Post-Play'em - Observations on Game AI

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13589563511426629302010-01-29T20:08:41.603-06:00Post-Play'em - Observations on Game AIBeing a game designer, developer and AI programmer, I consider playing other people's games "research". I have often had the opportunity to share my observations on games with others. This will be a collection of those thoughts and observations.Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-23400189491977984992010-01-29T19:29:00.003-06:002010-01-29T20:08:41.616-06:00Mass Effect: First Look

I've had my copy of Mass Effect (yes, the original) from GameFly for a month or so now. My son played it for a few straight weekends when he was visiting and finally finished it. Seeing how long it took him to go through has convinced me that I do not have the time to ever complete the game. However, I did want to get a feel for what it was like specifically for reference purposes. Here's a few

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-11466686295240154602009-04-26T13:06:00.004-05:002009-05-01T09:58:41.703-05:00Assassin's Creed: First Look

In my latest episode of "finally got around to playing", I have had a chance to mess with Assassin's Creed (on X360). As with most people, I was immediately impressed by how visually attractive the game is. However, that has usually been a warning bell in the past. A lot of time "pretty game" has tended to also portend "stupid AI". This doesn't seem to be the case with AC.While this isn't

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-33657366790679416612009-04-15T10:10:00.001-05:002009-04-15T10:12:17.218-05:00Interview with AIGameDev re Left 4 Dead

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 columns here on the AI in the game.He has it posted

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-49636340320910278302009-03-08T14:06:00.004-05:002009-03-08T14:50:31.445-05:00Fable 2: First Look

Continuing with my pre-GDC blitz of "must at least look at" games, I have just putzed around with Fable 2 for about 90 minutes. I had a look at some of this material back at the 2008 GDC when Peter Molyneux was going through his pre-release hype. (Isn't he always?) Therefore, I knew some of the things to look for.Most importantly, on the AI front, is the inclusion of the almost legendary "dog" AI

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-44685704700256721592009-03-08T11:41:00.003-05:002009-03-08T12:12:48.304-05:00Gears of War 2: First Look

In preparation for the AI Summit that I am helping put on at the 2009 Game Developers Conference, I am rapidly cranking through some of the key games of the year. So, I signed up for GameFly just so I could putz with some games in the short term. I will likely buy some of these games down the road, but the research budget for IA doesn't cover spending $300 on games in only a few weeks!Well, the

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-77457613801999558752009-02-25T19:23:00.004-06:002009-02-25T20:37:20.076-06:00Left 4 Dead: Companion State Changes

Another interesting observation in Left 4 Dead. In this case, it is about the state machine that the companion AIs are using. First, the observations:The first clip in the video below shows me getting ready to leave the safe house at the beginning of the level. My companions did their usual "grab some stuff" behaviors and then lapsed into "random wander" idle behaviors (I couldn't hit the screen

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-54527778118489907112009-02-24T23:02:00.003-06:002009-02-24T23:40:26.684-06:00Left 4 Dead: Forget Something?

I saw an interesting error of logic (which is different than an error of execution) in Left 4 Dead earlier today. As I was holed up in a safe house, about to head out on the next stage of the map, Zoey neglected to grab a health kit. She was slightly injured at the time. The rest of us had health kits already so it wasn't that she was saving it for us or a semaphore was set saying "leave it for

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-48298666123884847292009-02-23T22:26:00.004-06:002009-02-23T23:29:48.550-06:00Left 4 Dead: First Look

Ok... half price weekend on Steam finally got me into Left 4 Dead. After watching all my TF2 buddies drifting away to this mysterious "other game", I needed to jump in and take a look. Also, since it will likely be the buzz of GDC next month, I figured I had better have an idea of what it looked and felt like.I have to admit that it's a pretty groovy game. All the stuff we have heard so far is

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-27791167737358330132009-02-10T11:47:00.001-06:002009-02-10T11:49:22.723-06:00Half Life 2: Paying Attention to Me

