Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
RESEARCH AND LEARNING RESOURCES FOR
COMPUTER GAMES TECHNOLOGY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction to Computer Games ............................................................................. 3
General resources for game research and technology ............................................ 3
Game Artificial Intelligence resources: ................................................................... 3
Web sites on game AI:............................................................................................ 3
Academic: .............................................................................................................. 4
Conferences and workshops: ................................................................................. 4
Books: (see also AIWisdom.com) ........................................................................... 4
Academic Papers: .................................................................................................. 5
Surveys and overviews: ..................................................................................... 5
Pathfinding: ........................................................................................................ 5
Formations: ........................................................................................................ 5
Steering behaviours:........................................................................................... 6
Crowds: .............................................................................................................. 6
Camera AI: ......................................................................................................... 6
Visibility and perception: ................................................................................... 7
Social and conversational agents: ...................................................................... 7
Story AI:............................................................................................................. 7
Action selection and agent architecture: ............................................................ 7
Strategy and tactics: ........................................................................................... 8
Learning and evolution: ..................................................................................... 8
Other: ................................................................................................................. 8
Game AI articles: ................................................................................................. 10
Software: .............................................................................................................. 10
Commercial: ..................................................................................................... 10
Open source: .................................................................................................... 11
Other: ............................................................................................................... 11
Game Physics resources: ........................................................................................ 12
Books: .................................................................................................................. 12
Papers: ................................................................................................................. 12
Software: .............................................................................................................. 12
Open source: .................................................................................................... 12
Commercial: ..................................................................................................... 12
Other: ............................................................................................................... 13
Academic resources: game design, production and criticism: .............................. 13
University labs, centres and projects: ................................................................. 13
University courses: .............................................................................................. 14
Academically oriented online forums .................................................................. 15
Conferences and workshops ................................................................................ 15
Papers: ................................................................................................................. 15
Other: ................................................................................................................... 16
Related topics of interest ......................................................................................... 16
Rants: ................................................................................................................... 16
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 1
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
Computer Game Characters ................................................................................... 17
Behaviour .................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Game Design ........................................................................................................... 17
Hierarchical Actions ............................................................................................... 17
Learning .................................................................................................................. 17
Specific AI Techniques and Case Studies /Examples ........................................... 17
Game AI Researchers ............................................................................................. 20
Links to be sorted out yet ........................................................................................ 20
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 2
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
Introduction to Computer Games
Wikipedia video game entry
Gamespot - The History of Video Games
Gamespot - A History of Video Game Controversy
Life After the Video Game Crash
Google search
General resources for game research and technology








Journal of Game Development (CRM)
Game Programming Gems book series (CRM)
Game Developers Conference (CMP)
Game Developer Magazine (CMP)
Gamasutra (CMP)
IGDA International Game Developers Association
Game Research covering "the art, business, and science of computer games"
Calendar of game industry events
Game Artificial Intelligence resources:
Web sites on game AI:











Dr C Süheyl Özveren
The Game AI Page: Building Artificial Intelligence into Games
Amit's Game Programming Information
AIWisdom.com A book of articles on AI techniques used in
video games by programmers in the industry by Steve Rabin
("Our Goal: Catalogue Every Game AI Article and Every
Graphics Article")
Game/AI blog by Damian Isla
Game AI Page A website devoted to the topic of artificial
intelligence in games and contains many useful links to other
webpages on the subject by Steve Woodcock
aiGuru by Michael Zarozinski
AI Depot A website covering many aspects of artificial
intelligence. by Alex Champandard
An AI Architecture for Games and Robotics by Nick Porcino
Artificial Intelligence resources at gamedev.net
Artificial Intelligence FAQ Frequently asked questions about
artificial intelligence.
comp.ai.games: A newsgroup devoted to game AI.
Page 3
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
Academic:






Artificial Intelligence and Computer Games Research at UMich
by John Laird et al.
Artificial Intelligence section of Amit Patel's Game
Programming Information.
AI Center by Alexander Nareyek
Dialogue in Computer Games by Penny Drennan
Game AI Paper Summaries, Strategy AI by Penny Sweetser
Game Development Page by Ken Perlin –
Conferences and workshops:











Computer Game Design and Technology Workshop
GDTW2006
V-Crowds '05 The First International Workshop on Crowd
Simulation
Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment
Conference (AIIDE 2005)
AAAI-04 Workshop on Challenges in Game AI (2004)
Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Entertainment (AAAI
AIIE 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999)
Australian Game Developers' Conference
International Conference on Entertainment Computing
Game-On
Game Developers' Conference
AAAI Spring Symposia
International Conference on Virtual Storytelling
Books: (see also AIWisdom.com)
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Artificial Intelligence for Computer Games: An Introduction (2004) by
John D. Funge. The companion web site ai4games.org includes
bibliography, errata, chapter guide, and relevant links.
Companion website for Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach
Programming Game AI by Example (2004) by Mat Buckland
AI Game Engine Programming (2004) by Brian Schwab
AI for Game Developers (2004) by David M. Bourg and Glenn
Seeman
AI Game Development: Synthetic Creatures with Learning and
Reactive Behaviors (2003) by Alex Champandard. See also the
companion web site AiGameDev.com.
AI Game Programming Wisdom 2 (2003) edited by Steve Rabin.
AI Game Programming Wisdom (2002) edited by Steve Rabin.
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 4
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
o
AI for Animation and Games: A Cognitive Modeling Approach (1999)
by John D. Funge.
Academic Papers:
Surveys and overviews:


