An overview of use cases for AI in game design. We'll learn how to make the game more humane by using CPU power.

1. The Brain in the Game
Use cases of AI in video games

2. I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARJ8cAGm6JE

3. Gil Steiner
Full stack engineer
Game developer &
designer
gilsteiner.com
gamesgil@github

4. Non Agenda
Player AIs / Bots
Complicated algorithms

5. Agenda
What is AI in game context?
Artificial life
Some history
Procedural content generation
Autonomous Behavior Simulation
Action

6. What is Game AI?
A set of algorithms which rule an NPC behavior
A set of algorithms which auto-generates content

7. Game AI - Pros
Natural feel
Cover for the lack of real human
opponent
Make up for human effort

8. Cons
Humans are less predictable
An NPC can easily become too easy or too hard to beat
Lose control over level design

9. Artificial Life - Cellular Automata
Conway’s Game of Life (demo)
http://gilsteiner.com/content/demos/life/

10. Artificial Life - Langton’s Ant
Complex and unpredictable behavior from a very simple ruleset (demo)
http://gilsteiner.com/content/demos/langtonsant/

11. Pac Man’s Ghosts - Chase Mode
Blinky - follow aggressively
Pinky - ambush
Inky - unpredictable
general patrol
Clyde - wander randomly
who tends to stay out of
the way

12. Historical Context - Pac Man’s Ghosts
Scatter Mode
Blinky - top right corner
Pinky - top left
Inky - bottom right
Clyde - bottom left

13. Procedural Content Generation
Items
Attributes
Positioning
Scarcity
Layout
Narrative

14. Random vs Procedural
Random - the pool remains static and gets redistributed by
chance
Procedural - the pool is potentially infinite and can also be
adaptive

15. Roguelikes
Originally super rough ASCII art style
Randomly generated dungeons,
enemies & loot
Progressively harder
Permadeath

16. Minecraft (and others)
Procedurally generated environment
Randomly located assets, NPCs and
events
Terrain is based on a random seed
connected to the system
clock/manual

17. No Man’s Sky
2^64 worlds
Procedurally generated
Common seed allowing players
to visit the same planets

18. Content Generation
https://callumprentice.github.io/apps/webgl_terrain/index.html
https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator
https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/
http://gispanomator.laaz.co.il/

19. Cons
QA hell
There is no clear definition of “makes sense” or “nice”
Scale sounds nice at first but where is the purpose?
Shared experience?
Lack of personal touch

20. Simulation - The Sims
FreeSO, SocioTown, Spore etc.

21. Action - Alien: Isolation

22. Behavior trees
Root
Selector
SelectorSequence
LeafLeafLeaf
Leaf

23. Adaptive Difficulty Level
When the player gets going - the game gets tough
https://youtu.be/LlmAv48k1pY

24. Code Review