The Year in [Game AI] Review
The end of the year upon us, it’s natural for us to look back on the past 12 months and search our souls for an answer to the questions “What was the best game AI of the year?” “What does the trajectory set by 2005 tell us about 2006?” “What titles most influenced the way you think about AI?”
Certainly, it was an interesting year for characters. I can think of two games that had, in one way or another, a novel character technology at the heart of their gameplay experience: God of War (in which character-on-character interaction was made the central mechanic, and which reminded us all how fun vidding a single button can really be) and Shadow of the Colossus. I’m always excited when games explore new character interaction design space, because the AI-space is always correspondingly extended. When we first implemented boarding for Halo2, the next and most logical step was “Now the AI should be able to board you BACK!” And very little (ironically) makes AI look smarter than a canned animation played back at a particularly appropriate time.
Anybody else have any thoughts on this? What AI or character work struck you in 2005?