I was watching an episode of Invisible walls on Gametrailers.com and heard one of the host lament that there aren't a lot of games that make the use of AI an important part of game play. To be specific, the use of NPCs that interact independently with the environment as a part of gameplay. If I recall, the last game that featured AI prominently was Creatures and the early Oddworld games. But these games were made over a decade ago. Maybe there are a few indie games out there that attempted this at some point, but I haven't seen any that do so.
I was pondering how I could use game maker to make a simple control flow that could simulate intelligence in a game. The closest thing I could think of was a simple being with an internal timer that causes it to change its actions based on what is going on around it. I know that that is not real intelligence, but I have to start from somewhere. If I gave the object a goal (such as getting to a point by any means necessary) and add basic pathfinding mechanics, I could then find ways to improve the control flow so that it accomplishes the task.Tell me what you think.
AI is hard.
@PY
Yeah, but control flow is easy (relatively).Yes, but the fun of an AI based game wouldn't be "This thing follows some simple rules, manipulate this to win" because that's just a puzzle game. Was Lemmings an AI based game because the lemmings did different things based on their immediate surroundings and instructions?
A proper AI based game would have to be rather complex or the appeal would wear off pretty darn quickly.I'm surprised that someone besides me has heard of Creatures. It was an absolutely brilliant game.
I've had a Creatures-based project that I've worked with on and off that is actually showing some pretty good results. Not only do they have bodily functions, they are also able to figure out where things are and what's good and bad (though you have to teach them first, if their instinct doesn't handle it).Huh, maybe I'll get back to work on that soon.@PY
Lemmings was not an AI based game. The creatures just mindlessly walked into obstacles unless a specific type was used(I guess thats why they call them lemmings).@KilinNice to see someone that remembers that game. Last time I checked, Spore was suppose to be a Creatures successor, but we all know how that turned out.Heh. Man, I was addicted to Creatures, particularly the third. Even now I still play it once in a while. But seriously, there's nothing like it. Too bad the company's pretty much dead. I think the last game they ended up doing was Docking Station or a terrible console version.
I think that intelligence is based on predictive ability and not behaviour.. Completely choreographed scenes don't have intelligent characters, even when they seem intelligent.
Still, it can *appear* to be intelligent, because it already has knowledge about the situation (or so it seems). Even if it's just a reflex action, it looks more complex than the lightbulp. Combined with pathfinding, it can get the NPC to a certain place without dying, couldn't you say that it is 'solving a problem' like that?