Creating AI Concepts - Sprint 6

Author: Tyler Sessler

Artificial intelligence, 'AI', is the concept of creating sequences of events that mirror that of a brain's thought process. When creating AI, you will often have an end goal in mind. "I want my enemy to attack me," is a basic prompt that has many layers behind it. Is the enemy ranged or close? How does it actually know what the range is? Does the enemy move to get closer, or is it stationary like a turret? The more questions you ask, the more options the enemy has. This is what simulates brain activity, your AI.

This week I recreated my entire AI system. I started with a brand new blackboard and a completely wiped behavior tree. I wanted to build my new system from the ground up, following proper procedures and implementations as I go. No cutting corners. So I went online and searched many videos on what makes good AI. During this process, I realized memorizing all the information was near impossible. What is applicable for my case, what needs to be filtered out? My thoughts became intertwined with each other, so I went back to square one. I took a piece of paper, wrote what my enemy wants to do at a basic level, and went back to watching videos.

Over time, my paper got more and more filled up with information and ideas that would help or inspire me when getting started. I kept track of: the intended behavior and overall action, important variables, function/sequence ideas, ability ideas, and general notes.  Eventually, my page was filled out with a large portion of my behavior system already planned out, and I hadn't even started coding.