Artificial Intelligence in Games Surendra Alokam (1370982)

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) Game artificial intelligence refers to techniques used in computer and video games to produce the illusion of intelligence in the behavior of non-player characters(NPCs) Hacks and cheats are acceptable in many cases, the computer abilities must be toned down to give human players a sense of fairness E.g. racing and shooting Game AI is on developing rational agents to match human performance.

Properties of games AI Deterministic Fully-observable Two agents whose actions must alternate Utility values at the end of the game are equal and opposite In chess, one player wins (+1), one player loses (-1) It is this opposition between the agents’ utility functions that makes the situation adversarial.

NEED OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN GAMES In different games we find the artificial intelligence is challenge present in each of them. Games like action, role playing, adventure, strategy games, individual and team sports games all finding difficulty because of poor artificial intelligence. Some games like interactive drama and educational games also came in consideration for requirement of artificial intelligence.

By analyzing all these, we conclude that we can apply artificial intelligence on 2 different levels, which are as follow  1) Individual character artificial intelligence, with a goal of producing intelligent behavior.   2) A global artificial intelligence that watches over the games or games player interaction, influencing the direction that the game is taking.

Computer Game types Strategy Games Real-Time Strategy(RTS) Turn-Based Strategy(TBS) Role-Playing Games(RPG) Single-Player Multi-Player Action Games First-Person Shooters(FPS) First-Person Sneakers Sports Games Simulations Adventure Games Puzzle Games.

MinMax - Overview MinMax the heart of almost every computer board game Applies to games where: Players take turns Have perfect information Chess, Checkers, Tactics But can work for games without perfect information or chance Poker, Monopoly, Dice

Game Agents Most AI focuses around game agent think of agent as NPC, enemy, ally or neutral Loops through: sense-think-act cycle Acting is event specific, so talk about sense and think first, then a bit on act Sense Think Act

Finite State Machines Abstract model of computation Formally: Set of states A starting state An input vocabulary A transition function that maps inputs and the current state to a next state