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makingmusic476 on 08 January 2010
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The Year's Brightest Games: 2009 AIGameDev.com Awards for Game AI

The Awards

This 3rd edition is set to be the most controversial — yet fascinating — Annual Awards for Game AI! Let me clarify. The whole procedure, including the nominations and the voting, is done by the community here at AiGameDev.com. Of course, there's a certain editorial process involved in picking the nominees, but the rest is mechanical and just a question of collecting the results.

Typically, I've been able to predict the winners... mostly. This year, however, that wasn't the case! I speculate this could be due to the following reasons:

  1. It's been a very constructive year for Game AI, more games deserve the spotlight, and it's harder to separate the candidates.

  2. The community is by definition self-selecting and this reflects in the way its best games are chosen...

  3. I'm getting older, my taste in games is changing, and everyone voting in the awards thinks radically differently than I do.

It's probably a combination of the three, but the bottom line is that I've decided to include as "Editor's Pick" along with the "Vote Winner" for each award. If anything, I hope this helps shine a spotlight onto more games that are worthy of attention.

The Categories

Best AI in a AAA Game - The Sims 3, Killzone 2
Best Non-Player Character - Dragon Age: Origins (Morrigan), Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Chloe)
Best AI in an Independant Game - AI War, Galactic Arms Race
Design Innovation in Game AI - Left4Dead 2, World of Zoo
AI Technology in a Supporting Role - Assassin's Creed II, Left4Dead 2
Technical Innovation in Game AI - Killzone 2, Demigod
Most Influential Published Research - two things with really long names

Top Honors

Best AI in a AAA Game

Editor's Pick - The Sims 3

The third major version of EA's money-making franchise hit the streets in February 2009. Don't be fooled by the numerous expansion packs that preceeded it, this release was a radical departure from THE SIMS 2 in almost every way, not least in the character AI department. The Sims' new personality traits, their ability to interact socially and behave autonomously within living neighborhoods all combine to make this a very unique simulation game.

A series of blog posts about Alice and Kev which was featured in mainstream media earlier this year is a perfect example of the kind of emergent storytelling made possible thanks to the game's new mechanics. This example alone classifies it as a significant milestone for AI characters in games. From the site, here's the description of the experiment:

“This is an experiment in playing a homeless family in The Sims 3. I created two Sims, moved them in to a place made to look like an abandoned park, removed all of their remaining money, and then attempted to help them survive without taking any of the game’s unrealistically easy cash routes.”

Richard Evans, the man behind THE SIMS 3 and also the AI from BLACK & WHITE at Lionhead, told me at the GDC last year that he managed to get "only" 80% of his ideas implemented in the game. I told him that any portion of his ideas was still probably better by 8x than anyone else would have done! His influence shows in the game, and only time will tell how the ideas behind this game will affect the industry as a whole or whether this is a series unique to Electronic Arts and the high production values it put into the game.

Vote Winner - Killzone 2

The combat AI that Guerrilla Games built over the past 7-8 years since Shellshock: Nam '67, including Killzone 1 for the PS2 and Killzone: Liberation for the PSP has arguably become the best in industry with this latest iteration. The enemy behaviors are dynamic and adaptive, showing off both linear sections and large open areas of the game thanks to its tactical reasoning.

The AI in KILLZONE 2 in particular shines in the Skirmish mode where you can play with computer-controlled bots in large open maps designed for multiplayer, and free of scripts and trigger boxes. The bots were intended for offline play where you have 7 bots on your side against 8 enemies, but you can also compete online with your friends against various combinations of bots. Not only were the bots fun to play against, according many reviewers including to Ryan O'Donnell of Area5.TV, but they even passed an informal Turing test with journalists from the CO-OP show (season 2, episode 1) and others:

“The bot thing is pretty amazing. I was telling you earlier that I was playing it and it was behaving in such a particularly clever way in this one area that I had to check that I wasn't play online.”
— John Davison, WhatTheyPlay.com

Some reviewers even speculated that Skirmish and multiplayer bots were included simply to emphasize the strength of the combat AI. You can watch some High Quality videos of matches against the bots in the Salmun Market or the Radec Academy.

Cooperative buddy AI that accompany you through the game (while actually fighting alongside you) is generally a hard problem that nobody has got entirely right to-date, and there's still room for improvement in Killzone 2's buddies. However, it's one of the best attempts yet and given the underlying engine there's even more potential. In particular, there's a balance to be found between the aggressiveness that can save you in tricky situations vs. buddies playing safe so you don't need to revive them too often.

The Rest

See the rest of the awards in detail at AIGameDev.com!

This Year's Brightest Games: 2009 AiGameDev.com Awards for Game AI