Game Design

Regardless of the game type, the AI must present players with an interesting chal- lenge. Without good AI, a game may become sim ...

exclusively battling human opponents. InMarathon 2, however, players are battling a variety of alien species mixed with some rob ...

interested in the AI, to make them wonder, “What’s it trying to do?” when in fact it is just being random. The randomness inTetr ...

order to frighten the player makes a bit of sense, so it rates a 2. And maybe trying to cir- cle around the player character in ...

between two contested areas. If the AI for the enemy general was properly designed, the slow drain of troops in that manner woul ...

to tell static stories in which how a given character will react to players is entirely pre- determined, regardless of the game- ...

up such that he is the most effective combat companion in the game, enabling him to help players dispatch the countless creature ...

Of course, for years games have been giving the AI agents unfair advantages over the player. They have made the AI have more hit ...

Bond instantly, but instead employs some slower method, such as a laser steadily burn- ing a hole down the middle of the table t ...

then there is little chance that the opponents the players face will appear very smart at all. This creates special problems in ...

For example, in my gameDamage Incorporated, players are responsible for not only controlling their own character, but also for d ...

had a few cases where NPCs were going to need to jump across small gaps, but we quickly realized we did not have enough to justi ...

complex 3D environment. This is a lesson I apparently missed entirely, since I subse- quently included companions inThe Sufferin ...

the designer can make assumptions about what plan of attack will provide the most interesting challenge for the player. First-pe ...

Of the games I have worked on,The Sufferingrelied the most on scripted AI behav- iors to make its characters appear smart and to ...

less desirable. Targeting positions used essentially the same concept, except these helpers would be placed in locations where t ...

Chapter 10 Interview: Steve Meretzky ............... Chapter 10 Interview: Steve Meretzky ................. In the early 1980s, ...

and subsequently with his own company, Boffo Games, which produced the lovelyThe Space Bar. Currently, Meretzky is involved with ...

bit of fun, writing them was probably going to be even more fun. I didn’t have to prove myself, for a few reasons. First, I’d kn ...

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxywas an adaptation from an already much loved radio series and book. How did you go about ada ...