40,190 research outputs found
Automatic Generation of Alternative Starting Positions for Simple Traditional Board Games
Simple board games, like Tic-Tac-Toe and CONNECT-4, play an important role
not only in the development of mathematical and logical skills, but also in the
emotional and social development. In this paper, we address the problem of
generating targeted starting positions for such games. This can facilitate new
approaches for bringing novice players to mastery, and also leads to discovery
of interesting game variants. We present an approach that generates starting
states of varying hardness levels for player~ in a two-player board game,
given rules of the board game, the desired number of steps required for
player~ to win, and the expertise levels of the two players. Our approach
leverages symbolic methods and iterative simulation to efficiently search the
extremely large state space. We present experimental results that include
discovery of states of varying hardness levels for several simple grid-based
board games. The presence of such states for standard game variants like Tic-Tac-Toe opens up new games to be played that have never been
played as the default start state is heavily biased.Comment: A conference version of the paper will appear in AAAI 201
A Survey of Monte Carlo Tree Search Methods
Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) is a recently proposed search method that combines the precision of tree search with the generality of random sampling. It has received considerable interest due to its spectacular success in the difficult problem of computer Go, but has also proved beneficial in a range of other domains. This paper is a survey of the literature to date, intended to provide a snapshot of the state of the art after the first five years of MCTS research. We outline the core algorithm's derivation, impart some structure on the many variations and enhancements that have been proposed, and summarize the results from the key game and nongame domains to which MCTS methods have been applied. A number of open research questions indicate that the field is ripe for future work
IST Austria Technical Report
Board games, like Tic-Tac-Toe and CONNECT-4, play an important role not only in development of mathematical and logical skills, but also in emotional and social development. In this paper, we address the problem of generating targeted starting positions for such games. This can facilitate new approaches for bringing novice players to mastery, and also leads to discovery of interesting game variants.
Our approach generates starting states of varying hardness levels for player 1 in a two-player board game, given rules of the board game, the desired number of steps required for player 1 to win, and the expertise levels of the two players. Our approach leverages symbolic methods and iterative simulation to efficiently search the extremely large state space. We present experimental results that include discovery of states of varying hardness levels for several simple grid-based board games. Also, the presence of such states for standard game variants like Tic-Tac-Toe on board size 4x4 opens up new games to be played that have not been played for ages since the default start state is heavily biased
Automated Game Design Learning
While general game playing is an active field of research, the learning of
game design has tended to be either a secondary goal of such research or it has
been solely the domain of humans. We propose a field of research, Automated
Game Design Learning (AGDL), with the direct purpose of learning game designs
directly through interaction with games in the mode that most people experience
games: via play. We detail existing work that touches the edges of this field,
describe current successful projects in AGDL and the theoretical foundations
that enable them, point to promising applications enabled by AGDL, and discuss
next steps for this exciting area of study. The key moves of AGDL are to use
game programs as the ultimate source of truth about their own design, and to
make these design properties available to other systems and avenues of inquiry.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for CIG 201
Board games as a teaching tool for technology classes in Compulsory Secondary Education
Aquest treball estudia la tècnica coneguda com game-based learning, és a dir, l’ús dels jocs com a eina didà ctica.
Primer que res, es fa recerca sobre els treballs ja existents i es veu que, tot i haver-hi articles sobre game-based learning, és difÃcil trobar-ne de relacionats amb la tecnologia, més enllà d’ensenyar a programar.
A continuació, es revisen els continguts curriculars i les competències de secundà ria i es relacionen amb alguns jocs de taula ja existents, dels quals es detallen breument les regles de joc. Es veu que hi ha continguts curriculars, pels quals es difÃcil trobar un joc que hi encaixi.
A més a més, es desenvolupa la idea d’un nou joc de taula, basat en el ja existent Party & Co., per treballar alguns dels continguts curriculars pels quals no s’ha trobat cap joc existent que s’hi escaigui.
Finalment, s’explica una experiència duta a terme durant el perÃode de prà ctiques en el centre escolar al curs de 3r d’ESO. Es disposava de tres grups i en tots tres es va seguir la mateixa programació: classe introductòria expositiva, una sessió de muntatge de robots LEGO, 4 sessions de programació i un petit test. En un dels tres grups, però, es va fer una classe prèvia extra on es va jugar a un joc de taula anomenat RoboRally. Els objectius eren dobles: que aprenguessin la importà ncia de l’algorÃsmica i que s’ho passessin bé. Els resultats mostren que aquest grup va treballar més i millor. En el treball s’analitzen els resultats obtinguts
Undercurrents – A Computer-Based Gameplay Tool to Support Tabletop Roleplaying
This paper introduces Undercurrents, a computer-based gameplay tool for providing additional communication and media streams during tabletop roleplaying sessions. Based upon a client-server architecture, the system is intended to unobtrusively support secret communication, timing of audio and visual presentations to game events, and real-time documentation of the game session. Potential end users have been involved in the development and the paper provides details on the full design process
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