Alex Nareyek (2004) Artificial Intelligence in Computer
Games - State of the Art and Future Directions ACM Queue
1(10), 58-65 (PDF of print version)
Behavior Modeling in Commercial Games (2004) by David E.
Diller, William Ferguson, Alice M. Leung, Brett Benyo,
Dennis Foley [DOC]
Pathfinding:






Near Optimal Hierarchical Path-Finding (2004) Adi Botea,
Martin Müller and Jonathan Schaeffer
Efficient Navigation Mesh Implementation (2004) John C.
O’Neill
Realistic Human Path Planning using Fluid Simulation [PDF]
(2004) by René G. Burgess and Christian J. Darken
Ribbon Networks for Modeling Navigable Paths of
Autonomous Agents in Virtual Urban Environments [PDF]
(2003) Peter Willemsen, Joseph K. Kearney and Hongling
Wang
Interactive Navigation in Complex Environments Using Path
Planning (2003) Brian Salomon, Maxim Garber, Ming C. Lin,
and Dinesh Manocha
Polygon Soup for the Programmer's Soul: 3D Pathfinding
(2001) by Patrick Smith. GDC 2001 presentation slides in
[PPT].
Formations:



Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Formation-Based Pathfinding With Real-World Vehicles
(2000) by Jim Van Verth, Victor Brueggemann, Jon Owen and
Peter McMurry. Extends steering behaviors to include multivehicle formations and explores more specific vehicle
locomotion models.
Coordinated Unit Movement, and Implementing Coordinated
Movement (1999) by Dave Pottinger
Closely related robotics papers:
Page 5
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology





Formations with a Mission: Stable Coordination of Vehicle
Group Maneuvers (2002) by Petter Ogren, Edward Fiorelli and
Naomi Ehrich Leonard
Negotiated Formations (2003) by David J. Naffin and Gaurav
S. Sukhatme
Robot Formations Using Only Local Sensing and Control
(2001) by Jakob Fredslund and Maja J Mataric
Social Potentials for Scalable Multi-Robot Formations (2000)
by Tucker Balch and Maria Hybinette
Behavior-based Formation Control for Multi-robot Teams
(1999) by Tucker Balch and Ronald C. Arkin
Steering behaviours:



Autonomous Behaviors for Interactive Vehicle Animations
(2004) by Jared Go, Thuc Vu and James Kuffner. [PDF]
Fast, Neat and Under Control: Inverse Steering Behaviors for
Physical Autonomous Agents (2003) Heni Ben Amor, Oliver
Obst, Jan Murray. [PDF] [CiteSeer]
Steering Behaviors For Autonomous Characters (1999) by
Craig Reynolds. [PDF] [CiteSeer]
Crowds:


FastCrowd: Real-Time Simulation and Interaction with Large
Crowds based on Graphics Hardware (2004) by Nicolas Courty
and Soraia Raupp Musse [PDF]
Interaction with Groups of Autonomous Characters (2000) by
Craig Reynolds. [PDF]
Camera AI:




Dr C Süheyl Özveren
A Cinematography System for Virtual Storytelling (2003)
Nicolas Courty, Fabrice Lamarche, Stéphane Donikian, and
Éric Marchand. [PDF]
Real-Time Camera Control For Interactive Storytelling (2002)
Fred Charles, Jean-Luc Lugrin, Marc Cavazza and Steven J.
Mead. [PDF] [CiteSeer]
A Camera Engine for Computer Games: Managing the TradeOff Between Constraint Satisfaction and Frame Coherence
(2001) by Nicolas Halper, Ralf Helbing and Thomas Strothotte.
[PDF] [CiteSeer]
The Virtual Cinematographer: A Paradigm for Automatic RealTime Camera Control and Directing (1996) by Michael F.
Cohen, Li-wei He and David Salesin. [PDF] [CiteSeer]
Page 6
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
Visibility and perception:




Visibility and Concealment Algorithms for 3D Simulations
[PDF] (2004) by Christian J. Darken
AI on the GPU [PDF] (2004) by Christian J. Darken, E. Ray
Pursel, J. Steve Correia. On determining how entities on a
virtual battlefield see each other.
State Estimation for Game AI using Particle Filters (2004) by
Curt Bererton. [PDF] [AVI video]
Object Persistence for Synthetic Characters (2002) by Damian
A. Isla and Bruce M. Blumberg. [PDF]
Social and conversational agents:



