32 research outputs found
Comprehensive Believable Non Player Characters Creation and Management Tools for Emergent Gameplay
This thesis seeks a way to integrate popular psychosocial components required for believability to build a believable Non Player Characters (NPCs) model using the techniques of emergence. The believable NPCs model is scalable in terms of psychosocial models, customizable, flexible and data-driven. Comprehensive believable NPCs creation and management tools were developed to compose, generate, and maintain the system configuration data, as well as NPC profile data, using XML. Furthermore, a run-time prototype has been developed based on our proposed model to test its effectiveness. The prototype has also been evaluated for believable emergent behaviours in different social scenarios
Comprehensive Believable Non Player Characters Creation and Management Tools for Emergent Gameplay
This thesis seeks a way to integrate popular psychosocial components required for believability to build a believable Non Player Characters (NPCs) model using the techniques of emergence. The believable NPCs model is scalable in terms of psychosocial models, customizable, flexible and data-driven. Comprehensive believable NPCs creation and management tools were developed to compose, generate, and maintain the system configuration data, as well as NPC profile data, using XML. Furthermore, a run-time prototype has been developed based on our proposed model to test its effectiveness. The prototype has also been evaluated for believable emergent behaviours in different social scenarios
Affect and believability in game characters:a review of the use of affective computing in games
Virtual agents are important in many digital environments. Designing a character that highly engages users in terms of interaction is an intricate task constrained by many requirements. One aspect that has gained more attention recently is the effective dimension of the agent. Several studies have addressed the possibility of developing an affect-aware system for a better user experience. Particularly in games, including emotional and social features in NPCs adds depth to the characters, enriches interaction possibilities, and combined with the basic level of competence, creates a more appealing game. Design requirements for emotionally intelligent NPCs differ from general autonomous agents with the main goal being a stronger player-agent relationship as opposed to problem solving and goal assessment. Nevertheless, deploying an affective module into NPCs adds to the complexity of the architecture and constraints. In addition, using such composite NPC in games seems beyond current technology, despite some brave attempts. However, a MARPO-type modular architecture would seem a useful starting point for adding emotions
WRITING FOR EACH OTHER: DYNAMIC QUEST GENERATION USING IN SESSION PLAYER BEHAVIORS IN MMORPG
Role-playing games (RPGs) rely on interesting and varied experiences to maintain player attention. These experiences are often provided through quests, which give players tasks that are used to advance stories or events unfolding in the game. Traditional quests in video games require very specific conditions to be met, and for participating members to advance them by carrying out pre-defined actions. These types of quests are generated with perfect knowledge of the game world and are able to force desired behaviors out of the relevant non-player characters (NPCs). This becomes a major issue in massive multiplayer online (MMO) when other players can often disrupt the conditions needed for quests to unfold in a believable and immersive way, leading to the absence of a genuine multiplayer RPG experience. Our proposed solution is to dynamically create quests from real-time information on the unscripted actions of other NPCs and players in a game. This thesis shows that it is possible to create logical quests without global information knowledge, pre-defined story-trees, or prescribed player and NPC behavior. This allows players to become involved in storylines without having to perform any specific actions.
Results are shown through a game scenario created from the Panoptyk Engine, a game engine in early development designed to test AI reasoning with information and the removal of the distinction between NPC and human players. We focus on quests issued by the NPC faction leaders of several in-game groups known as factions. Our generated quests are created logically from the pre-defined personality of each NPC leader, their memory of previous events, and information given to them by in-game sources. Long-spanning conflicts are seen to emerge from factions issuing quests against each other; these conflicts can be represented in a coherent narrative. A user study shows that players felt quests were logical, that players were able to recognize quests were based on events happening in the game, and that players experienced follow-up consequences from their actions in quests
Emergent Perception and Video Games that Listen: Applying Sonic Virtuality for Creative and Intelligent NPC Behaviours
‘Non-player characters (NPCs)’ can present well-crafted
behaviours and evoke engaging and immersive player experiences
but such behaviour in current NPCs is illusory
and only achievable within a controlled and linear/fixed
video game context. NPCs struggle greatly to
portray flexible or creative behaviours within an adaptive
or procedurally generated environment and this is even
more apparent in their relationship with sound. This paper
posits that recent theoretical developments in cognitive
psychology offer significant opportunity to advance
NPC-AI and proposes that an intelligence framework,
based upon Sonic Virtuality and integrated within an
NPC, would offer distinct advantages over current systems.
To illustrate this vision, a roadmap for future work
is laid out using Sonic Virtuality as the foundation for a
‘synthetic listener’; an NPC capable of responding to
procedurally generated and external (player-domain) audio.
