Current AI in games : a review

As the graphics race subsides and gamers grow weary of predictable and deterministic game characters, game developers must put aside their “old faithful” finite state machines and look to more advanced techniques that give the users the gaming experience they crave. The next industry breakthrough will be with characters that behave realistically and that can learn and adapt, rather than more polygons, higher resolution textures and more frames-per-second. This paper explores the various artificial intelligence techniques that are currently being used by game developers, as well as techniques that are new to the industry. The techniques covered in this paper are finite state machines, scripting, agents, flocking, fuzzy logic and fuzzy state machines decision trees, neural networks, genetic algorithms and extensible AI. This paper introduces each of these technique, explains how they can be applied to games and how commercial games are currently making use of them. Finally, the effectiveness of these techniques and their future role in the industry are evaluated.

Visualising the 48 hour game making challenge

We have always felt that “something very special” was happening in the 48hr and other similar game jams. This “something” is more than the intensity and challenge of the experience, although this certainly has appeal for the participants. We had an intuition that these intense 48 hour game jams exposed something pertinent to the changing shape of the Australian games industry where we see the demise of the late 20th century large studio - the “Night Elf” model and the growth of the small independent model. There are a large number of wider economic and cultural factors around this evolution but our interest is specifically in the change from “industry” to “creative industry” and the growth of games as a cultural media and art practice. If we are correct in our intuition, then illuminating this something also has important ramifications for those courses which teach game and interaction design and development. Rather than undertake a formal ethno-methodological approach, we decided to track as many of the actors in the event as possible. We documented the experience (Keith Novak’s beautiful B&W photography), the individual and their technology (IOGraph mouse tracking), the teams as a group (Time lapse photography) and movement tracking throughout the whole space (Blue tooth phone tracking). The raw data collected has given us opportunity to start a commentary on the “something special” happening in the 48hr.

Games for change and transformative learning : an ethnographic case study

This thesis aims to contribute to a better understanding of how serious games/games for change function as learning frameworks for transformative learning in an educational setting. This study illustrates how the meaning-making processes and learning with and through computer gameplay are highly contingent, and are significantly influenced by the uncertainties of the situational context. The study focuses on SCAPE, a simulation game that addresses urban planning and sustainability. SCAPE is based on the real-world scenario of Kelvin Grove Urban Village, an inner city redevelopment area in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The game is embedded within an educational program, and I thus account for the various gameplay experiences of different school classes participating in this program. The networks emerging from the interactions between students/players, educators, facilitators, the technology, the researcher, as well as the setting, result in unanticipated, controversial, and sometimes unintended gameplay experiences and outcomes. To unpack play, transformative learning and games, this study adopts an ecological approach that considers the magic circle of gameplay in its wider context. Using Actor-Network Theory as the ontological lens for inquiry, the methods for investigation include an extensive literature review, ethnographic participant observation of SCAPE, as well as student and teacher questionnaires, finishing with interviews with the designers and facilitators of SCAPE. Altogether, these methods address my research aim to better understand how the heterogeneous actors engage in the relationships in and around gameplay, and illustrate how their conflicting understandings enable, shape or constrain the (transformative) learning experience. To disentangle these complexities, my focus continuously shifts between the following modes of inquiry into the aims „h To describe and analyse the game as a designed artefact. „h To examine the gameplay experiences of players/students and account for how these experiences are constituted in the relationships of the network. „h To trace the meaning-making processes emerging from the various relations of players/students, facilitators, teachers, designers, technology, researcher, and setting, and consider how the boundaries of the respective ecology are configured and negotiated. „h To draw out the implications for the wider research area of game-based learning by using the simulation game SCAPE as an example for introducing gameplay to educational settings. Accounting in detail for five school classes, these accounts represent, each in its own right, distinct and sometimes controversial forms of engagement in gameplay. The practices and negotiations of all the assembled human and non-human actors highlight the contingent nature of gameplay and learning. In their sum, they offer distinct but by no means exhaustive examples of the various relationships that emerge from the different assemblages of human and non-human actors. This thesis, hence, illustrates that game-based learning in an educational setting is accompanied by considerable unpredictability and uncertainty. As ordinary life spills and leaks into gameplay experiences, group dynamics and the negotiations of technology, I argue that overly deterministic assertions of the game¡¦s intention, as well as a too narrowly defined understanding of the transformative learning outcome, can constrain our inquiries and hinder efforts to further elucidate and understand the evolving uncertainties around game-based learning. Instead, this thesis posits that playing and transformative learning are relational effects of the respective ecology, where all actors are networked in their (partial) enrolment in the process of translation. This study thus attempts to foreground the rich opportunities for exploring how game-based learning is assembled as a network of practices.

