A Genetic Programming Framework for 2D Platform AI

Genetic Programming, GP, Game AI, Agent Design, Platformer, AISB, JGAP, platformerAI, symbolic learningThere currently exists a wide range of techniques to model and evolve artificial players for games. Existing techniques range from black box neural networks to entirely hand-designed solutions. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of a genetic programming framework using human controller input to derive meaningful artificial players which can, later on, be optimised by hand. The current state of the art in game character design relies heavily on human designers to manually create and edit scripts and rules for game characters. To address this manual editing bottleneck, current computational intelligence techniques approach the issue with fully autonomous character generators, replacing most of the design process using black box solutions such as neural networks or the like. Our GP approach to this problem creates character controllers which can be further authored and developed by a designer it also offers designers to included their play style without the need to use a programming language. This keeps the designer in the loop while reducing repetitive manual labour. Our system also provides insights into how players express themselves in games and into deriving appropriate models for representing those insights. We present our framework, supporting findings and open challenges

POSH-SHARP: A lightweight toolkit for creating cognitive agents

Agent design is an intricate process requiring skills from different disciplines. Thus experts in one domain are not necessarily experts in the others. Supporting the design of agents is important and needs to address varying skill and expertise as well as varying handling the design of complex agents. In this paper, a new agent design toolkit –POSH-SHARP– for intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) and cognitive embodied agents is presented. It was designed to address the need for a robust agent development framework in highly restrictive environments such as the web or smartphones while being useful to both novice and expert users. It includes advanced functionality such as debug support, explicit design rules using a related design methodology and a simple set-up and distribution mechanism to reduce the authoring burden for large iteratively developed agents. The new framework was implemented in C# and contains sample code for different game environments to offer novice users a starting point

Agile Behaviour Design: A Design Approach for Structuring Game Characters and Interactions

Agent Design, Design Tools, Software Engineering, Agile Methods, Game Design, Design Support, CreativityIn this paper, a novel design methodology-Agile Behaviour Design-is presented that accommodates the requirements for developing complex game agents suitable for industrial environments. An essential part of the design approach is to support independent work of both designers and programmers by reducing bottleneck situations. The approach fosters the creation of more loose and fluid interactions between design and implementation, leaving more freedom for creative expression

Walking through virtual doors: A study on the effects of virtual location changes on memory

The spaces we inhabit can shape and influence the way in which we learn or reinforce information. Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that allows us to alter and create designed environments with great freedom over the visual, audio, and narrative elements. This freedom would benefit from further guidelines that detail approaches and implementations to best achieve desired information delivery goals. In this paper we present findings of a study that applies location-based memory strategies to VR environments, with the aim to aid word list recall without the subjects being required to apply any memory strategy themselves. Our findings suggest that VR may interfere with the incidental processing of multiple rooms and potential aid to recall as demonstrated in real world studies [PTT 16] [Smi82]

Towards simulated morality systems: Role-playing games as artificial societies

Computer role-playing games (RPGs) often include a simulated morality system as a core design element. Games' morality systems can include both god's eye view aspects, in which certain actions are inherently judged by the simulated world to be good or evil, as well as social simulations, in which non-player characters (NPCs) react to judgments of the player's and each others' activities. Games with a larger amount of social simulation have clear affinities to multi-agent systems (MAS) research on artificial societies. They differ in a number of key respects, however, due to a mixture of pragmatic game-design considerations and their typically strong embeddedness in narrative arcs, resulting in many important aspects of moral systems being represented using explicitly scripted scenarios rather than through agent-based simulations. In this position paper, we argue that these similarities and differences make RPGs a promising challenge domain for MAS research, highlighting features such as moral dilemmas situated in more organic settings than seen in game-theoretic models of social dilemmas, and heterogeneous representations of morality that use both moral calculus systems and social simulation. We illustrate some possible approaches using a case study of the morality systems in the game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Exploring Novel Game Spaces with Fluidic Games

AISB: Games AI & VR, 4 pages, 4 figures, game design, tools, creativityWith the growing integration of smartphones into our daily lives, and their increased ease of use, mobile games have become highly popular across all demographics. People listen to music, play games or read the news while in transit or bridging gap times. While mobile gaming is gaining popularity, mobile expression of creativity is still in its early stages. We present here a new type of mobile app -- fluidic games -- and illustrate our iterative approach to their design. This new type of app seamlessly integrates exploration of the design space into the actual user experience of playing the game, and aims to enrich the user experience. To better illustrate the game domain and our approach, we discuss one specific fluidic game, which is available as a commercial product. We also briefly discuss open challenges such as player support and how generative techniques can aid the exploration of the game space further

How Society Can Maintain Human-Centric Artificial Intelligence

Although not a goal universally held, maintaining human-centric artificial intelligence is necessary for society's long-term stability. Fortunately, the legal and technological problems of maintaining control are actually fairly well understood and amenable to engineering. The real problem is establishing the social and political will for assigning and maintaining accountability for artifacts when these artefacts are generated or used. In this chapter we review the necessity and tractability of maintaining human control, and the mechanisms by which such control can be achieved. What makes the problem both most interesting and most threatening is that achieving consensus around any human-centred approach requires at least some measure of agreement on broad existential concerns

Instinct: A biologically inspired reactive planner for intelligent embedded systems

The Instinct Planner is a new biologically inspired reactive planner, based on an established behaviour based robotics methodology and its reactive planner component—the POSH planner implementation. It includes several significant enhancements that facilitate plan design and runtime debugging. It has been specifically designed for low power processors and has a tiny memory footprint. Written in C++, it runs eciently on both Arduino(Atmel AVR) and Microsoft VC++ environments and has been deployed within a low cost maker robot to study AI Transparency. Plans may be authored using a variety of tools including a new visual design language, currently implemented using the Dia drawing package