Synopses & Reviews
Human behavior is never an exact science, making the design and programming of artificial intelligence that seeks to replicate human behavior difficult. Usually, the answers cannot be found in sterile algorithms that are often the focus of artificial intelligence programming. However, by analyzing why people behave the way we do, we can break down the process into increasingly smaller components. We can model many of those individual components in the language of logic and mathematics and then reassemble them into larger, more involved decision-making processes. Drawing from classical game theory, "Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI" covers both the psychological foundations of human decisions and the mathematical modeling techniques that AI designers and programmers can use to replicate them. With examples from both real life and game situations, you'll explore topics such as utility, the fallacy of rational behavior, and the inconsistencies and contradictions that human behavior often exhibits. You'll examine various ways of using statistics, formulas, and algorithms to create believable simulations and to model these dynamic, realistic, and interesting behaviors in video games. Finally, you'll be introduced to a number of tools you can use in conjunction with standard AI algorithms to make it easier to utilize the mathematical models.
Review
Game developers often use little tricks to sprinkle magic decision-making abilities throughout their AI code, without necessarily understanding the fundamentals of how it works. Dave not only documents this process on paper, but he also goes into the theoretical background behind these techniques too. For anyone wishing to know more about the maths behind common game behaviors, this is the ideal textbook on the subject.-Alex J. Champandard, Editor and Consultant, AiGameDev.com
Review
This book is an excellent introduction to using AI in games. Dave has a knack for making complex subjects accessible. The text is very clear and admirably thorough. The author has chosen & wisely - to avoid the esoteric, and focus on topics which are directly useful for making real computer games.-Richard Evans, Senior AI Architect, Electronic Arts
About the Author
Dave Mark is the President and Lead Designer of Intrinsic Algorithm, LLC, an independent game development studio and AI consulting company in Omaha, NE. He has been programming since 1984 when he was in high school. Much to the dismay of his teacher, he wrote his first text adventure on the school's DEC PDP-1144. After a brief detour in the music business as a composer/arranger, keyboard player and recording engineer during the early '90s, he re-entered the technology arena in 1995. After being in the IT consulting and development world for 8 years, Dave left to start game, simulation and AI consulting company, Intrinsic Algorithm LLC with his wife, Laurie. He was a contributor to the AI Game Programming Wisdom series and is a regular columnist at AIGameDev.com.
Table of Contents
Behavioral Mathematics introduces a raft of important techniques from decision theory, game theory, and utility theory, and uniquely applies them to game AI. These techniques are an important part of any game AI developer's toolbox.-Paul Tozour, Game AI author This book is an excellent introduction to using AI in games. Dave has a knack for making complex subjects accessible. The text is very clear and admirably thorough. The author has chosen - wisely - to avoid the esoteric, and focus on topics which are directly useful for making real computer games.-Richard Evans, Senior AI Architect, Electronic Arts Game developers often use little tricks to sprinkle magic decision-making abilities throughout their AI code, without necessarily understanding the fundamentals of how it works. Dave not only documents this process on paper, but he also goes into the theoretical background behind these techniques too. For anyone wishing to know more about the maths behind common game behaviors, this is the ideal textbook on the subject.-Alex J. Champandard, Editor & Consultant, AiGameDev.com