BitBox!: A case study interface for teaching real-time adaptive music composition for video games

Real-time adaptive music is now well-established as a popular medium, largely through its use in video game soundtracks. Commercial packages, such as fmod, make freely available the underlying technical methods for use in educational contexts, making adaptive music technologies accessible to students. Writing adaptive music, however, presents a significant learning challenge, not least because it requires a different mode of thought, and tutor and learner may have few mutual points of connection in discovering and understanding the musical drivers, relationships and structures in these works. This article discusses the creation of ‘BitBox!’, a gestural music interface designed to deconstruct and explain the component elements of adaptive composition through interactive play. The interface was displayed at the Dare Protoplay games exposition in Dundee in August 2014. The initial proof-of- concept study proved successful, suggesting possible refinements in design and a broader range of applications.

Biased group decision-making and the effect of computer-mediated communication: separating the effects of anonymity, voting and blind picking

The influence of communication technology on group decision-making has been examined in many studies. But the findings are inconsistent. Some studies showed a positive effect on decision quality, other studies have shown that communication technology makes the decision even worse. One possible explanation for these different findings could be the use of different Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) in these studies, with some GDSS better fitting to the given task than others and with different sets of functions. This paper outlines an approach with an information system solely designed to examine the effect of (1) anonymity, (2) voting and (3) blind picking on decision quality, discussion quality and perceived quality of information.

I cried to dream again: discovery and meaning-making in walking simulators

Paper presented at the 1st International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG Dundee, August 1-6, 2016.

Pivoting the player: a framework for player character research in offline computer role-playing games

This article introduces a theoretical framework for the analysis of the player character (PC) in offline computer role-playing games (cRPGs). It derives from the assumption that the character constitutes the focal point of the game, around which all the other elements revolve. This underlying observation became the foundation of the Player Character Grid and its constituent Pivot Player Character Model, a conceptual framework illustrating the experience of gameplay as perceived through the PC’s eyes. Although video game characters have been scrutinised from many different perspectives, a systematic framework has not been introduced yet. This study aims to fill that void by proposing a model replicable across the cRPG genre. It has been largely inspired by Anne Ubersfeld’s semiological dramatic character research implemented in Reading Theatre I (1999) and is demonstrated with reference to The Witcher (CD Projekt RED 2007).

Studio game-on

The studio-gameon event was supported by the Institute of the Creative Industries and Innovation and the Faculty of IT as part of the State Library of Queensland GAME ON exhibition (ex Barbican, UK) The studio produced a full game in six weeks. It was a curated event, a live web-based exhibition, a performance for the public and the team produced a digital / creative work which is available for download. The studio enabled a team of students to experience the pressures of a real game studio within the space of the precincts but also very much in the public eye. It was a physical hypothesis of the University's mantra - "for the real world" statement: Studio GameOn is an opportunity running alongside the GAME ON exhibition at the State Library of Queensland. The exhibition itself is open to the public from November 17th through to February 15th. The studio runs from January 5th to February 13th 2009. The Studio GameOn challenge? To put together a team of game developers and make a playable game in six weeks! The studio-game on team consists of a group of game developers in training - the team members are all students who are either half-way through or completing a qualification in game design and all its elements - we have designers, artists, programmers and productionteam members. We are also fortunate to have an Industry Board consisting of local Queensland Games professionals: John Passfield (Red Sprite Studios), Adrian Cook (WIldfire Studios) and Duncan Curtis and Marko Grgic (The 3 Blokes). We also invite the public to play with us - there is an ideas box both on-site at the State Library and a number of ways to communicate with us on this studio website.

