The Indie Game Magazine June 2015 | Issue 50 | Page 10

op and change the
ers, it’s trivial to ch
ind into different lay
r body and m
As an AI develope
entations at will.
and pattern based.
tly humanable
deci- implem
tend to feature mos
AI to be very read
eate sophisticated
mptation to cr
member is that FPS’s
re
layer quite
the te
creating the right Another thing to
are the same body
you need to avoid
d instead focus on
so you can often sh
useful for
s, an
e oid characters, and
lly this isn’t quite as
s critical to a gam
sion making system
y characters. Typica
er. For example, it’
lly varied.
play
to easily between man
to be more physica
experience for the
e player up nicely
ere the actors tend
y behavior sets th
enem
tried to make platform games, wh
like DKCR that the
st 10 years or so?
quential bops. If we
er off
games over the pa
rding moves like se
make rewa
uld probably wand
has AI improved in
w
we’ve refined the
e intelligent, they wo
le to IGM: Ho
aspects of AI that
the characters mor
cally, what are the
ayer wouldn’t be ab
More specifi
es?
position, and the pl
meplay experienc
to a more strategic
most to improve ga
AI has been
I am not sure that
have as much fun.
tion. To be honest,
ere has
Lewis : Good ques
ents in gameplay. Th
hind many improvem
the gating
the driving force be
es, but AI is rarely
olution of techniqu
but more
been a gradual ev
happen of course,
better game. It does
sign itself.
factor in making a
found in the game de
tcomings are to be
commonly the shor
and debug AI have
es used to develop
said, the techniqu
started working in
With that
years. When I first
a fair bit over the
Nowadays thankimproved
ding everything in C.
y we were hand-co
ese are typically
the industr
es are the norm. Th
-driven architectur
pose behaviors
fully, data
ols that help us com
ters; complemented by graphical to
e. Development
shoo
ocesses in real-tim
ay for first person
and and monitor decision making pr
g also comes into pl
er
to be.
This kind of thinkin
empower the play
in terms of how to
y, is a lot more efficient than it used
still want to think
lot more flexibilit
a
ios with
you
nents, but there is
there for indie stud
resources are out
rate readable oppo
gene
r games?
IGM: What sort of
to movement.
ove the AI in thei
s looking to impr
cularly with regard
lutions
parti
ple very small team
ue cost effective so
can often be as sim
rt of MacGyver-esq
n, platform game AI
ion Are there any so
n gaming
entatio
imation and decis
sure up to moder
In terms of implem
that combines an
g AI that can mea
achine
for implementin
as a single state-m
h.
into the same grap
standards?
making logic
thin the reach
ire more layers
nent of good AI is wi
r hand tends to requ
ation Lewis : The technology compo
r AI on the othe
games difficult
anim
First person shoote
What makes AAA
h to describe your
ight still use a grap
rform of even the smallest teams.
m
pe
to presentation,
of complexity. You
a separate layer to
sources poured in
ted as to compete with is the re
pplement this with
old saying that
emen
states, but then su
imation. There is an
this might be impl
achine particularly modeling and an
g logic. Commonly
another state-m
the decision makin
ng system, or even
ration of
vior tree, a planni
a beha
you have this sepa
te-machine). Once
(or hierarchical-sta

rehead Studios

Developer: Squa
Platforms: iOS

.uk

reheadstudios.co

ua
Website: www.sq

dio

reheadSt
Twitter: @Squa

10

The Indie Game Magazine