When I posted my first observation on Half Life 2, "Movement on Rails" the other day my colleague, William van der Sterren commented that one of the cool things that they did in HL2 was making the NPCs acknowledge the player's position during conversations. While I certainly agreed at the time, I thought this was limited to eye contact and head position. That was just the beginning. I had not

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-16950261521261227112009-02-10T09:59:00.000-06:002009-02-10T09:59:42.105-06:00Half Life 2: Oblivious to Death

One thing was kind of startling to me just now (I actually quit playing so I could write this). When I got killed, there were 2 bad guys right in front of me. I had only just hit the floor when they both immediately turned and began their "random patrol" state. I laid there and watched through my red-tinted death goggles as they paced back and forth in front of me. Despite being bombarded with

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-40536643893442444552009-02-09T09:33:00.001-06:002009-02-09T09:34:39.431-06:00Half Life 2: Movement on Rails

OK, I admit that I had not gotten around to playing Half Life 2 until now. (It's part of my post-book writing, pre-GDC ramp up.) I am not terribly far into it. I am alternating between riding my airboat (kinda fun!) and having to stop and do the various side-tasks.So far the enemy AI is decent, although bland. (I'm playing on Normal, if that matters.) I've noticed a little ADD in the soldiers,

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-33979901612742884842009-02-08T13:13:00.000-06:002009-02-08T13:13:28.860-06:00Company of Heroes: Invisible Script Points

I just made another interesting observation on Company of Heroes. In the campaign scenario that comes with free download (the town of Carentan), two enemy tanks came barrelling over the bridges, busted through my defenses, and took up positions on the intersections just SE and SW (screen-relative) of my Town Hall. They then turned toward the building and started whacking on me. I dispatched those

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-19771720859284112742009-02-07T15:17:00.006-06:002009-02-07T15:46:19.172-06:00Company of Heroes: My First Look

Well, now that I'm finished writing my book, I am grabbing a few demos of games that I really need to take a look at. I pulled down the free demo of Company of Heroes off of Steam the other day and have had a chance to putz with it a bit.One of the reasons that I wanted to see CoH was the articles by Chris Jurney in AI Game Programming Wisdom 4. He wrote up a pair of articles on the pathfinding

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-92041861944080461412008-08-15T13:37:00.002-05:002008-08-15T13:43:57.599-05:00Team Fortress 2

Ok... this really isn't observations on the AI of Team Fortress 2. It is one of my weekly columns that I write for AIGameDev.com entitled "Play First... Code AI Later". In it, I talk about how observing other players online (especially the bad ones) really helps make me a better AI designer and programmer. There is much to learn from watching the differences between how the good players approach

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-33755629160083630892008-06-28T14:10:00.004-05:002008-06-28T15:16:22.604-05:00Tenchu Z: Ninjas Had It Easy

I will preface this commentary with three things: A) We got a copy of Tenchu Z for free. B) My 13-year old step-daughter (a black belt in taekwondo) is enamored with ninjas and the like - which is the only reason why I even broke the seal on this game.C) I didn't get too far into the game - so if it gets better as it goes along, I missed out.I can write off the game design itself as perhaps being

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-32570694241555217522008-06-28T13:53:00.004-05:002009-02-07T16:00:45.071-06:00Portal: Sometimes No AI Is Just Fine

As much as I hate to admit it, there are times when no AI is perfectly OK. I finally got around to playing Portal last week. I figured I would find out what all the fuss was about. Like many people, I thought it was very amusing and disturbingly addicting. It held my attention. It challenged me. It made me mad at times. It made me feel triumphant at others. I was captivated by the characters (

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-86486058350872952072008-05-09T14:20:00.001-05:002008-05-09T14:22:28.199-05:00Web site troubles... new posts coming!