Character Participation in Social Interaction [PDF] (2004) by
Robert Zubek
Generic Personality and Emotion Simulation for
Conversational Agents [PDF] (2004) by Arjan Egges, Sumedha
Kshirsagar, Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann
FLAME - A Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotions (2000)
by Magy Seif El-Nasr, John Yen, and Thomas Ioerger. [PS]
Story AI:






AI Characters and Directors for Interactive Computer Games
(2004) Brian Magerko, John E. Laird, Mazin Assanie, Alex
Kerfoot and Devvan Stokes. [PDF]
An intent-driven planner for multi-agent story generation
(2004) by Mark Owen Riedl and R. Michael Young. [PDF]
Interactive Narrative Architecture Based on Filmmaking
Theory (2004) by Magy Seif El-Nasr. [PDF]
A Search-Based Drama Manager (2004) by Ari Lamstein and
Michael Mateas [PDF]
Façade: An Experiment in Building a Fully-Realized
Interactive Drama (2003) Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern
[PDF]
The Stage as a Character: Automatic Creation of Acts of God
for Dramatic Effect (1995) by Bradley Rhodes and Pattie Maes
Action selection and agent architecture:

Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Improv: A System for Scripting Interactive Actors in Virtual
Worlds (1996) by Ken Perlin and Athomas Goldberg [PDF]
[CiteSeer] [related page]
Page 7
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology

Multi-Level Direction of Autonomous Creatures for Real-Time
Virtual Environments (1995) by Bruce Blumberg and Tinsley
Galyean. [PDF] [CiteSeer]
Strategy and tactics:


Rules versus Scripts in Games Artificial Intelligence (2004) by
Nathan Combs and Jean-Louis Ardoint. [PDF]
It Knows What You're Going to Do: Adding Anticipation to a
Quakebot (2001) by John E. Laird. [PDF]
Learning and evolution:



Evolving Opponents for Interesting Interactive Computer
Games (2004) by Georgios N. Yannakakis and John Hallam.
[PDF]
Fast and Learnable Behavioral and Cognitive Modeling for
Virtual Character Animation (2004) Jonathan Dinerstein, Parris
K. Egbert, Hugo de Garis and Nelson Dinerstein. [PDF]
Integrated Learning for Interactive Synthetic Characters (2002)
Bruce Blumberg, Marc Downie, Yuri Ivanov, Matt Berlin,
Michael Patrick Johnson, Bill Tomlinson. [PDF]
Other:








Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Automating Lighting Design for Interactive Entertainment
(2004) Magy Seif El-Nasr and Ian Horswill. [PDF]
Realistic Autonomous Navigation in Dynamic Environments
(2003) by Alex Champandard (Masters thesis, University of
Edinburgh)
RTS Games as Test-Bed for Real-Time Research [PDF] (2003)
Michael Buro and Timothy Furtak.
Artificial Stupidity: The Art of Intentional Mistakes (2003)
Lars Liden. [PDF]
Putting AI in Entertainment: An AI Authoring Tool for
Simulation and Games (2002) by Daniel Fu and Ryan Houlette
[PDF]
Strategic and Tactical Reasoning with Waypoints (2002) Lars
Liden. [PDF]
Gamebots: A 3D Virtual World Test-Bed For Multi-Agent
Research (2001) Rogelio Adobbati, Andrew N. Marshall,
Andrew Scholer, Sheila Tejada, Gal Kaminka, Steven Schaffer,
Chris Sollitto. [PDF] [CiteSeer]
Virtual Real(i)ty: SimCity and the Production of Urban
Cyberspace
Page 8
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology







