Bond instantly, but instead employs some slower method, such as a laser steadily burn-
ing a hole down the middle of the table to which James is strapped. Why does the villain
not simply shoot Bond? Or simply aim the laser straight at him? Why does the villain
almost always leave before the execution has actually been completed? And why does
the villain reveal to Bond his entire mad scheme for world domination before he starts
the execution device in motion? None of these choices are indicative of especially
smart behavior, but it is fun to watch, and fits with the overall style of the movie. It
entertains the audience, which is the primary goal of the Bond films. Realism is much
less of a concern.
And so it is with games. If the enemy AI is so smart, surely it should realize that it
has no chance against the player and should lock itself away in a safe bunker, refusing to
open the door for anyone. It has, in fact, saved its own life by doing this, which is the
smartest decision possible. But what has it done to the game? Now players are stuck,
since they have no way of getting to the enemy and continuing on with the game.
Another example might be a cowardly AI that runs from players when sufficiently
wounded. This is used to great effect in many games. But what if the agent was faster
than the player character and better at dodging into safe locations? When quite
wounded, the AI agent will start fleeing from the battle, with players left with no other
option but to chase after it. If the AI is speedier and better at navigation, players will
have a hard time catching up with it. What may have been a fun action game now
becomes a tedious chase with a foregone conclusion, since the agent is mortally
wounded and has no chance of recovering its health. And what of the deadly serpent
boss players must battle? With its protective armor coating, it is impervious to players’
attacks, and can only be damaged by being shot when its mouth is open. So the strictly
logical choice might be to always keep its mouth closed whenever players have any
chance of getting off a shot. This is a decision it can make very easily. But now, of
course, players have no chance whatsoever of winning the battle. Is that fun?
The point again is that the AI must never overshadow the gameplay, and it
must never distract the development team from the true goal of the project: to make a
fun, playable game. If the AI is really very sophisticated but, as a result, the game is
unplayable or extremely frustrating, players are not going to remark on the intelligence
of the game’s combatants. AI and gameplay are too closely entwined for one to succeed
if the other fails.
AI Agents and Their Environment.....................
Computer game AI cannot be designed or developed in a vacuum. For a game AI to turn
out well, it needs to be developed in close association with the game’s gameplay and the
environments in which that gameplay is going to take place. The simple fact is that no
AI agent is going to be smart enough to prevail in all situations. While an AI may be
exceedingly good in wide-open spaces, when it is thrown into a narrow canyon it will
encounter problems its programmer never anticipated. If the AI programmer comes up
with an AI that can handle the confined spaces, chances are it will not be as successful
out in the open. The best one can hope for is that the AI has a fighting chance in a spe-
cific type of gameplay situation. If the levels and AI are not developed synchronously,
164 Chapter 9: Artificial Intelligence