Practical Game AI Programming - Softcover

DaGraça, Micael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1787122816 ISBN 13: 9781787122819

Publisher: Packt Publishing, 2017

Synopsis

Jump into the world of Game AI development

About This Book

• Move beyond using libraries to create smart game AI, and create your own AI projects from scratch
• Implement the latest algorithms for AI development and in-game interaction
• Customize your existing game AI and make it better and more efficient to improve your overall game performance

Who This Book Is For

This book is for game developers with a basic knowledge of game development techniques and some basic programming techniques in C# or C++.

What You Will Learn

• Get to know the basics of how to create different AI for different type of games
• Know what to do when something interferes with the AI choices and how the AI should behave if that happens
• Plan the interaction between the AI character and the environment using Smart Zones or Triggering Events
• Use animations correctly, blending one animation into another and rather than stopping one animation and starting another
• Calculate the best options for the AI to move using Pruning Strategies, Wall Distances, Map Preprocess Implementation, and Forced Neighbours
• Create Theta algorithms to the AI to find short and realistic looking paths
• Add many characters into the same scene and make them behave like a realistic crowd

In Detail

The book starts with the basics examples of AI for different game genres and directly jumps into defining the probabilities and possibilities of the AI character to determine character movement. Next, you'll learn how AI characters should behave within the environment created.

Moving on, you'll explore how to work with animations. You'll also plan and create pruning strategies, and create Theta algorithms to find short and realistic looking game paths. Next, you'll learn how the AI should behave when there is a lot of characters in the same scene.

You'll explore which methods and algorithms, such as possibility maps, Forward Chaining Plan, Rete Algorithm, Pruning Strategies, Wall Distances, and Map Preprocess Implementation should be used on different occasions. You'll discover how to overcome some limitations, and how to deliver a better experience to the player. By the end of the book, you think differently about AI.

Style and approach

The book has a step-by-step tutorial style approach. The algorithms are explained by implementing them in #.

Table of Contents

1. Different Problems Require Different Solutions
2. Possibility and Probability Maps
3. Production System
4. Environment and AI
5. Animation Behaviors
6. Navigation Behavior and Pathfinding
7. Advanced Pathfinding
8. Crowd Interactions
9. AI Planning and Collision Avoidance
10. Awareness

About this title

About the Author

Micael DaGraça is a game designer and an AR developer living in Porto, Portugal. He has worked for multiple game studios, contributing to the creation of different indie games and interactive apps.

Micael grew up playing video games, and that passion never went away. So, later on in his life, he decided to learn how to create games. Without any previous knowledge in coding or 3D animation, he slowly started to create simple games, learning each time more with those experiences. When the games started to work and the gameplay became enjoyable, he started to make plans to publish a game in collaboration with an old friend. Micael was responsible for the technical aspect of the game, making sure that the game worked as planned, while his friend created all the artwork for the game. Finally, the game was published, and it received some positive feedback from other indie game developers. Since the game generated some revenue, the dream of becoming a game designer turned into reality.

Today, Micael works for other studios, helping others to develop their game ideas, and has also integrated into a company that focuses on the creation of games and interactive apps for health and well-being purposes. Even though he doesn't have the time to keep working on personal projects, he has a few frozen game projects that are still under development with the help of his friend.

Edition details

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1787122816
• ISBN 13: 9781787122819
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 348