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Chapter 9Putting It All Together

designing & building quality game artificial intelligence

Reference: Game Development Essentials Game Artificial Intelligence

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Key Chapter Questions■ What types of games use virtual players, AI agents, or both?

■ What are four steps in the development of the AI portion of a video game?

■ What are the benefits of iterative development? How can it be applied to a

video game project?

■ What are the responsibilities of an AI programmer and designer, and what

experience is required for each role?

■ What is the future of game artificial intelligence?

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Game AI RequirementsSimple Agents, Smart Virtual Players

Civilization IV

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Game AI RequirementsSmart Groups of Agents

Perfect Dark Zero

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Game AI RequirementsSolo Agents

Serious SamDoom 3

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Game AI RequirementsAgents & Virtual Agents

The Lord of the Rings:

The Battle for Middle-Earth

Perfect Dark Zero

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A Hypothetical Case Study: Titanium

Titanium I is a first-person shooter that is similar to Perfect Dark Zero.

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A Hypothetical Case Study: TitaniumDefine the AI Feature Set

■  Familiar Features

■  Fresh Features

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A Hypothetical Case Study: TitaniumDesign the AI Systems

Black Box vs. White Box Design

The AI in Gears of War control the player’s teammate Dominic with no input from the player. In this case, the AI teammate is controlled by a Black Box system.

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A Hypothetical Case Study: TitaniumDesign the AI Systems

Black Box vs. White Box Design

The player’s AI teammates in Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter respond to a number of commands issued by the player: stealth or aggressive behavior, movement directives, and attack orders. The resulting White Box system gives the player a great deal of control over the teammates, but it required that the player spend time directing the teammates’ behavior.

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A Hypothetical Case StudyTitaniumDesign the AI Systems

Capturing Information

■  Coding

■  Data

■  Script

■  Rules

■  Level Editor

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A Hypothetical Case Study TitaniumImplement the AI Systems

• Leveraging Familiar Features from Titanium I• Low-Level Behaviors• High-Level Behaviors• Preparing the Foundation for New Features• Initial Implementation Complete

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A Hypothetical Case StudyTitaniumIterate Details & Design

•Development Iteration

The Titanium II team used an iterative development process to create the AI. Prototype test levels were used initially to evaluate and improve the systems.

• Production Iteration

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Careers inGame Artificial Intelligence

• AI Programmer

• AI Designer

Gunman Chronicles (a Half-Life mod) impressed Valve so much that the company helped the developers finish and publish the game.