As a philosophical exploration, underlying principles
are considered for other perception modalities, presenting
an avenue of games-AI research that, ultimately,
could dramatically improve NPC- ‘humanness’ and
evoke a player-immersion and presence equivalent to
linear/fixed AI but in much bigger, more complex virtual
worlds
Friendly lords implementing an artificial intelligence social architecture in Mount& Blade II: Bannerlord
Despite living in a golden age for video games where there is an increase in the development and
popularity of new technologies, such as Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, and constant
improvements being made on immersion, either through rich storytelling, high graphical fidelity
or even gameplay itself, one area that is generally lacking on innovation is the social interaction
of Non-Playable Characters.
The credibility of these virtual characters (usually called NPCs) requires that they have
human characteristics, such as emotions and the ability to think and make decisions depending
on their own will. One of the most important characteristics is the ability to socialize and interact
with each other.
The main objective of this work was to implement a Social Architecture of Artificial Intel ligence in the game Mount&Blade II: Bannerlord to enhance the credibility of NPCs, making
them socially more active and interesting, and improving the User Experience. In the game
in which this study takes place (respectively Mount&Blade II: Bannerlord), although there are
plenty of NPCs in the world, these are extremely limited, predictable and rarely demonstrate
social behaviors.
It also addresses some socio-emotional architectures such as CiF and FAtiMA. While FA tiMA is more focused on the generation of emotions, and how those emotions may affect the
behaviour of characters, CiF has an explicit representation of social relations between NPCs and
how the can influence behaviour. Due to this, the system architecture used as the basis for our
model is the CiF architecture, also used before in some popular games like Skyrim and Conan
Exiles. It is a system designed to be able to generate social behavior for the social agents, in this
case the virtual characters. Instead of looking static and appearing to be clones of each other,
the NPCs will appear more natural, making them more interesting and believable from the point
of view of social interaction.
One of the major differences between the CiF model and the developed model, named
Comme il Faut - Bannerlord (CiF-BL), was, respectively, an addition of a centralized component,
which will manage about which NPCs will be able to engage in interactions, how many Social
Interactions will be able to take place at the same time, when these are started and finished From CiF-BL’s perspective, the player is just another character, and just as NPCs will want to
interact with each other, they will also want to interact with the player.
To do this work, it was necessary to adapt the game’s existing dialog system to make CiF BL’s changes possible. Adding the options that allow the player to interact socially with an NPC
and vice-versa. It was also necessary to adapt and implement another game system, responsible
for signaling and informing the most relevant locations and characters. This adaptation was
responsible for making it possible to visualize the interactions between the different NPCs.
Thus, during the time that the user is present in the virtual world, the virtual characters will
no longer have a totally irrelevant and figurative role in the game, and will have a greater social
participation. With the goal of appearing more believable, natural, and, to look more like "living
beings".
The developed model was validated and evaluated through user tests. Unfortunately, due
to COVID-19 restrictions that occurred during the execution of this thesis, it was not possible
to conduct a controlled in-person evaluation (which would be the ideal way to evaluate our
work). Instead, a mod was produced and released online to the Bannerlords player and modding
community. The only difference between the mod and the base version of the game was the
CIF-BL model used to control the NPCs. The mod was called "Friendly Lords" and released in
18th of August 2021, both in NexusMods and in ModDB. The mod was announced on social
networks, such as Reddit, in groups that were related to the game.
Participants were voluntarily invited to complete an anonymous questionnaire regarding their
gaming experience, and the answers were collected. From the analysis of these same answers,
very favorable results were obtained for the objectives we defined.
However, overall, the feedback from players and the community has been very positive
about the mod and its modifications to the game. Some examples are that it looks promising,
that they want active development, and that are grateful to help bring new life to the game.
People give suggestions and constructive feedback to implement in the mod and help get a
better experience. Meanwhile, some players have shown more interest and offered to collaborate
directly in the development, either for more dialogue options between the NPCs, or to translate
the mod respectively into Turkish which is the native language of the studio currently developing
the game.
In short, using the social architecture implemented in the game, the Credibility of NPCs and
the Social Presence improved by more than 30%, having successfully achieved the goals.
This document describes in more detail the process of researching, implementing and testing
the model. To improve this work and the Artificial Intelligence social architecture, it would
be necessary to at least add more personality traits and a greater number of different social interactions, for the NPCs to have a greater diversity in terms of their social behavior.Apesar de vivermos numa era dourada para os videojogos onde há um aumento do desen volvimento e da popularidade de novas tecnologias, como a Realidade Virtual e a Realidade
Aumentada, e constantes melhorias a serem feitas na imersão, seja através de ricas narrativas,
fidelidade gráfica elevada ou até mesmo gameplay em si, uma área que geralmente não é alvo
de inovação é a interação social entre as Personagens Não Jogáveis.
