Abstract
The creation of computer and videogames is a challenging and multidisciplinary endeavor, requiring different approaches to integrate different disciplines while keeping relatively low development costs. In this context, domain specific languages (DSLs) are increasingly becoming a valid tool, allowing nonprogrammers to participate in the development process. In this work, we focus on a DSL developed within the Gade4all project, focused on defining the behaviors of non-player characters, proposing a design which allows the participation of users with a lack of programming knowledge to define behavior and interaction complex patterns of in-game enemies in a simple and straightforward way. This preferable to other approaches to defining opponent AIs in games, such as machine learning techniques (which produce advanced AI opponents that do not behave as humans) or rigid rule systems created by programmers rather than behavioral experts. The approach has been tested by comparing the creation of well-known AI patterns using T2GAME with popular game editors, and resulted in significantly reduced development times, in addition to being more approachable for non-programmers such as behavioral psychologists.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bader F, Schön EM, Thomaschewski J (2017) Heuristics considering UX and quality criteria for heuristics. Int J Interact Multimed Artif Intell 4:48. https://doi.org/10.9781/ijimai.2017.05.001
Bishop CM (2006) Pattern recognition and machine learning. Springer, New York
Carton A, Clarke S, Senart A, Cahill V (2007) Aspect-oriented model-driven development for mobile context-aware computing. In: Proceedings of the 1st international workshop on software engineering for pervasive computing applications, systems, and environments
Cueva-Fernandez G, Espada JP, García-Díaz V et al (2014) Vitruvius: an expert system for vehicle sensor tracking and managing application generation. J Netw Comput Appl 42:178–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2014.02.013
Eclipse Foundation Eclipse Sirius Editor (2018) https://www.eclipse.org/sirius/. Accessed 16 Apr 2018
Epic Games Inc (2018) Blueprints Visual Scripting. https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/Engine/Blueprints. Accessed 16 Apr 2018
Funge J, Tu X, Terzopoulos D (1999) Cognitive modeling: knowledge, reasoning and planning for intelligent characters. In: Proceedings of 26th annual conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques (SIGGRAPH’99), pp 29–38. https://doi.org/10.1145/311535.311538
Furtado AWB, Santos ALM (2006) Using domain-specific modeling towards computer games development industrialization. In: 6th OOPSLA workshop on domain specific modeling DSM’06. p 1
Gibney E (2017) Self-taught AI is best yet at strategy game Go. In: Nature. https://www.nature.com/news/self-taught-ai-is-best-yet-at-strategy-game-go-1.22858#/Go. Accessed 16 Apr 2018
Hussain TS, Vidaver G (2006) Flexible and purposeful NPC behaviors using real-time genetic control. In: 2006 IEEE international conference on evolutionary computation, pp 785–792
Kent S (2002) Model driven engineering. In: Integrated formal methods, pp 286–298
Krogmann K, Becker S (2007) A case study on model-driven and conventional software development: the Palladio editor. Softw Eng 106:169–176
Mishra P, Shrawankar U (2016) Comparison between famous game engines and eminent games. Int J Interact Multimed Artif Intell 4:69. https://doi.org/10.9781/ijimai.2016.4113
Moreno-Ger P, Sierra JL, Martínez-Ortiz I, Fernández-Manjón B (2007) A documental approach to adventure game development. Sci Comput Program. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2006.07.003
Nuñez-Valdez E, Sanjuan-Martinez O, Pelayo G-Bustelo C et al (2013) Gade4all: developing multi-platform videogames based on domain specific languages and model driven engineering. Int J Interact Multimed Artif Intell 2:33. https://doi.org/10.9781/ijimai.2013.224
Russell S, Norvig P (2009) Artificial intelligence: a modern approach, 3rd ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, pp 1–1132. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0269888900007724
Schmidt DC (2006) Model-driven engineering. IEEE Comput 39:25–31. https://doi.org/10.1109/MC.2006.58
Scirra LTD Construct 2 (2018) https://www.scirra.com/construct2. Accessed 16 Apr 2018
Silver D, Schrittwieser J, Simonyan K et al (2017) Mastering the game of Go without human knowledge. Nature 550:354–359. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24270
Solís-Martínez J, Espada JP, García-Menéndez N et al (2015) VGPM: using business process modeling for videogame modeling and code generation in multiple platforms. Comput Stand Interfaces 42:42–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csi.2015.04.009
Stencyl LLC Stencyl (2018) http://www.stencyl.com. Accessed 16 Apr 2018
Tu X, Terzopoulos D (1994) Artificial fishes: physics, locomotion, perception, behavior. In: Proceedings of the 21st annual conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques—SIGGRAPH’94
Unity Technologies Aps Unity3D (2018) https://unity3d.com/. Accessed 16 Apr 2018
Yoyo Games Game Maker Studio (2018) https://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker. Accessed 16 Apr 2018
Zhou CN, Yu XL, Sun JY, Yan XL (2006) Affective computation based NPC behaviors modeling. In: Proceedings—2006 IEEE/WIC/ACM international conference on web intelligence and intelligent agent technology (WI-IAT 2006 Workshops Proceedings), pp 343–346
Acknowledgements
This paper has been developed with the financing of FEDER funds in TIN2013-40658-P and Andalusian Excellence Project TIC-5991.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Posada Trobo, I., García Díaz, V., Pascual Espada, J. et al. Rapid modeling of human-defined AI behavior patterns in games. J Ambient Intell Human Comput 10, 2683–2692 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-018-0969-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-018-0969-y