Game AI for Indie Developers

Artificial Intelligence in games remains one of the most deeply misunderstood and overlooked fields within game development. This book covers what you need to know to put great AI into your games. From first person shooters to casual games, everything you need to know is in here and it?s organized such that you can find what you need quickly based on the kind of game you want to make. The book is a full overview of contemporary AI techniques for video games, with an emphasis on applications of techniques. Rather than taking an organizational approach based on AI and the techniques themselves, the aim is to create an accessible reference for developers structured by the nature of their project and highlighting relevant applicable techniques for different genres of game. Provides insight that is of use to non-subject matter experts, so that in reading the book, readers become better game developers armed with an array of AI techniques, rather than having a better understanding of AI in isolation.

Section I - Introduction. Ch ● 1. What is AI / What is Game AI. Ch 2 Fundamentals. Ch 3 Identifying the "Shape" of a Game. Section II - AI for Characters Ch 4 Introduction to Characters. Ch 5 Pathfinding. Ch 6 Decision Making. Ch 7 Collaboration and Tactics. Ch 8 How to Cheat. Section III - AI for Strategy Games. Ch 9 Introduction to Strategy AI. Ch 10 Multi-Agent Systems. Ch 11 Heuristic Map Analysis. Ch 12 Strategic-Level Decision Making, Ch 13 Creating engaging personas. Ch 14 Diplomacy. Section IV - AI for Game Direction Ch 15 Intro duction to Direction. Ch 16 Managing Game Flow. Ch 17 Interactive Fiction. Ch 18 "Yes and.... " Ch 19 Living Worlds and Simulated Environments. Ch 20 Understanding Players. Section V - AI for Content Generation. Ch 21 Intro to Procedural Systems. Ch 22 Procedurla Items. Ch 23 Procedural Level Generation. Ch 24 Procedural Quests and Story. Section VI - AI for the Future. Ch 25 To Infinity and Beyond.