Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
At the fringes of the video game industry, some people are also making games of
augmented reality
, or
mixed reality
, in which computers are used in conjunction with
real-world activities to play a game. Such games often use cellular telephones, video
cameras, or global positioning systems as well as web servers and a browser-based
interface for some of the players. This topic doesn't discuss how to design such
games, but use the resources in the references if you're interested in learning more.
Creating Artificial Intelligence
In 1959, IBM scientist Arthur Samuels devised a program that played checkers
(Samuels, 1959). The program could also learn from its mistakes, and eventually it
became good enough to beat expert human players. Much of the earliest research
on artificial intelligence and games was of this sort as computer scientists tried to
create artificial opponents that could play traditional games as competently as
humans could. Artificial intelligence (AI) lets us play multiplayer games even when
we don't have other people to play with.
However, AI brings considerably more to video gaming than artificial opponents
for traditional games. Game developers use AI techniques for the following:
Strategy.
This means determining the optimal action to take by considering the
possible consequences of a variety of available actions. Samuels's checker-playing
program did this, but checkers is a game of
perfect information
, which means there
is no hidden information and no element of chance. Modern video games usually
have both hidden information and a large element of chance, so a strategy is more
difficult to compute.
Pathfinding.
This means finding the most advantageous routes through a simu-
lated landscape filled with obstacles.
Natural language parsing.
Despite decades of research, computers still cannot
understand ordinary written or spoken language well, but researchers are still very
interested in using it for games. When this problem is solved, players will be able to
give commands using natural sentences.
Natural language generation.
Video games currently produce language by
playing combinations of previously recorded phrases or sentences. At the moment,
they cannot generate language on their own. In time perhaps they will, which will
make simulated people seem far more realistic. In the meantime, games use AI to
select a sentence from their library of prerecorded material that is most appropriate
for the current game situation.
Pattern recognition.
This valuable technique has numerous applications
including voice recognition, face recognition, pattern detection in ongoing pro-
cesses, and pattern detection in player behavior. Human poker players use pattern
recognition to establish a correlation between their opponent's behavior and their