A credibilidade dessas personagens virtuais (normalmente chamadas de NPCs) exige que
estas tenham características humanas, como emoções e a capacidade de pensar e tomar decisões
dependendo da sua própria vontade. Uma das características mais importante é a capacidade de
socializar e interagir uns com os outros.
O objectivo principal deste trabalho é implementar uma Arquitectura Social de Inteligência
Artificial no jogo Mount&Blade II: Bannerlord para incrementar a Credibilidade dos NPCs,
tornando-os socialmente mais ativos e interessantes, e melhorar a Experiência do Utilizador. No
jogo em que se realiza este estudo (respetivamente Mount&Blade II: Bannerlord), embora haja
uma abundância de NPCs no mundo, estes são extremamente limitados, previsíveis e raramente
demonstram comportamentos sociais.
Este trabalho aborda diferentes arquitecturas socio-emocionais, como Comme il Faut (CiF)
e FAtiMA. Enquanto FAtiMA está mais centrado na geração de emoções, e como essas emoções
podem afectar o comportamento das personagens, CiF tem uma representação explícita das
relações sociais entre os NPCs e de que forma o comportamento pode influenciar. Devido
a isto, a arquitetura do sistema usada como base para o nosso modelo é a arquitetura CiF,
também já usada antes em alguns jogos populares como Skyrim e Conan Exiles. É um sistema
concebido para ser capaz de gerar comportamentos sociais para os agentes sociais, neste caso,
os personagens virtuais. Em vez de parecerem estáticos e aparentarem serem clones uns dos
outros, os NPCs vão parecer mais naturais, tornando-os mais interessantes e credíveis do ponto
de vista da interação social.
Uma das maiores diferenças entre o modelo CiF e o modelo final desenvolvido, nomeado
de Comme il Faut - Bannerlord (CiF-BL), foi, respectivamente, uma adição de um componente
centralizado, que irá fazer a gestão acerca de quais os NPCs que estarão aptos para se envolverem em interações, quantas Interações Sociais serão capazes de se realizar ao mesmo tempo, quando
estas são iniciadas e terminadas. Da perspectiva do CiF-BL, o jogador é apenas uma outra
personagem e, assim como os NPCs vão querer interagir uns com os outros, eles também vão
querer interagir com o jogador.
Para realizar este trabalho, foi necessário adaptar o atual sistema de diálogo já existente
do jogo para possibilitar as alterações do CiF-BL. Adicionando assim as opções que permitem
ao jogador interagir socialmente com um NPC e vice-versa. Foi necessária também uma
adaptação e a implementação de um outro sistema do jogo, responsável por assinalar e informar
as localizações e os personagens mais relevantes. Esta adaptação foi responsável para tornar
possível a visualização das interações entre os diferentes NPCs.
Assim, durante o tempo em que o utilizador estiver presente no mundo virtual, as personagens
virtuais irão deixar de ter um papel totalmente irrelevante e figurativo no jogo, e, terão uma
maior participação social. Com o objectivo de parecerem mais credíveis, naturais, e, de se
assemelharem mais com “seres vivos”.
Para a validação e a avaliação do modelo, este foi sujeito a testes de utilizador. Infelizmente,
devido às restrições COVID-19 que ocorreram durante a execução desta tese, não foi possível
realizar uma avaliação controlada presencialmente (que seria a forma ideal de avaliar o nosso
trabalho). Em vez disso, um mod foi produzido e lançado online para os jogadores do jogo
Bannerlord e para a comunidade modding. A única diferença entre o mod e a versão base do
jogo foi o modelo CIF-BL usado para controlar e melhorar os NPCs. O mod foi chamado de
"Friendly Lords" e lançado em 18 de agosto de 2021, tanto no site NexusMods como no ModDB.
O mod foi anunciado nas redes sociais, como o Reddit, em grupos que estavam relacionados
com o jogo.
Os participantes foram convidados voluntariamente a preencher um questionário anónimo
relativamente à sua experiência de jogo, sendo feita a recolha das respostas. A partir da análise
dessas mesmas respostas, foram obtidos resultados muito favoráveis para os objectivos que
definimos.
Entretanto, no geral, o feedback dos jogadores e da comunidade foi muito positivo sobre o
mod e sobre as suas modificações no jogo. Alguns exemplos são que parece promissor, que
querem um desenvolvimento ativo, e que estão gratos por ajudar a trazer uma nova vida ao jogo.
