Strategies for Innovation
Andrew Stern posted the following question in the "Radical reconceptions of our notions of story" thread. This question seemed to me to deserve its own thread (with my apologies for the minor edits and reformatting). -- Paul T
What are realistic strategies for game developers to innovate, particularly in AI?
Are the bloggers here satisfied or comfortable with the current pace of, climate for, or strategies for, AI innovation in games?
More pointedly, are project-by-project incremental AI improvements a strategy that will work in the long run? The way game dev jobs are structured, can substantial progress towards, say, more fully-realized virtual characters of the nature I suggested in my first comment, be made in the long-term within the slivers of R&D time given to you during game production?
I'm sure it varies from company to company, project to project, but what's your gut feeling about how it's all going to play out over time?