determining what the AI will do and actually programming that behavior are two fairly
distinct tasks. The first primarily involves creativity and the second consists of a whole
lot of hard work. A game’s designer should be intimately concerned with making sure
the game’s AI behavior is as well conceived as possible and performs the actions most
likely to provide players with a challenging and compelling gameplay experience. Part
of designing a good game is designing good AI for that game, and a designer who just
leaves the creation of the AI up to programmers better hope that they are good AI
designers. If they are not, the game will likely not be much fun to play. As with many of
the programmers on a development team, the AI programmer needs to have a good
game design sense in order for the final AI to be sufficiently challenging, interesting,
and entertaining to the player. The more the designer works with the AI programmer,
the more likely the two of them will be on the same page in terms of what the AI needs
to accomplish.
If a computer game is like improvised theater, where players get to be directors of
the primary character or group of characters, then all of the other actors in the play are
controlled by the artificial intelligence. As the game’s designer, you want to direct those
AI-controlled actors to create the most stimulating experience possible for the player.
These AI agents are not just the opponents players might battle, but also any charac-
ters with which players interact. How will a town full of people behave? How will they
react to players’ actions? Designing the AI is a big part of designing a game.
Goals of Game AI..............................
Players have different expectations of the AI they find in different types of games.
Players do not expect much of the AI in an arcade game likeCentipedeor a puzzle game
likeTetris. As I have discussed, these games provide plenty of challenge to players
while using various simple-minded or outright stupid opponents. In a wargame like
Close Combat, however, players expect a lot more from the intelligence of the opposing
forces. In an RPG, players expect to move into a simulation of a living world, where
Chapter 9: Artificial Intelligence 153
The Sims’ success is
completely dependent
on the strength of its
artificial intelligence.