As pessoas dão sugestões e feedback construtivo para implementar no mod e ajudar a obter uma
melhor experiência. Entretanto, alguns jogadores mostraram mais interesse e disponibilizaram se para colaborar diretamente no desenvolvimento, quer seja para mais opções de diálogos entre
os NPCs, quer seja para a tradução do mod, respectivamente para Turco que é a língua materna
do estúdio que atualmente desenvolve o jogo. Resumindo, usando a arquitetura social implementada no jogo, a Credibilidade dos NPCs e
a qualidade do comportamento social melhorou mais de 30%, tendo atingido com sucesso os
objetivos. Este documento descreve mais em pormenor o processo de pesquisa, de implemen tação e de teste do modelo. Para melhorar este trabalho e a sua arquitetura social de Inteligência
Artificial, seria necessário, pelo menos, adicionar mais traços de personalidade e um maior
número de diferentes interações sociais, para os NPCs terem uma maior diversidade quanto ao
seu comportamento social
Playing The Role: Towards An Action Selection Architecture For Believable Behaviour In Non Player Characters and Interactive Agents
Non Player Characters(NPC) in many types of video games must make believable choices in order to create player immersion and enjoyment. This thesis proposes, implements and tests a novel NPC architecture making use of Role Theory, Appraisal Theory and Utility-Based decision making
Trust-Based Social Behaviour in Role-Playing Games
Although previous artificial intelligence research has done much to advance video games, not as much has been done to integrate that research into commercially viable titles. In this study, the game Barrel Smasher was developed, demonstrating a socially aware model of Non-Player Characters based on internal trust scores of other characters. The game allows the player to interact with these characters through dialogue, and it provides elements of Role-Playing Games like quests, items, and combat. The result is a game that combines social interactions and other forms of gameplay into a single, connected system. In doing so, the game creates interactive quest progression with more variation than is found in traditional quest systems
Game AI revisited
More than a decade after the early research efforts on the
use of artificial intelligence (AI) in computer games and the
establishment of a new AI domain the term “game AI” needs
to be redefined. Traditionally, the tasks associated with
game AI revolved around non player character (NPC) behavior at different levels of control, varying from navigation
and pathfinding to decision making. Commercial-standard
games developed over the last 15 years and current game
productions, however, suggest that the traditional challenges
of game AI have been well addressed via the use of sophisticated AI approaches, not necessarily following or inspired
by advances in academic practices. The marginal penetration of traditional academic game AI methods in industrial
productions has been mainly due to the lack of constructive communication between academia and industry in the
early days of academic game AI, and the inability of academic game AI to propose methods that would significantly
advance existing development processes or provide scalable
solutions to real world problems. Recently, however, there
has been a shift of research focus as the current plethora
of AI uses in games is breaking the non-player character AI
tradition. A number of those alternative AI uses have already shown a significant potential for the design of better
games.
This paper presents four key game AI research areas that
are currently reshaping the research roadmap in the game
AI field and evidently put the game AI term under a new
perspective. These game AI flagship research areas include
the computational modeling of player experience, the procedural generation of content, the mining of player data on
massive-scale and the alternative AI research foci for enhancing NPC capabilities.peer-reviewe
Designing Serious Games for Education: From Pedagogical Principles to Game Mechanisms
International audienceSGs represent an important opportunity for improving education thanks to their ability to compel players and to present realistic simulations of real-life situations. The scientific community is aware that we are just at the beginning of a proper use of gaming technologies for education and training and, in particular, there is a need for scientific and engineering methods for building games not only as more realistic simulations of the physical world, but as means that provide effective learning experiences. This requires an ever closer cooperation among the various actors involved in the overall SG life- chain, putting pedagogy in a central role, given the educational target of the SGs. This paper addresses the till-now inadequate integration of educational and game design principles and proposes techniques, methods and mechanisms that allow designers with different background to dialogue among each other and to define games that are able to integrate - by design - entertainment and educational features. In particular, the paper follows a design path that starts from the definition of reference frameworks and then analyses the typical categories of design patterns, before focusing on the user-interaction modalities - seen from a pedagogical point of view - given their relevance for the end-users. In the end, we discuss the sandbox serious game model, that looks suited to implement - by design - joint pedagogical and entertainment features. We believe that the indications provided in this paper can be useful for researchers and stakeholders to understand the typical issues in SG design and to get inspiration about possible solutions that take into account the need to implement tools that are effective both as an entertainment medium and as an education tool