Building on the incredible success of last year's record-setting event, AiGameDev.com is proud to announce the program of the fourth annual Game/AI Conference in Paris, co-organized with the CNAM where the event is held. This year's conference takes place on June 23rd and 24th 2011, following a symposium about Action/Combat Shooters on June 22nd. The schedule blends invited sessions from top AI developers from industry as well as tutorials, reviews and R&D oriented sessions.
The organizing committee consists of Petra & Alex Champandard from AiGameDev.com, Stephane Natkin from the CEDRIC lab, and Axel Buendia of the Paris-based middleware company Spir.Ops. The advisory board includes Phil Carlisle, Matthew Jack, Mikko Mononen, and William van der Sterren. We'd also like to thank all our sponsors for the event: Autodesk, Havok, Namaste and Spir.Ops.
If you're one of the few still looking for reasons to attend, here's the full schedule for those three days! Until June 3rd, tickets will be available in the store for 96€ (for Silver) and 192€ (for Gold). If you're a student and want one of the last few Bronze tickets (at 48€) then email us ASAP at <billing at AiGameDev.com>.
Keynotes & Invited Talks
TOTAL WAR: SHOGUN 2 by Ingimar Gudmundsson
TOTAL WAR: SHOGUN 2 is a strategy computer game developed by The Creative Assembly. This latest iteration in the series has focused heavily on its AI, and the game is receiving acclaim for its revamped battle AI.
DARKSPORE by Dan Kline
In the tradition of its developer Maxis, DARK SPORE is an innovative RPG game that features some radical AI design. In particular, the game uses an AI Director to help control the gameplay experience for the players of varying skill.
BACKBREAKER by Torsten Reil
BACKBREAKER is an American football game that features realistic physically simulated tackles that make you feel every hit and blow. It uses Natural Motion’s Euphoria, a game animation engine that generates motion on the fly based on physical simulation of a character’s muscles.
Features Game Presentations
KILLZONE 3 by Mikko Mononen
The fourth installment in this science fiction epic, KILLZONE 3 continues where its predecessor left off. Guerrilla Games has a history of investing in its AI technology for both single player and multiplayer, but this edition of the game takes it further by leveraging traditionally AI techniques to improve the player locomotion and controls.
NASCAR, THE GAME 2011 by Neil Henning
NASCAR races have forty-three cars racing in tight packs around the tracks, and Eutechnyx set out from the start to create a realistic experience where drivers have distinctive personalities and race just like their real life counterparts. Optimizing that game to run smoothly on modern consoles, particularly the PS3, was quite a challenge!
PROM WEEK by Mike Treanor
PROM WEEK is an innovative AI-based social game developed by Expressive Intelligence studio and Michael Mateas, creator of Facade. The game features groundbreaking gameplay with puzzles based on emotions and traits of characters preparing for a high-school prom.
CRYSIS 2 by Sven van Soom
The next iteration of Crytek’s sandbox shooter, set in New York, combines the incredible technology of CryEngine 3 along with the trademark gameplay that defines the series. In particular, you’ll hear about the animation technology under the hood and how it’s used by the AI.
GREED CORP by Giliam de Carpentier
Greed Corp is a turn-based strategy game which focuses on strategic battles on a map featuring a land collapsing mechanic. Players choose one of four factions (Freemen, Pirates, Cartel, Empire) in matches of around 20 minutes.
SPLINTER CELL: DOUBLE AGENT by Axel Buendia
Developed by Ubisoft along with Spir.Ops' drive-oriented behavior system, SPLINTER CELL: DOUBLE AGENT features bots that you can play against competitively in multiplayer mode. Find out how these were implemented using a utility system in practice.
LOVE (MMO) by Eskil Steenberg
LOVE is an ambitious and stylish MMO game that features entirely procedurally generated planets. The world is inhabited by tribes of AI characters which can be hostile or friendly towards the player, and built up their own settlements autonomously.
Topic-Specific Tutorials
Spread over the two days, there'll be topic-specific tutorials to inspire you and give you insights into different topics that you didn't necessarily know about! These will be given by researchers, professional developers, and academics.
- Applying Reactive Planning Idioms to Behavior Trees
- Ben Weber will explain the best ideas from behavior languages such as ABL, for example applied to a Starcraft bot, to improve the design of your own BTs.