The little grey cat engine

The little grey cat engine (greyCat) is part of a series of projects which explore software which can enable access to the potentially empowering nature of represented space and game design. GreyCat is the result of research into the culture of the software itself in order to provide participatory environments which enable the telling of ‘small stories’ – stories and experiences which are those of the everyday or those of a cultural perspective other than that prioritised by most world building softwares or game engines. GreyCat offers a simple framework which allows participants to use their own image materials (photographs for the most part) as a basis for spatial exploration of their own places.---------- Truna aka j.turner (2008) The little grey cat engine: telling small stories (Demo), Australasian Computer Human Interaction Conference, OZCHI 2008, December 8th-12th, Cairns, Australia---------- Research Publications: truna aka j.turner & Browning, D. (2009) Designing spatial story telling software, in proceedings OZCHI09, Melbourne---------- Truna aka j.turner, Browning, D. & Champion, E. (2008) Designing for Engaged Experience, In proceedings Australasian Computer Human Interaction Conference, OZCHI 2008, December 8th-12th, Cairns, Australia---------- Truna aka. J.turner & Bidwell, N. (2007) Through the looking glass: game worlds as representations and views from elsewhere, Proceedings of the 4th Australasian conference on Interactive entertainment, Melbourne, Australia---------- Truna aka j.turner, Browning, D & Bidwell, N. (2007) Wanderer beyond game worlds, in proceedings, Hutchinson, A (ed) PerthDAC 2007: The seventh International Digital Arts and Culture Conference: The future of digital media culture, 15-18 September 2007, Perth, Australia, Curtin University of Technology---------- Truna aka j.turner (2006) To explore strange new worlds: experience design in 3 dimensional immersive environments - role and place in a world as object of interaction, In proceedings, Australasian Computer Human Interaction Conference, OZCHI 2006, November 22nd-24th, Sydney, Australia, November 20th – 24th 2006, pp 26- 29---------- Truna aka j.turner (2006) Digital songlines environment (Demonstration), In proceedings 2006 International conference on Game research and development, Perth, Australia---------- Truna aka j.turner (2006) Destination Space: Experiential Spatiality and Stories, Special Session on Experiential Spatiality, In proceedings 2006 International conference on Game research and development, Perth, Australia

GameFlow : a model for evaluating player enjoyment in games

Although player enjoyment is central to computer games, there is currently no accepted model of player enjoyment in games. There are many heuristics in the literature, based on elements such as the game interface, mechanics, gameplay, and narrative. However, there is a need to integrate these heuristics into a validated model that can be used to design, evaluate, and understand enjoyment in games. We have drawn together the various heuristics into a concise model of enjoyment in games that is structured by flow. Flow, a widely accepted model of enjoyment, includes eight elements that, we found, encompass the various heuristics from the literature. Our new model, GameFlow, consists of eight elements -- concentration, challenge, skills, control, clear goals, feedback, immersion, and social interaction. Each element includes a set of criteria for achieving enjoyment in games. An initial investigation and validation of the GameFlow model was carried out by conducting expert reviews of two real-time strategy games, one high-rating and one low-rating, using the GameFlow criteria. The result was a deeper understanding of enjoyment in real-time strategy games and the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the GameFlow model as an evaluation tool. The GameFlow criteria were able to successfully distinguish between the high-rated and low-rated games and identify why one succeeded and the other failed. We concluded that the GameFlow model can be used in its current form to review games; further work will provide tools for designing and evaluating enjoyment in games.

Facilitating learning in a real time strategy computer game

The aim of this project was to implement a just-in-time hints help system into a real time strategy (RTS) computer game that would deliver information to the user at the time that it would be of the most benefit. The goal of this help system is to improve the user’s learning in terms of their rate of learning, retention and avoidance of stagnation. The first stage of this project was implementing a computer game to incorporate four different types of skill that the user must acquire, namely motor, perceptual, declarative knowledge and strategic. Subsequently, the just-in-time hints help system was incorporated into the game to assess the user’s knowledge and deliver hints accordingly. The final stage of the project was to test the effectiveness of this help system by conducting two phases of testing. The goal of this testing was to demonstrate an increase in the user’s assessment of the helpfulness of the system from phase one to phase two. The results of this testing showed that there was no significant difference in the user’s responses in the two phases. However, when the results were analysed with respect to several categories of hints that were identified, it became apparent that patterns in the data were beginning to emerge. The conclusions of the project were that further testing with a larger sample size would be required to provide more reliable results and that factors such as the user’s skill level and different types of goals should be taken into account.

