Synopses & Reviews
A fully revised update to the first edition, "AI Game Engine Programming, Second Edition" provides game developers with the tools and information they need to create modern game AI engines. Covering the four principle elements of game artificial intelligence, the book takes you from theory to actual game development, going beyond merely discussing how a technique might be used. Beginning with a clear definition of game AI, you'll learn common terminology, the underlying concepts of AI, and you'll explore the different parts of the game AI engine. You'll then take a look at AI design considerations, solutions, and even common pitfalls genre-by-genre, covering the majority of modern game genres and examining concrete examples of AI used in actual commercial games. Finally, you'll study actual code implementations for each AI technique presented, both in skeletal form and as part of a real-world example, to learn how it works in an actual game engine and how it can be optimized in the future. Written for experienced game developers with a working knowledge of C++, data structures, and object oriented programming, "AI Game Engine Programming, Second Edition" will expand your AI knowledge and skills from start to finish.
About the Author
An industry professional for over 17 years, Brian Schwab has worked on a huge variety of games at a number of different companies, always with a focus on gameplay, AI, and design. The author of AI Game Engine Programming, Brian has also given numerous talks at AIIDE (for which he also serves on the board) and GDC.
Table of Contents
Introduction; Chapter 1: Basic Definitions and Concepts; Chapter 2: An AI Engine: the Basic Components and Design; Chapter 3: AIsteroids: Our AI Test Bed; Chapter 4: Role-Playing Games (RPGs); Chapter 5: Adventure Games; Chapter 6: Real-Time Strategy (RTS) Games; Chapter 7: First-Person Shooters/Third-Person Shooters (FTPS); Chapter 8: Platform Games; Chapter 9: Shooter Games; Chapter 10: Sports Games; Chapter 11: Racing Games; Chapter 12: Classic Strategy Games; Chapter 13: Fighting Games; Chapter 14: Miscellaneous Genres of Note; Chapter 15: Finite-State Machines; Chapter 16: Fuzzy-State Machines (FuSMs); Chapter 17: Message-Based Systems; Chapter 18: Scripting Systems; Chapter 19: Location-Based Information Systems; Chapter 20: Steering Behaviors; Chapter 21: Combination Systems; Chapter 22: Genetic Algorithms; Chapter 23: Neural Networks; Chapter 24: Other Techniques of Note; Chapter 25: Distributed AI Design; Chapter 26: Common AI Development Concerns; Chapter 27: Debugging Chapter 28: Conclusions, and the Future; Appendix A: About the CD; Appendix B: References