[gameAI_news] Game AI Newsletter (12/2004)

[gameai_news at igda.org]

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the first issue of our Game AI newsletter!

This newsletter of the IGDA's AI SIG will inform of recent developments in the game AI area, list related conferences/events and new web resources, keep you up-to-date about our standardization initiative, etc. 

First off, I need to make some advertisement for the AI Interface Standards Committee of our SIG! If you are interested in joining our initiative, have a solid background either in commercial game AI or in related academic research, and have a bit of time for contributing, we would be happy to receive your application:
http://www.igda.org/ai/aiisc_join.htm

Now that this is done, we can continue to the actual newsletter :-)

Lots of promising news recently: The industry news are full of spectacular record sales, there are indications on progress on issues like excessive overtime work, and ... there seems to be a great increase in the attention that game AI is getting! Not only were prominent people touting AI as the next big thing, like John Carmack in his GDC keynote, we also finally see a substantial increase in the number of books on game AI (and more are coming out soon) as well as the birth of a conference on the topic! Let's start with some recent book entries:

BOOK:
 AI for Game Developers
 by David M. Bourg and Glenn Seemann
 O'Reilly
 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/ai

BOOK:
 AI Game Engine Programming
 by Brian Schwab
 Charles River Media
 http://www.charlesriver.com/titles/aigameengine.html

BOOK:
 Artificial Intelligence For Computer Games: An Introduction
 by John David Funge
 AK Peters
 http://www.ai4games.org

BOOK:
 Programming Believable Characters for Computer Games
 by Penny Baillie-De Byl
 Charles River Media
 http://www.charlesriver.com/titles/believablecharacters.html

BOOK:
 Programming Game AI by Example
 by Mat Buckland
 Wordware Publishing
 http://www.ai-junkie.com/books/toc_pgaibe.html

... and some new online resources:

ONLINE RESOURCE/PROCEEDINGS:
 AAAI-04 Workshop on Challenges in Game AI
 http://www.simbionic.com/gameai/schedule.html

ONLINE RESOURCE/ARTICLE:
 Book Excerpt: AI For Game Developers / Rule-Based AI
 by David Bourg and Glenn Seeman
 http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041122/bourg_01.shtml

ONLINE RESOURCE/ARTICLE:
 In the Mind of the Enemy / The Artificial Intelligence of Halo 2 
 by Robert Valdes 
 http://stuffo.howstuffworks.com/halo2-ai.htm

ONLINE RESOURCE/ARTICLE:
 Visual Finite State Machine AI Systems
 by Sunbir Gill
 http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041118/gill_01.shtml

There are certainly many more new online articles out there - feel free to send me links for the next newsletter! Oops, before I forget it, I also published some:
* A brief overview of game AI:
  http://www.ai-center.com/references/nareyek-04-gameai.html
* Worried about academic AI, and how a focus on game applications might be beneficial:
  http://www.ai-center.com/references/nareyek-04-gameairesearch.html

Here is some info on the full-blown conference on game AI that will start next year! It is targeted at the research as well as commercial communities:

EVENT:
 The First Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive
  Digital Entertainment
 June 1-3, 2005
 Marina Del Ray, CA, USA
 Paper submission deadline: 
  Abstracts:   January 21, 2005
  Full papers: January 25, 2005
 http://www.aiide.org/

GDC 2005 will of course be a highlight again, and as every year, our AI Interface Standards Committee will present the latest results at a roundtable. At the next event, you will be able to have a look and discuss some actual specifications:

EVENT:
 AI Interface Standards: First Specifications 
 An IGDA Roundtable Discussion of the 2005 Game Developers Conference
 March 7-11, 2005
 San Francisco, CA, USA
 http://www.ai-center.com/events/gdc-2005-roundtable/

Besides our roundtable above, GDC will feature the following sessions on game AI:
* AI For Adaptive Opponents, Teammates and NPCs [Lecture]
  http://www.cmpevents.com/GD05/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=3912
* AI in Computer Games Roundtables and Interactive Discussion [Roundtables]
  http://www.cmpevents.com/GD05/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=3908
* AI Learning Techniques for Computer Games [Tutorial]
  http://www.cmpevents.com/GD05/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=3913
* An Orwellian approach to AI architecture [Lecture]
  http://www.cmpevents.com/GD05/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=4680
* Dynamic Waypoints, Object Grouping, and Optimal Cover Positions: Making NPCs Navigate and Hide Behind Common Collidables [Lecture]
  http://www.cmpevents.com/GD05/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=3917
* Embodied Autonomous Agents [Roundtable]
  http://www.cmpevents.com/GD05/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=3920
* Entertaining AI: Using Rules from Improvisational Acting to Create Unscripted Emotional Impact [Lecture]
  http://www.cmpevents.com/GD05/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=4693
* Killzone’s AI: Dynamic Procedural Combat Tactics [Lecture]
  http://www.cmpevents.com/GD05/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=4696
* Managing Complexity in the Halo 2 AI System [Lecture]
  http://www.cmpevents.com/GD05/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=4663
* Sophisticated Real-Time Machine Learning on Today's Consoles [Lecture]
  http://www.cmpevents.com/GD05/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=3937
* Understanding the Player: Natural Language Processing for Games [Lecture]
  http://www.cmpevents.com/GD05/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=3943
* Using a Goal/Action Architecture to Support Modularity and Long-Term Memory in AI Behaviors [Lecture]
  http://www.cmpevents.com/GD05/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=3946

Thus, quite a few interesting sessions on AI! In addition, Steve and Neil will surely organize their Game AI Programmer's Dinners again, and we will also have some sort of social get-together for the AI SIG and the standards committee!

Enjoy the holidays, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Best,
Alexander Nareyek <alex at ai-center.com>
Chair of the IGDA's AI SIG
http://www.igda.org/ai/


P.S.: 
Did I miss anything? If you want to add anything for the next newsletter, please let me know!