Civilization and Its Discontents: Simulation, Subjectivity, and
Space
Does gameplay have politics?
Video Games - The Necessity of Incorporating Video Games as
part of Constructivist Learning
Making Sense of Software: Computer Games as Interactive
Textuality
Home
Bio
Publications
Naimad Games Papers and Presentations
Next-Gen Content Creation for Next-Gen AI, D. Isla, Invited talk, Foundations of
Digital Games (FDG) 2009 [ppt]
Beyond Behavior: An Introduction to Knowledge Representation, D. Isla, P.
Gorniak, AI Summit GDC 2009 [ppt]
Halo 3 Objective Trees: A Declarative Approach to Multi-agent Coordination, D.
Isla, Invited talk, Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE)
2008 [ppt]
Halo AI Retrospective: 8 Years of Work on 30 Seconds of Fun, D. Isla, Programming
Keynote, Develop 2008 [ppt]
Transparent Decision-Making and AI Design, D. Isla, Seoul International Games
Symposium (SIGS) 2008 [ppt]
The Two Faces of Video Game AI, New Paradigms in Using Computers (NPUC) IBM
Almaden Research Center 2008 [ppt]
Building A Better Battle: The Halo 3 AI Objectives System, D. Isla, GDC 2008 [ppt]
Dude, Where's My Warthog: From Pathfinding to General Spatial Competence, D.
Isla, Invited talk, Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE)
2005 [ppt]
Handling Complexity in the Halo 2 AI, D. Isla, GDC 2005 [doc] [ppt]
The Halo 2 AI in 10 Minutes or Less, D. Isla, SD Forum 2004 [ppt]
"Low Level" Intelligence for "Low Level" Character Animation, D. Isla, B. Blumberg,
Sketches and Applications, SIGGRAPH 2002 [pdf] [ppt]
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 9
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
Object Persistence for Synthetic Creatures, D. Isla, B. Blumberg, Autonomous
Agents and Multi-agent Systems (AAMAS) 2002. Winner Best Student Paper
Award. [pdf] [ppt]
New Challenges for Character-Based AI for Games, D. Isla, B. Blumberg, AAAI
Symposium on AI and Interactive Entertainment 2002 [pdf]
A Layered Brain Architecture for Synthetic Creatures, D. Isla, R. Burke, M. Downie,
B. Blumberg, International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) 2001
[pdf]
Game AI articles:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Artificial Intelligence articles from Gamasutra (requires free
registration)
Using Genetic Algorithms for Game AI by Greg James at GIGnews
AI in Video Games vs. AI in Academia (Slashdot discussion)
Wild Things game AI article from Wired.
AI helps gamers keep on playing (BBC 2002) by Mark Ward on AI in
Majorem
Computer games start thinking (BBC 2002) by Mark Ward
The future of artificial intelligence: The Borg? (2002, ZDNet) group
mind AI for "Dmitry"
AI in action games: complete interviews (2002, PC Gamer)
NOLF 2: the complete developer interview (2002, PC Gamer)
AI Middleware: Getting into Character by Eric Dybsand (Gamasutra,
July 2003) parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
The Full Spectrum Warrior Camera System by John Giors (GDC 2004,
Gamasutra (requires free registration))
Under the hood of The Sims (2002 IE only?) lecture notes by Ken
Forbus
What does AI offer video games? (2004, self-published) by Craig
Furness
Bringing emotions to video games Can games inspire feelings as well
as fun? by Tom Loftus (2004, MSNBC) [PDF]
Adapting the Tools of Drama to Interactive Storytelling (2001,
Gamasutra (requires free registration)) by Randy Littlejohn
Agitating for Dramatic Change (2003, Gamasutra (requires free
registration)) by Randy Littlejohn
Software:
Commercial:

Dr C Süheyl Özveren
AI.implant from BioGraphic Technologies
Page 10
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology










Massive (crowd system used in Lord of the Rings, see also)
Softimage Behavior
RenderWare A.I. ("powered by Kynogon")
SimBionic from Stottler Henke Associates see also.
Pariveda
Louder Than A Bomb! Software
Virtools AI Pack (formerly NeMo?)
DirectIA
emotion ai
Realtime Drama
Open source:



OpenAI
FEAR: a generic framework for AI development with a
collection of building blocks, and methodologies to extend the
system
OpenSteer: a C++ library and tools to help construct steering
behaviors for autonomous characters
Other:
o
o
o
o
o
IGDA's committee on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Interface Standards
[related game AI newsletter]
International Journal of Intelligent Games & Simulation
Computers > Artificial Intelligence > Games (Google/DMOZ
directory)
comp.ai.games newsgroup (via web or nntp)
Related topics:
 Games with programmable AI: games providing API/SDK
allowing them to be used as testbeds for AI research. (From CS
672: Learning and Sequential Decision Making by Michael L.
Littman.) Some others:
 ORTS - A Free Software RTS Game Framework
 Freeciv: "Cause civilization should be free!"
 Games > Video Games > Simulation > Programming
Games (Google/DMOZ directory)
 Gamebots Unreal Tournament as a domain for research
in artificial intelligence
 Emotionally Challenged blog by Ian Wilson on articial
emotion.
 Terra Nova a blog about virtual worlds: "computer-generated,
persistent, immersive, and representational social
platforms...MMORPGs..."
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 11
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology



Interactive Storytelling: Techniques for 21st Century Fiction
(2004) book by Andrew Glassner
GPGPU General-Purpose Computation Using Graphics
Hardware
AI on the Web a massive directory of general (not specifically
game related) AI links, online companion to the book Artificial
Intelligence: A Modern Approach
Game Physics resources:
Books:
o
o
Game Physics (2003) by David H. Eberly see table of contents and
source code
Physics for Game Developers (2001) by David M. Bourg (overview
and reviews)
Papers:
o
o
o
Practical Physics for Articulated Characters [PDF] (2004) by Vangelis
Kokkevis
Using Verlet Integration and Constraints in a Six Degree of Freedom
Rigid Body Physics Simulation [PDF] (2004) by Rick Baltman
Advanced Character Physics (2001) by Thomas Jakobsen
Software:
Open source:





