Scripting

The call for papers for the AIIDE ‘08 conference has just expired. This year I’m on the Program Committee, so today I got my hands on four papers to review based on my selected topics. There are some pretty great research projects this year…
However, I find the opening paragraphs that describe the motivation […]

Most days, no matter how productive I’m being with traditional programming languages like C++ or Python, you’ll easily draw me into an argument about how terrible they are as tools for creating decisions or behavior of any kind. In fact, most of my musings on this blog (RSS) and my personal research are pushing […]

This easter weekend at AiGameDev.com, we’ve rounded up many Smart Links from around the web, including reviews and their analysis, useful white papers, and news tidbits to keep you informed about anything relating to artificial intelligence in games.
This roundup is brought to you by Novack and Alex Champandard. If you have any news or tips […]

This article introducing AiGameDev.com’s weekly developer discussion was written by Dave Mark, the AI guru behind Intrinsic Algorithm. Let him know what you think and post a comment below!

The Game Developers Conference has always been known as a place to go learn things about the industry and the technology. It is also a prime arena […]

When your job is to build an intelligent system, the more time you spend testing and tweaking the better the results will be. Conversely, if you waste half of your working day waiting for something to happen, then you’re not at the peak of productivity! These problems don’t only occur on big budget […]

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare received high praises from the community here. Admittedly, the AI in the game doesn’t necessarily shine for technical reasons, but it’s wonderfully put together within the whole story, and has arguably become one of the best examples of scripted level design. This article provides an overview of the development tools inside the SDK, explains how the AI logic is structured, and then dig deeper into the level scripts to show how it was put together.

The topic for the developer discussion two weeks ago was What Trends in Game AI Do You Anticipate for 2008?. Here’s a quick summary of the including comments and personal opinions, as well as tips to help you make the most of 2008.
The first few predictions cover the AAA games industry and how AI […]

On this first Saturday of the new year, there are some really good Smart Links for you, including some multi-media entertainment. Be sure to contact me if you have any news or tips for next week!
Remember there’s a mini-blog over at news.AiGameDev.com (RSS) with game AI news from the web as it happens.

You’ve been building an autonomous AI to improve the gameplay on your next-gen title and everything is finally falling into place:

Bachelor’s degree and master’s research in AI, 4 years.
Two AAA titles of experience (plus prototypes), 5 years.
Revamping of the AI architecture with new features, 2 years.
Watching designers disable the AI with scripts, timeless!

“There are […]

At a certain level, adaptation is a requirement for AI. If a game doesn’t have it, you end up living inside a movie you can’t change! In practice, all the traditional techniques (e.g. finite state machines, scripts) help developers implement adaptive behaviors, but things get tricky when you want to adapt to many […]

A few months ago, in the early days of this blog, I noted the importance of understanding the different possible types of failures of actions, and all other tasks for that matter. This article looks into ways for your AI logic, in particular your scripts or behavior trees, to deal with these problems more […]

Assume you have a long-term AI behavior controlling a character in a game. It could be implemented as a script, a behavior tree, or any other sequence of actions to follow. How do you deal with events happening in the world in a way that’s coherent with this active behavior?
The AI logic needs […]

When it comes to building powerful decision-making and control systems, robotics research is the best place to turn to for decades of experience. Many of the popular ideas in game AI today can be traced back to robotics controllers. In particular, PRS provides design methodologies and tricks for building behaviors that are responsive and purposeful.

As the archetypal sim-game, The Sims revolutionized the industry by creating an interactive doll house, becoming the best selling PC game of all time in the process. This article looks into the smart-object technology (among other features) behind this prolific franchise, and how they are used to create an emergent simulation and emotionally rewarding gameplay.

Scripting support in a game (for AI, gameplay, or level scripting) always starts off as a good idea; everyone wants a data-driven engine that empowers the designers. Yet somehow it almost always turns out to be a big mess — sometimes worse than something implemented in plain C++.

This article features coverage from the Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE ‘07) conference, featuring the most cutting edge research in game AI. The proceedings read like a “who’s who” in the field, and there’s lot to learn from! Here’s a collection of highlights from the conference, and references that can be found online.