- Data-Mining Techniques Applied to Games
- Georgios Yannakakis will show you different examples of how data-mining can be successfully applied to extract patterns from game data.
- Procedural Generation for Games
- Julian Togelius will demonstrate some procedurally generated game levels and the underlying techniques you can apply to your own games.
- The Next-Generation of Game Planners
- Luke Dicken will dig into a wide variety of planning techniques used in research and other domains, and analyse their suitable.
- Rapid AI Development with C++
- Matthew Jack and Doug Binks will show a working prototype for dynamically reloading game code (and BTs) written in C++, as if it was a script!
- The Future of Deliberative Decision Making
- This panel will discuss the current state of GOAP (Goal-Oriented Action Planning) in the games industry, and where we can go from here.
You'll also get the chance to attend technical talks about the pathfinding technology behind Autodesk Kynapse, and the animation systems in Havok Behavior.
Posters & Demos
On the 22nd in the evening, from 19:00 onwards, there'll be a poster and demonstration session along side the early registration for the event. You'll be able to see what Master's students and Ph.D. candidates have been working on!
- Using Fuzzy Logic for Realistic Managerial Decisions in Football Games
by David Asboth - A Bayesian Approach to Micro-management in RTS Games
by Gabriel Synnaeve - Situational Awareness and Emotional State with FAtiMA
by Paulo F. Gomes - Procedural Generation of Side Quests via Responsive NPC Design
by John Grey - Emergent Behaviour Generation using Predictive Action Merging
by Micah Rosenkind - Adaptive Formations for Tactical Teams
by Tomas Plch - StarPlanner: Demonstrating a Goal-Oriented Action Planning for RTS
by Panagiotis Peikidis
Shooter Symposium
On the 22nd, the Paris Shooter Symposium will bring together the leading action/combat/shooter developers from around the world — including People Can Fly, Ubisoft, IO Interactive, Splash Damage, Guerrilla Games, etc. The day is split into four parts, each containing intense micro-talks about lessons learned from recent AAA hits or upcoming games:
Mid-Morning — Animation, Locomotion
Late Morning — Behavior Logic
Early Afternoon — Combat Reasoning
Mid-Afternoon — Authoring & Scripting
Note that it's a standalone event in a different amphitheatre, and you need a separate ticket for that; it costs 384€ and there are less than a dozen seats left!
BULLETSTORM
The most recently released game by People Can Fly will be covered during the Symposium too. The game has some great challenges and you’ll hear about the solutions that the developers used!
BRINK
You’ll also hear about the innovative multiplayer shooter from Splash Damage, and all the work that went into the bots for the game!
HITMAN 5
The latest game from IO Interactive has only just been announced, but you'll hear all about the behavior tree implementation, tools and script integration.
GHOST RECON
The team from Ubisoft Paris will be present and explain some of the details about their upcoming shooter in the Tom Clancy series.
CRYSIS 2
The latest game from Crytek will be discussed in depth at the Symposium, including details about the AI and its integration with other systems.
Networking Opportunities
Last but not least, there's the networking. With the majority of the leading studios in Europe attending and sending multiple developers, there's no better place to look for opportunities! Over the course of the two days of the Game/AI Conference and the Shooter Symposium Day, there'll be multiple coffee pauses and lunch breaks that will give you the chance to socialize.
There'll be a set of organized events as well:
- June 21st, Shooter Symposium Mixer. 20:00-LATE.
- June 22nd, Welcome Reception. 19:00-22:00.
- June 23rd, Official Party. 19:00-LATE.
- June 24th, PREMIUM V.I.P. Dinner. 20:00-LATE.
Many of the leading developers from the games industry, programmers from related fields like serious games and simulation will attend the Paris Game/AI Conference (it's the largest in the field, worldwide) so be sure to bring your business cards!
Now What?
If you haven't got your ticket yet, best secure your seat now!
Silver Tickets at 96€ (full price
150€).Gold Tickets at 192€ (full price
250€).Shooter Symposium Tickets at 384€ (full price
450€).Bronze Tickets at 48€ for students only, email us!
For group purchases, also contact us directly at at <billing at AiGameDev.com>.
If you have your tickets already, then start networking with other attendees to prepare the event!
We'll also be posting a reading list for those of you overly very keen to prepare; you know who you are. Even if you don't read it, hopefully we'll see you in Paris!
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