Open Dynamics Engine (ODE) and odejava
Tokamak Game Physics SDK
Newton Game Dynamics
Bullet Continuous Collision Detection and Physics Library
OPCODE Optimized Collision Detection
Commercial:






Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Havok Game Dynamics SDK
RenderWare Physics
Meqon Game Dynamics SDK
3Impact dynamics-capable game engine
CMLabs (realtime, but oriented toward engineering and
academic use)
NovodeX Rocket (free for non-commercial use)
Page 12
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology








ACE (The Autonomous Character Engine):
DirectIA: (Direct Intelligent Adaptation) a set of software
components modelling motivations and emotions, action
selection capabilities and cognitive behaviours such as dynamic
learning” (animaths website).
GALib A C++ library of Genetic Algorithm components
Logic Programming Associates Released a series of AI
programming tools:
 Flex: An expert system toolkit that supports framebased reasoning, rule-based programming and datadriven procedures. Includes an English-like Knowledge
Specification Language (KSL).
 Flint: A fuzzy logic expert system. Supports fuzzy
variables, fuzzy qualifiers and fuzzy modifiers.
 Agent: Allows you to write agent-oriented programs
using a logic-based approach.
LouderThanABomb! Spark!: A fuzzy logic editor with a
graphical user interface (GUI).
NightFall: Includes tools for developing worlds, including an
AI editor and library with functions for route finding, sensing
other objects nearby, creating other objects and moving around.
Open AI: The OpenAI website is the host to an Open Source
project and provides a community for people with an interest in
AI.
Robocode: Program a robotic tank in Java that can battle
against others.
Other:
o
o
o
o
o
Rigid Body Dynamics by Chris Hecker
Interactive Physics Simulation Resources by Thomas Jakobsen
Physics Resource Guide (Gamasutra, requires free registration)
Research on game physics (Pseudo Interactive)
Smash Hits (2001, Wired) by Mark Frauenfelder
Academic resources: game design, production and criticism:
University labs, centres and projects:
o
o
o
o
o
Entertainment Technology Center CMU
University of Alberta Games Group
Game Research Lab (University of Tampere)
Center for Computer Games Research IT University of Copenhagen
Interactive Entertainment Group Northwestern University
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 13
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Game Culture & Technology Lab UCI
Institute for Creative Technologies USC
EA Game Innovation Lab (stand-in link) USC
Video Game Research Site Purdue
The Rapunsel Project (NYU, Hunter College, University of Illinois)
How They Got Game: History and Culture of Interactive Simulations
and Video Games, at Stanford Humanities Lab
Serious Games: Improving Public Policy through Game-Based
Learning and Simulation and the Serious Games Summit. (See also
this 2004 CIE article article by Ben Sawyer and this (older?) site.)
Game Technology Research at Brown
Computer Games Group University of Maastricht
Liquid Narrative Group North Carolina State University
InteractiveStory.net and Façade
Water Cooler Games "video games with an agenda...beyond
entertainment"
Experimental Game Lab Georgia Tech
Research in Interactive Narratives University of Teesside
Game Development Society ("Stop playing alone, play together!")
Leeds University
John Laird's Artificial Intelligence and Computer Games Research
NC State's Liquid Narrative research group
USC's Institute for Creative Technologies
Northwestern's Interactive Entertainment Group
Excalibur: Adaptive Constraint-Based Agents in Artificial
Environments
Tierra
University of Maastricht, Computer Games Group
The University of Alberta GAMES Group
Prof Ken Perlin of New York University a must visit page
University courses:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
CS 4455 - Video Game Design and Programming Georgia Tech
Computer Game Design and Implementation University of Michigan
Algorithms for Computer Games notes for course at the University of
Turku.
History of Computer Game Design: Technology, Culture, Business
Stanford
AI for Game Programming Course Information (Jessica Bayliss) RIT
CS 294 Computer Games Home Page (David Forsyth) UC Berkeley
Game Development Certificate Program, University of Washington
Extension
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 14
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
o
o
o
o
CS 395 Interactive Graphics Techniques for Computer Gaming (Ben
Watson) Northwestern
Computer Game Design at Northwestern A course on computer game
design offered at Northwestern University.
Game AI at RIT A course on game AI at the Rochester Institute of
Technology.
Game Programming at the University of Michigan While not
specifically a course on game AI, this course is intended to cover all
areas of game design and implementation.
Academically oriented online forums
o
o
o
o
o
Game Studies -- aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of
computer games
Ludology.org - Videogame Theory (see also Associated Press Says
"Ludology")
Narratology - projects, debates and resources in narrative theory
Grand Text Auto - group blog about interactive narrative, games,
poetry, and art.
The Education Arcade - The Future of Videogames in Education
Conferences and workshops
o
o
o
o
o
o
Computer Game Technology Conference (2004)
Gaming2Learn workshop (2003 Media X, Stanford)
Game On: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and GameOn'NA 2005. See
also this article on The Game On conference and the current state of
research into learning.
International Conference on Virtual Storytelling: 2003, 2001
Narrative Intelligence AAAI 1999 Fall Symposium
RE:PLAY (1999) "Real world Conference: Game design + Game
Culture"
Papers:
o
o
o
o
GameFlow: A Model for Evaluating Player Enjoyment in Games
(2005) Penelope Sweetser and Peta Wyeth [PDF]
Scripting Versus Emergence: Issues for Game Developers and Players
in Game
Environment Design (2005) Penelope Sweetser and Janet Wiles [PDF]
Learning by Design: Games as Learning Machines (2004) by James
Paul Gee. [PDF]
MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research
(2002) Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek. [PDF]
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 15
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
Other:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Games > Game Studies > Education (Google/DMOZ directory)
Video game studies from Wikipedia
IGDA's Academic site, including academic events, articles,
curriculum, and forums.
Gamers Learning by Degree (2002, Wired)
10 Game Industry Sites We Like (GIGnews)
Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) Online Community
Shedding the stigma: Yes, that's a Ph.D in game theory hanging on the
wall (2004, AP)
U.S. colleges offering video game studies (2004, Reuters, via Frobes)
gaming research | games as education | games as art by Mary Flanagan
including The Rapunsel Project and The Adventures of Josie True
Whither Game Research (2004 blog post) by Michael Mateas
Towards Relevant Research: Collaboration 101 (GDC 2004 panel) by
Robin Hunicke, with Raph Koster, Mark DeLoura, Michael van Lent
and Will Wright. Session summary and session prep notes.
Computer Games in an Academic Environment by Asher Lipson
Related topics of interest





