A small coastal town in Sim City 1
Released: 1989
Developer: Maxis
30 Second Pitch
SimCity is a simulation and a city-building game that spawned a best-selling series. You get a plot of land to build residences, industries and many other buildings to keep the inhabitants of your city satisfied.
Innovations in Game AI
-As the first of the “Sim” series, SimCity pioneered a new form of gameplay: controlling a complex simulation.
-Each element of the city is modeled in a realistic way, using AI if necessary (particularly in the most recent versions of the game).
-The emergent properties of the system are perfectly balanced to keep the player entertained.
9. Half-Life
A scientist chatting with a security guard
Released: 1998
Developer: Valve
30 Second Pitch
Half-Life is a sci-fi first-person shooter featuring Dr. Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist stuck inside an underground research facility when teleporting experiments go wrong unexpectedly.
Innovations in Game AI
-The cut scenes are entirely interactive. A combination of scripting and AI is used to avoid interrupting the gameplay (i.e. you can use the crowbar to destroy things while being told what to do next).
-An AI security guard accompanies the player through some levels early in game.
-Squad AI is used effectively for the first time in the latter stages of the game.
-Despite not using any revolutionary technology, the AI is very well tweaked and integrated smoothly into the storyline.
8. Total War
An army in Shogun: Total War marching over the hill
Released: 2000-2006
Developer: The Creative Assembly
30 Second Pitch
Total War is a series of games combining turn-based strategy on a Risk-like map, with real-time tactical control of battles on a 3D terrain.
Innovations in Game AI
-Thousands of AI-controlled soldiers are featured for the first time in a fun and interactive game, without noticeable performance problems.
-The game models the emotions of groups of soldiers, essential for simulating battles accurately. This logic is inspired by the book, The Art Of War.
-The Total War engine is used on TV by the History Channel as part of the Decisive Battles series.
7. Thief
Two guards in a room in Thief
Released: 1998
Developer: Looking Glass Studios
30 Second Pitch
Thief: The Dark Project is a single player stealth-based game played from a first person perspective. The main character is Garret, a master thief applying his trade in a medieval/Victorian setting.
Innovations in Game AI
-The game uses an accurate sensory model, allowing the AI actors to respond realistically to light and sounds. The whole game is based around this technique.
-The AI actors use audio recordings to voice their current state, letting the player understand what’s going on.
6. The Sims
A family inside a house in The Sims
Released: 2000
Developer: Maxis
30 Second Pitch
The Sims is a life-simulation of the daily activities of a family of virtual characters in a suburban house. The player gets to design and build the house, as well as guide these “Sims” through the day.
Innovations in Game AI
-Smart objects are used to help implement the behaviors. The object specifies how each character interacts with it, which has many scalability and workflow advantages over centralized logic.
-The Sims each have basic desires which drive their choice of actions.
-The emotional interaction between the characters is also modeled, which allows for relationships.
5. Creatures
The cartoon world in Creatures
Released: 1996
Developer: Millennium Interactive
30 Second Pitch
Creatures is an artificial life program where the user ‘hatches’ small furry animals and teaches them how to behave. These “Norms” can talk, feed themselves, and protect themselves against vicious creatures.
Innovations in Game AI
-It’s the first popular application of machine learning into an interactive simulation.
-Neural networks are used by the creatures to learn what to do.
-The game is regarded as a breakthrough in alife research, which aims to model the behavior of creatures interacting with their environment.
4. Halo
Halo’s Master Chief in combat
Released: 2001
Developer: Bungie
30 Second Pitch
Halo: Combat Evolved is a first-person shooter where the player assumes the role of the Master Chief, battling various aliens on foot or in vehicles.
Innovations in Game AI
-Enemies use cover very wisely, and employ suppressive fire and grenades.
-The squad situation affects the individuals, so certain enemies flee when their leader dies.
-A lot of attention is paid to the little details, with enemies notably throwing back grenades or team-members responding to you bothering them.
-The underlying “behavior tree” technology has become very popular in the games industry (especially since Halo 2).
3. Façade
Grace and Trip talking to the player
Released: 2005
Developer: Procedural Arts
30 Second Pitch
Façade is an interactive story where the couple is invited to the apartment of Grace and Trip, a couple who has a relationship breakdown. The player can coach them using full typed sentences.
Innovations in Game AI
-The player interacts with the game by tying text into a natural language parser.
-The underlying behavior language provides ways to specify the behavior of characters in terms of a dynamic story.
2. F.E.A.R.
Enemy soldiers in F.E.A.R. getting shot down
Released: 2005
Developer: Monolith Productions
30 Second Pitch
F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon is a first-person shooter where the player helps contain supernatural phenomenon and, naturally, armies of cloned soldiers.
Innovations in Game AI
-The AI uses a planner to generate context-sensitive behaviors, the first time in a mainstream game. This technology used as a reference for many studios still today.
-The enemies are capable of using the environment very cleverly, finding cover behind tables, tipping bookshelves, opening doors, crashing through windows…
-Squad tactics are used to great effect. The enemies perform flanking maneuvers, use suppression fire, etc.
1. Black & White
A creature casting a spell in Black & White
Released: 2001
Developer: Lionhead Studios
30 Second Pitch
Black & White is a god game which includes elements of artificial life simulations and some strategy. The player rules over an island populated by various tribes, and can teach a large animal-like creature to do his/her bidding.
Innovations in Game AI
-The gameplay is focused on the interaction with a large AI creature which can learn from examples, and takes reward and punishment.
-The design integrates artificial life within the context of a strategy game.
-The engine uses a solid AI architecture, rooted in cognitive science, known as belief-desire-intention (BDI).
-Machine learning techniques such as decision trees and neural networks are used with great success.
Source: http://aigamedev.com/reviews/top-ai-games/
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