tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409076655557548002010-03-06T18:53:18.617-06:00News and links about game development and AI.Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.comBlogger132125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-8801209981846309222010-03-02T14:57:00.002-06:002010-03-02T16:06:35.560-06:00

Reddit interviews Peter Norvig - co-author of the seminal book Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach and currently Director of Research (formerly Director of Search Quality) at Google Inc. While not necessarily related directly to game AI, I thought it was interesting anyway.Basically, the interview is a series of questions that people had submitted ahead of time.One of the interesting

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-20585979967529503832010-02-15T14:16:00.014-06:002010-02-16T14:34:42.373-06:00

Back in November, there was a get-together of Boston Post Mortem (billed as "games and grog, once a month") that had a panel of local AI folks. The panelist's names are familiar to many of us... Damián Isla, Jeff Orkin, and John Abercrombie. It was moderated by Christian Baekkelund whom I had the opportunity to have dinner with in Phily when I was in town for the GameX Industry Summit. Thankfully

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-34745280447982512262010-02-14T09:45:00.006-06:002010-02-14T10:26:55.411-06:00

I was looking at my daily barrage of Google alerts on "game AI" (which tend to contain an annoying number of links to stories about Alan Iverson) and this article blurb from the Bitbag happened to catch my eye. It's a preview of Halo Reach and seems to be a fairly thorough treatment. They talk about a lot of the different gameplay elements and how they differ from prior games in the franchise.

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-33387934796964904012010-02-12T10:20:00.003-06:002010-02-12T10:45:59.943-06:00

I ended up on this page via a tweet as I was ingesting my morning caffeine (meaning it was a sort of idle, random click). What I found, however, was strangely compelling. The game, Warzone 2100, seems to be a small indie project of some sort having to do with finding oil wells as resources in a post-apocalyptic world. The page I was linked straight into, however, was specifically about their

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-25907348487944904932010-02-11T17:30:00.007-06:002010-02-11T21:49:47.168-06:00

In preparation for the GDC AI Summit (and the inevitable stream of dinner conversations that will be associated with GDC), I have tried to catch up on playing some games and also getting current with papers and interviews. On the later point, Alex Champandard at AIGameDev keeps me hopping. It seems he is almost constantly interviewing industry people on the latest and greatest stuff that is

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-12734981885018316412010-01-29T09:54:00.004-06:002010-01-29T09:57:16.894-06:00

Take a glance at my preview on Gamasutra of the 12 sessions of the GDC AI Summit. It goes in-depth about what each session entails.

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-75267127278307951712010-01-27T16:50:00.003-06:002010-01-27T17:05:50.192-06:00

The GDC site has finally posted the final 4 sessions (of 12) for the AI Summit. Here's the details on the ones that recently went up.AI and Interactive Storytelling: How We Can Help Each OtherSpeaker: Daniel Kline (Lead Game Engineer, Crystal Dynamics), Michael Mateas (Associate Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz), Emily Short (Business Operations Coordinator, University of Advancing

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-54164491318881814432009-12-13T16:06:00.003-06:002009-12-13T16:20:43.441-06:00

The first 8 (of 12) sessions for the AI Summit at GDC 2010 have been posted on the GDC site. Here are the highlights:AI Architecture Mashups: Insights into Intertwined ArchitecturesSpeaker: Steve Rabin (Principal Software Engineer, Nintendo of America), Kevin Dill (Software Engineer, Lockheed Martin), Brian Schwab (Senior AI/Gameplay Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment)Date/Time: TBDExperience Level

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-11061000318550519882009-10-29T16:38:00.005-05:002009-10-29T17:08:56.311-05:00

This is the rough dump of my notes from Richard Evans' AIIDE 2009 invited talk on the AI challenges they faced in developing The Sims 3. Some of it was familiar to me as being exactly what he presented as part of our joint lecture at the GDC AI Summit in 2009. Other portions of it were new.Specifically, I enjoyed seeing more about how they handled some of the LOD options. For example, rather than

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-1016345327757700902009-10-21T09:03:00.001-05:002009-10-21T09:03:57.758-05:00

The GDC folks have put up the main page for the AI Summit at the 2010 GDC. This year, I am listed as a Summit Advisor alongside Steve Rabin. While I helped out a lot last year, I wasn't listed as an official advisor. That makes for a wonderful honor. I'm so pleased to be working with all the great people in the AI Game Programmers Guild to put this event on.

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-72759859738945457392009-10-19T17:22:00.003-05:002009-10-29T16:34:23.917-05:00

The following are my rough notes from Michael Mateas' invited talk. He continued the "Photoshop of AI" debate that was started by Chris Hecker at GDC 2008 and continued at a panel at the 2009 AI Summit at GDC. To sum up what he presented, he basically said it was a non-issue because it was based on a number of false premises. Here are my notes:Recaps Chris Hecker's 2008 talk on the subject. Talks

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-16173091806676521982009-10-18T21:18:00.002-05:002009-10-18T21:29:22.787-05:00

My rough notes from Paul Tozour's AIIDE 2009 presentation, Game Design: An AI Perspective Game design from the perspective of AI - the opposite of Will Wright's AIIDE lecture. How can AI contribute to the advancement of game design? Using game AI as formal modeling and analysis tools. Not as modeling NPCs. You stop playing a good game when you stop using enough of your mind to be engaging.