The Uncanny Valley, a concept formulated by Masahiro Mori, a Japanese
roboticist. Mori tested people's emotional responses to a wide variety of
robots, from non-humanoid to completely humanoid. He found that the
human tendency to empathize with machines increases as the robot
becomes more human. But at a certain point, when the robot becomes too
human, the emotional sympathy abruptly ceases, and revulsion takes its
place. People began to notice not the charmingly human characteristics of
the robot but the creepy zombielike differences.
The Uncanny Valley (2000) by Dave Bryant: Why are monster-movie
zombies so horrifying and talking animals so fascinating? [PDF]
The Undead Zone (2004, Slate) by Clive Thompson: Why realistic
graphics make humans look creepy.
Robots Dancing in the Uncanny Valley ... (2004, Life With Alacrity)
The Man Who Mistook His Girlfriend for a Robot by Dan Ferber (2004,
Popular Science) about the robotic art of David Hanson
Quality of Life IGDA's QoL pages advocating better working conditions
for game developers. Videos from the Quality of Life Summit at GDC
2005.
Rants:
o
GDC 2005, IGDA Session: Burning Down The House - Game
Developers Rant with Eric Zimmerman, Warren Spector, Jason
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 16
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
o
Della Rocca, Greg Costikyan, Brenda Laurel and Chris Hecker.
Covered by GameSpot, GameSpy, Wonderland and Terra Nova.
A Gamers' Manifesto ("20 things gamers want from the seventh
generation of game consoles") by David Wong and Haimoimoi.
o
o
o
o
GDSE: Game Development Search Engine
Mindpixel: Digital Mind Modeling Project The aim of the project
is to create artificial consciousness, by teaching it what it is to be
human.
NN and GA Tutorials
Computer Game Characters
Google search for Lara Croft
Google search for Mario
Google search for Pac-Mac
Google search for Wario
Game Design
Garage Games
Jie Gao - Collision Detection
Hierarchical Actions
Cognitive/Agent Architecture
Learning
David W. Aha: Machine Learning Page
Association for Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (AUAI)
Craig Boutilier's Web Page
Daphne Koller
Machine Learning in Games
C++ Machine-learning Library
Machine Learning Network Online Information Service
Specific AI Techniques and Case Studies /Examples
Excalibur Project : Excalibur is an autonomous agent architecture whose goal is to
provide a complex computer-game environment in which the agents would operate.
These agents not only have to plan and make decisions in a dynamic world with
incomplete knowledge, but they also have to communicate with other agents and
work as parts of a group as well.
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 17
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
Genetic Algorithms: An explanation of genetic algorithms, and how they might work
well with game AI.
Intelligent Agents in Computer Games: A paper detailing the authors' SOAR interface
to the popular computer game Quake II.
Machine Learning in Games: A site whose title is somewhat misleading. It is actually
more of a repository for AI researchers and game programmers alike. It contains links
to a number of papers, techniques, and current projects.
Machine Learning in Games Development
An article that suggests that Machine Learning is rarely, if ever, used in completed
computer games. It provides an explanation of what machine learning is (without
much explanation of the theory of counting and such): the performance element,
learning element, and so on.
Steering Behaviors for Autonomous Characters
A paper on how to make autonomous characters in animation and games move in a
life-like manner through steering behaviours.
AI in Games: From Black & White to Infinity and Beyond
A website detailing the AI used in the recent game "Black & White". It discusses
autonomous agents, feedback-based learning, and decision trees. It also extrapolates
from "Black & White", conjecturing possible directions for future AI in games, such
as infinite goals, and real-time planning.
Angband Angband is a descent through randomly generated dungeons. As one goes
deeper, more fearsome monsters are encountered. These monsters are more than just
better statistics and a different graphical tile: the monsters also get smarter as you
descend. Angband and some of its variants have a player-toggleable option that
allows monsters to track the player by scent and sound as well as sight. Certain
monsters can also track better than others: canines and the various types of hounds
can smell the player from hundreds of feet away, and attack in packs. However, scent
is also unreliable. Though each time the player moves into a square his or her scent
lingers for a while, it is only temporary, and degrades over time, so that after a while,
it becomes unreliable.
Complete AI Interviews: This is a collection of interviews with the AI designers of
games. They discuss what makes good and bad game AI, and why good AI takes so
long to develop.
Game AI: The State of the Industry This article is the basis for information on the two
games mentioned above, but it also contains a number of other facts. One is that finite