GCAP 2010 presentation : jams, jellybeans and the fruits of passion

In 2010 we realised that our fifth 48 hour game making competition was more than a mere event but that we were actually watching our local games industry enact a very intense process of community making and reflective practice. This presentation of our early research on the event was an invited spectacle at the Games Connect Australia Pacific Conference 2010 held at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, 14-15 October 2010. Abstract: Jams, Jellybeans and the fruit of passion: if games are about creating innovative player experience, then the place to start is how we set up game design education as an experience Authors: truna aka j.turner – Brisbane IGDA & Lubi Thomas, Mt Nebo Studios The 48 hour game making challenge has grown since it started in 2007 to accommodate 20 teams, some of the teams are professionals, some are made of people who are working in other industries, most are made of students from the various tertiary institutes around town. We still don’t quite understand why these mad people sign up for 48 hours of intense creativity just for the jelly beans we hand out as prizes but we do suspect that the space we give them and the passion they bring to the event offers those of us involved in the education side of the games industry really vital insights into what is critical and important in terms of education. The Australian games industry really needs these people, they are bright and ingenious and they make the most amazing games. But you won't get them by telling tertiary institutions what you fancy this year in terms of skills and criteria; you will get them by fostering their creativity and passion. If games are about creating innovative player experience, then the place to start is how we set up game design education as an experience.

Jams, jelly beans and the fruits of passion - art book (26 Pages)

Statement: Jams, Jelly Beans and the Fruits of Passion Let us search, instead, for an epistemology of practice implicit in the artistic, intuitive processes which some practitioners do bring to situations of uncertainty, instability, uniqueness, and value conflict. (Schön 1983, p40) Game On was born out of the idea of creative community; finding, networking, supporting and inspiring the people behind the face of an industry, those in the mist of the machine and those intending to join. We understood this moment to be a pivotal opportunity to nurture a new emerging form of game making, in an era of change, where the old industry models were proving to be unsustainable. As soon as we started putting people into a room under pressure, to make something in 48hrs, a whole pile of evolutionary creative responses emerged. People refashioned their craft in a moment of intense creativity that demanded different ways of working, an adaptive approach to the craft of making games – small – fast – indie. An event like the 48hrs forces participants’ attention onto the process as much as the outcome. As one game industry professional taking part in a challenge for the first time observed: there are three paths in the genesis from idea to finished work: the path that focuses on mechanics; the path that focuses on team structure and roles, and the path that focuses on the idea, the spirit – and the more successful teams put the spirit of the work first and foremost. The spirit drives the adaptation, it becomes improvisation. As Schön says: “Improvisation consists on varying, combining and recombining a set of figures within the schema which bounds and gives coherence to the performance.” (1983, p55). This improvisational approach is all about those making the games: the people and the principles of their creative process. This documentation evidences the intensity of their passion, determination and the shit that they are prepared to put themselves through to achieve their goal – to win a cup full of jellybeans and make a working game in 48hrs. 48hr is a project where, on all levels, analogue meets digital. This concept was further explored through the documentation process. All of these pictures were taken with a 1945 Leica III camera. The use of this classic, film-based camera, gives the images a granularity and depth, this older slower technology exposes the very human moments of digital creativity. ____________________________ Schön, D. A. 1983, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action, Basic Books, New York

Modeling player-like behaviour for game Al design

The design of artificial intelligence in computer games is an important component of a player's game play experience. As games are becoming more life-like and interactive, the need for more realistic game AI will increase. This is particularly the case with respect to AI that simulates how human players act, behave and make decisions. The purpose of this research is to establish a model of player-like behavior that may be effectively used to inform the design of artificial intelligence to more accurately mimic a player's decision making process. The research uses a qualitative analysis of player opinions and reactions while playing a first person shooter video game, with recordings of their in game actions, speech and facial characteristics. The initial studies provide player data that has been used to design a model of how a player behaves.

Does activity in computer game play have an impact on creative behavior?

This paper describes a behaviour analysis designed to measure the creative potential of computer game activities. The research approach applies a behavioural and verbal protocol to analyze the factors that influence the creative processes used by people as they play computer games from the puzzle genre. Creative components are measured by examining task motivation as well as domain-relevant and creativity-relevant skills factors. This paper focuses on how three puzzle games embody activity that might facilitate creative processes. The findings show that game playing activities significantly impact upon creative potential of computer games.