without accidentally learning what happens later.
And it’s not just games. The same approach should work for any long-running story. Prime it with where you are, set some boundaries and let it fill in the gaps. You might even be able to get back into that epic TV series you abandoned years ago without spending half the season trying to remember who everyone is.
So did I just kill my own product with AI?
The thought crossed my mind, but I don’t think that’s what happened. Compadre still solves the problem it was built for. Some people will prefer a focused app, some will reach for AI, and I’ll probably do both.
The more interesting takeaway for me is how useful AI becomes when you give it the right context and clear boundaries. In this case, a photo of a quest log and a simple spoiler-free constraint was enough to turn it into a pretty good gaming companion.
And who knows? Maybe this isn’t a replacement at all. Maybe some of what I learned here will become an addition to Compadre someday.