and fuzzy state machines still seem to be the industry standard. Genetic algorithms
and neural networks are infrequently used because of a perceived difficulty arising
from their non-determinism.
Microsoft's Age of Empires; To make the AI's job easier, Age of Empires uses terrain
analysis. The result is a pathfinding algorithm that is more efficient than the standard
A*. As well, the game uses so-called influence maps. These maps allow certain
structures to be identified as "key structures", and can find optimal placement of
buildings relative to these structures. These maps are also used to plan attacks: if any
enemy structures are known, the AI will plot out the best possible attack route, so that
early warning to the enemy is minimized.
Red Storm's Force 21: Force 21 takes a different approach to path finding, drawing on
research in visibility graph analysis to divide larger sections into "reachable" and
"unreachable" areas, leaving implementation issues up to the individual units.
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 18
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
The Sims: Although you can do things to make your characters react in this game,
they are by and large autonomous agents.
Quake 3: Quake 3 uses a pathfinding system called the Area Awareness System
(AAS). A detailed explanation of it can be found here.
Virtua Fighter 4: Virtua Fighter 4 allows you to create AIs, and train them using a
form of supervised learning. After a fight, you can tell it whether it was a good fight
or not, which the AI can then use as information in future fights.
Warcraft 3: Warcraft 3 uses autonomous agents for better unit behaviour.
Researchers, Research, and Conferences
Alexander Nareyek: The website of Alexander Nareyek, a researcher interested in AI
in games. He has written papers detailing approaches and fields which might be
appropriate for game AI research, and his thesis combines agents, planning, constraint
programming, and local search. The formal framework he provides is implemented as
a computer game to show its viability. He also provides a list of papers, some of
which might be as useful as the ones mentioned above.
Artificial Intelligence Magazine, January 2002
A publication of the AAAI, the January 2002 issue of AI magazine has, among
articles on more traditional games, an article surveying the history of computer games
and AI.
GAMES Group at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
A research group that produces high-performance strategy games, encompassing both
traditional games such as Chess, Go, Poker, etc., as well as cutting-edge technology
produced in association with industry giants such as Electronic Arts and Bioware.
GCDC00, GCDC01, GCDC02, GCDC03: Moderator's notes from the roundtables on
AI in Computer Games at the Computer Games Development Conferences 20002003.
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 19
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
Game AI Researchers
J.M.P. van Waveren
Mr. van Waveren created the Quake II bot Gladiator, which was extended to provide
the core Quake III bot AI. His MSc. thesis describes the Area Awareness System
(AAS) pathfinding method used in the bot.
John Laird's Computer Game Research
John Laird is a professor and associate chair of the computer science and engineering
division of the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. This page
details his research in the field of computer game AI. It contains a number of his
papers, as well as links to the source code of projects he has worked on. Of particular
interest might be Interactive Computer Games: Human-level AI's Killer Application,
described by Professor Laird on his website as "a general, over-the-top paper
attempting to rally people to work on artificial intelligence and computer games." He
also wrote an article entitled "The Future of Game AI" for the Gamasutra website, and
maintains a list of interesting games from an AI perspective.
Research Directions for AI in Computer Games
A technical report of the computer science department of Trinity College Dublin. It
describes the level of AI being used in the industry, as well as how AI is used in a
number of different genres. It then identifies reasons as to why AI in the industry
tends to be much less sophisticated than that studied in academia, as well as a
discussion of game AI as an academic subject, and TCD's Game AI Project.
Robert Zubek
A Ph.D candidate at Northwestern, Mr. Zubek's research extends into "social" AI creating bots and other forms of AI which can engage with the player socially. One of
his projects, tt14m the trash-talking 14-year-old moron, attempts to model verbal
posturing and emotional involvement.
Text Book: Game AI
The table of contents for what could be an academic text book on game AI. The idea
is to demonstrate what might be useful for university courses on game AI, as there
currently seems to be no academic textbook on this subject. It is meant to generate
discussion rather than be an actual work in progress.
Towards an AI Behavior Toolkit for Games
An article by researchers who are trying to develop a toolkit for games that would