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-48293001937432691942009-10-14T10:44:00.002-05:002009-10-14T10:51:14.247-05:00

I'm at AIIDE this year for the first time. I will try to post some comments here or there throughout the week. Considering the speakers that they have invited--Paul Tozour, Richard Evans, Michael Mateas, David Hernandez-Cerpa, Steve Gargolinski and Leland Helper--I figure I'm good for a while.

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-45017510999888783072009-09-10T11:21:00.001-05:002009-09-10T11:21:46.195-05:00

While I have been rigidly avoiding getting sucked into the vortex that is Facebook, I figured it was time to get onto Twitter. You can follow me as "IADaveMark". I promise not to bombard you with useless messages... for a while, anyway.

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-73032106112240818932009-08-07T11:08:00.002-05:002009-08-07T11:12:51.131-05:00

I will be speaking along with Kevin Dill (Rockstar-New England) at the GameX Industry Summit in Philadelphia this October 24-25th. From the GameX site:"GameX Industry Summit is designed by industry professionals for industry professionals. It represents a deep and concerted production between the GameX production team and five IGDA chapters in New York, New Jersey, Boston, Baltimore and

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-50191737501756595622009-08-04T17:02:00.000-05:002009-08-04T17:03:28.588-05:00

About a month ago, I was invited to sit down with Adam Templeton of Silicon Prairie News. He wanted to talk to me about Intrinsic Algorithm, my book, the state of game AI, and - more relevant to the purpose of their site - the Omaha Game Developers Association. We had a great chat for about an hour in the library on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. What resulted was a 20-minute

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-79052891855878854652009-06-11T21:21:00.003-05:002009-06-11T21:31:26.453-05:00

The information for my lecture, Cover Me! Promoting MMO Player Interaction through Advanced AI, at GDC Austin has been posted.Here's the relevant information:TakeawayThis lecture shows examples of some of the aspects of PvP games that are attractive to players, the AI techniques that can be used to replicate them, and the effect that inclusion of these aspects can have in an MMO environment. The

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-55085399358964186212009-06-06T12:55:00.000-05:002009-06-06T12:56:11.237-05:00

I will be speaking at the 2009 Austin GDC, September 15-18. Rather than the broad-based coverage of the GDC, the Austin GDC is more tailored to online games. In that vein, I will be doing a 1-hour lecture entitled "Cover Me!: Promoting MMO Player Interaction through Advanced AI". More details soon.

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-78451162839311319302009-05-28T14:40:00.005-05:002009-05-28T15:10:22.911-05:00

(This is a repost from my Gamasutra Expert Blog)At the last GDC, I attended a session by David Sirlin entitled Balancing Multiplayer Competitive Games. Being an AI designer and programmer, this session may seem like somewhat of an outlier in my typical GDCfare. However, a simple strikethrough on the title could yield Balancing Competitive Games – which falls squarely into the AI and simulation

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-56199293161220272352009-04-15T09:57:00.004-05:002009-04-15T10:12:25.026-05:00

Back on April 5th, Alex Champandard of AIGameDev interviewed me for about 90 minutes for the Members portion of his site. Our topic was how to use behavioral mathematics (such as I cover in my book) to improve the bots in Left 4 Dead. We cover a lot of interesting information in the interview. Some of the examples refer to things I covered in my Post-Play'em columns on the AI in the game.He has

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-50671741775539725622009-04-12T20:45:00.004-05:002009-04-12T20:51:20.159-05:00

I have just posted the audio from the GDC AI roundtables on my GDC 2009 page. You can either stream it from the plug-in or you can download it to your own machine.

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-20797422596727404492009-04-10T10:26:00.004-05:002009-04-10T10:45:49.704-05:00

In a recent opinion article by James Portnow entitled The Problem Of Choice, the idea was posited that there are two types of decisions that a player can be faced with in a game: "problems" and"choices". The former is something that involves a "right answer" such as a mathematically optimal solution. Therefore, theoretically it can be solved. We are all familiar with such challenges ingames --

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-89129216470998008872009-04-04T22:08:00.001-05:002009-04-04T22:09:55.528-05:00

I lost my email and contacts file in a virus escapade right after GDC. If I am supposed to have your email address, please tag me so I can re-add you.Additionally, if you attended the AI Summit at GDC and I didn't get a chance to meet you, feel free to introduce yourself. You can find my contact information here.Thank you.

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-29818758190076969032009-03-30T16:31:00.006-05:002009-03-30T19:14:16.985-05:00

Well, I'm back and somewhat recovered from GDC. (It always helps to have a day of downtime built into the end of the week.) From the comments that I and the rest of the participants received, the inaugural AI Summit was well received. I know that all of us were very pleased in not only the presentations that we each delivered but in all of the other ones as well. Apart from a false start at the

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540907665555754800.post-62177379423797868222009-03-22T12:27:00.005-05:002009-03-22T12:31:38.888-05:00

As the week of GDC rolls out, I will be posting observations both here and on this page. Additionally, any files or pictures related to the AI Summit, will appear on this page. It's going to be a hectic week so I might not get stuff up daily. Be patient with me.For those of you looking to find the stuff from last year, you can find it here.

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0