Artificial Intelligence in Games

This book covers all the necessary topics that a professional game AI programmer needs to know, from math and steering behaviours to terrain analysis, pathfinding and decision-making. Written to be easily accessible, each topic is accompanied by an example game that allows the reader to add their own code to see the effects their changes have. Each chapter is split into two parts. The first part covers the necessary theory in a friendly, conversational manner, using visual examples and fictional game scenarios to give additional context. The second part is a coding tutorial in C# for the topic at hand. Each chapter has its own example game available to download, written in C# in the Unity Game Engine. This book will be suitable for students and aspiring games programmers looking to gain a grounding in game AI techniques. Chapter 1: Introduction About the Author Who Is this Book for? How to Read this Book Accompanying Framework What Is Game AI? Game AI and Game Genres Chapter 2: Math What Is a Vector? Dot Product Rotation Math – Practical Project Overview Step-By-Step Guide Future Work Chapter 3: Steering Behaviours Steering Forces Combining Behaviours Group Behaviours Final Thoughts Steering Behaviours – Practical Project Overview Step-By-Step Guide Future Work Chapter 4: Terrain Analysis Influence Maps Heat Maps Cell Granularity Final Thoughts Terrain Analysis – Practical Project Overview Step-By-Step Guide Future Work Chapter 5: Pathfinding Spatial Representation Pathfinding Final Thoughts Pathfinding – Practical Project Overview Step-By-Step Guide Future Work Chapter 6: Decision-Making Finite State Machine Fuzzy State Machine Stack-Based FSM Behaviour Trees Final Thoughts Decision-Making – Practical Project Overview Step-By-Step Guide Future Work Chapter 7: Fuzzy Logic Sets Fuzzy Sets Fuzzy Rules Defuzzification Final Thoughts Fuzzy Logic – Practical Project Overview Step-By-Step Guide Future Work Chapter 8: Chess AI Minimax Algorithm Alphabeta Pruning Evaluation Functions Final Thoughts Chess AI – Practical Project Overview Step-By-Step Guide Future Work Chapter 9: Genetic Algorithms Initial Population Encoding Fitness Selection Crossover Mutation Final Thoughts Genetic Algorithms – Practical Project Overview Step-By-Step Guide Future Work Chapter 10: Neural Networks Biology Single-Layer Perceptron Multi-Layer Perceptron Learning Game Example: Snake Final Thoughts Neural Networks – Practical Project Overview Step-By-Step Guide Future Work Index This book covers all the necessary topics that a professional game AI programmer needs to know, from math and steering behaviours to terrain analysis, pathfinding, decision making. Written to be easily accessible, each topic is accompanied by an example game, where the reader can add their own code to see the effects their changes have.