Ok folks, I know this is getting old. I have been having horrible problems with my ISP since early April. I won't name the ISP yet, but you can look it up for yourself, I suppose. I have been with this company for 6 years and things started fairly well. However, in recent years, especially since a buyout, things have been a little more dicey. Well, this latest issue has to do with a server move

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-20234986082966256892008-02-28T20:38:00.004-06:002008-02-28T20:45:47.785-06:00Bioshock interview and Civ 4 notes

Ok... this is kind of a Post-Play'em article. Check out my taped GDC interview with John Abercrombie, AI Lead on Bioshock over at IA on AI.As I play further into the game, I will eventually post actual play observations. My interview has kinda spoiled the purity of my game experience, though. I know what to look for!Also, I have posted my notes from Soren Johnson's GDC lecture on the AI of Civ 4.

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-35257992935939127972008-02-11T19:20:00.000-06:002008-02-11T19:46:49.982-06:00Civ 4 and Bioshock updates

A month ago, I mentioned that I was going to be doing analyses of Civ 4 and Bioshock. Well, I have decided to wait until after the GDC next week. The reasons are clear...1) I will be attending a lecture at GDC by none other than the man behind the AI on Civ 4, Soren Johnson entitled Playing to Lose: AI and "CIVILIZATION". From the description of the session:Artificial intelligence performs a

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-45143697039274588102008-01-21T20:13:00.000-06:002008-01-21T22:01:46.106-06:00First Encounter with F.E.A.R.

Ok... this isn't necessarily going to be a full-fledged review of all of the AI in F.E.A.R. (Monolith studios) Actually, to do that justice may take an entire book anyway. However, I have been playing it for a few days. One of the reasons that I had to get a hold of it anyway (I bought the Platinum Collection) is that I also got my hands on the SDK. It is a special treat to be able to see the

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-43730489994175235862008-01-16T23:03:00.000-06:002008-01-16T23:29:37.510-06:00Driving Crisis in Crysis

Just a brief note as I played through the downloadable demo of Crysis. I was curious about the AI. The reason stems from a GDC a few years back - one of the AI guys I was having a beer with pointed out on a nearby playable setup of Far Cry that you could lure the enemies into the laggoon, make them tread water, go get more enemies into the lagoon, and when you collected enough of them, lob a

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-53936691341195098082007-12-28T10:46:00.000-06:002007-12-28T10:57:08.855-06:00Upcoming reviews - Bioshock and Civ 4

In the post-holiday mode, I have been playing through Bioshock and Civilization 4 ("Warlords" expansion). I plan on doing a post on each of them in the near future. Civ 4 especially has me intruiged since I spent way too long playing Civ 2. Also, at the 2008 GDC, there is a presentation on the AI of the Civilization series that I plan on attending - so this is research, right? :-)Make sure you

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-87359254033748870762007-12-16T17:14:00.000-06:002007-12-16T17:15:54.921-06:00Going to GDC?

Hey all... if you are going to be at GDC, make sure to let me know! Of course, if you are an AI person, we are likely to see each other at the roundtables or other sessions, but I would hate to be standing next to you and not know who you are!You can also give me a shout on my myGDC page. See you there!

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-48271422386856618592007-12-13T11:35:00.001-06:002009-02-23T23:37:52.238-06:00Doom 3: Pretty Wind-up Toys

I dug out my Doom 3 again specifically for this blog. I hadn't ever finished it when I started playing it about a year ago. It sure was purty, but it just didn't engage me the way that I was hoping it would. Anyway, my thought as I returned to my saved progress was "pay attention to the AI so I can review it." As I played, I became a little unsettled - not by my progress in the game, but by my

Dave Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04878858990811096680noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1358956351142662930.post-85852370895670337682007-12-09T11:04:00.000-06:002008-01-21T22:02:41.554-06:00Technical AI reviews at AIGameDev.com

Not to distract attention from my blog, but my friend, colleague and co-author in AI Game Programming Wisdom 4, Alex Champandard of AIGameDev has a brilliant series of articles on his site. They are technical AI reviews of major games that are written in a bulleted sort of fashion such as "21 tips from [Title] to use in your game."Much of the time there are links to interviews or write-ups by the

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