The Future Of A.I. In Games

Artificial intelligence in games has matured significantly in the past decade. Creating effective AI systems has now become as important for game developers as creating solid gameplay and striking visuals. Studios have begun to assign dedicated programming teams to AI development from the onset of a game's design cycle, spending more time and resources on trying to build varied, capable, and consistent non-player characters (NPCs). More developers are also using advances in AI to help their games stand out in what has already become a very crowded marketplace, spawning a slowly growing discussion in the industry about redefining game genres. Think tanks and roundtables on advances in game AI have become prominent at the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), while smaller AI-dedicated conferences such as the annual Paris Game AI Conference and developer-run online hubs such as AiGameDev.com are garnering a big industry and community following. While industry awareness about the significance of AI in games continues to grow, GameSpot prompted Matthew Titelbaum from Monolith Games, Remco Straatman from Guerrilla Games, and AiGameDev.com founder Alex J. Champandard to share their thoughts on the future and growth of game AI.