allow programmer’s access to state-of-the-art AI ideas and advances, thus bridging
the gap between academia and the industry.
Academic Courses
Links to be sorted out yet
The Angband Borg: A 'bot that plays Angband as if it were a normal player looking at
the screen. It was originally written by the maintainer of the game, though because the
source is freely available, there are a number of variants for different versions of the
game. It maintains a set of goals, the weight of which changes depending on the
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 20
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
situation it finds itself in. Then, each turn, it looks at its surroundings and its goals,
and does that which will best satisfy its current most important goal.
Game Development Resources
Articles
Amit's Game Programming Information: A resource for information on articles and
particulars of game programming. Includes sections on pathfinding and A*, tile-based
games, and more.
Gamasutra:A website with many articles covering all areas of game development.
Game Development Search Engine: A website containing many resources for game
developers. Its search engine lets you search articles from many game-related
websites, and it also contains links to other sites, with rankings showing their general
usefulness.
Introduction to Writing a Bot
A tutorial that guides you through the processes of creating a bot for a game like
Quake 2, Quake 3, or Half-Life.
Justin Heyes-Jones personal web pages - A* Tutorial
A tutorial on A* search, as well as an implementation written in C++, using the
standard template library. It claims to be platform-independent, but isn't. However,
removing the line "#include <conio.h>" in the source should allow you to compile it
correctly under a non-Windows operating system.
Timeline of Knowledge Representation
An excellent timeline of knowledge representation from 10000 BC to 2003 AD.
Compilers
DJGPP
A 32-bit C/C++ development system for machines running some form of DOS.
GameDev
A Windows-based toolkit for developing side-scrolling computer games.
Haskell Compilers and Interpreters
Links to the Hugs 98, GHC, nhc98, and other Haskell interpreters and compilers.
Java Technology
Sun's Java website.
MinGW
A collection of windows-specific header files and tools for developing native
Windows programs.
Python The official website for the Python programming language.
The GNU Compiler Collection: A collection of compilers. Currently, it contains front
ends for C, C++, Ada, Java, Fortran, and Objective-C. Distributed with almost every
copy of Linux, and often with the BSD family of operating systems, this comes close
to being ubiquitous outside the Windows world.
Libraries
Bayesian Networks in Java: A Java/XML toolkit for writing and using Bayesian
networks in Java.
FEAR: Foundations for General Game AI: A project that bills itself as "a language
independent open-source project providing portable support for the creation of
genuine Artificial Intelligence within realistic simulated worlds".
Free Fuzzy Logic Library: A library useful for those intent on using fuzzy logic as
part of their game AI.
Haskell Graphics Library: A graphics library for use with the Hugs Haskell system.
There are demo snippets of code available on the website. The library is supposed to
work on both Windows and Unix/Linux.
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 21
3/7/2016
Research and Learning Resources for Computer Games Technology
OpenGL: The Open Graphics Library, a widely-used general-purpose graphics
library.
PyGame: A set of modules for the Python programming language which allow
multimedia programming, and which are usually used for games development.
PyGame is written on top of the SDL multimedia library.
SDL
The Simple Directmedia Layer, a C multimedia library which allows crossplatform
multimedia access to the mouse, keyboard, graphics, and sound.
SVGALIB
A low-level SVGA graphics library for Linux.
Games and Engines
Angband
Though its graphics are extremely primitive by today's standards, Angband still has a
fairly large user base, and is in constant development. Monsters, races, items, and so
on are all specified externally in text files, so variants can quickly be made that way;
and while the source is still quite large, it is extremely well-commented and well laid
out.
Botman's Bots
A resource for bots for Half-Life and its associated modifications. It includes both
source, binaries, and instructions on how to compile everything.
Crystal Space
Crystal space is a freely available (LGPL) 3-D game development kit. It can use
OpenGL, Allegro, X11, and SVGALIB, depending on one's operating system setup.
Freeciv Freeciv is a turn-based strategy game based loosely on the Civilization series
of games. Its source is freely available, and the developers encourage contributions
from the community.
Quake and Hexen 2 Source
A repository for the Quake and Hexen 2 source code, as well as modifications
("mods") for those engines.
Quake 2 Source
This site contains the final release of Quake 2, as well as its source code.
Dr C Süheyl Özveren
Page 22
3/7/2016