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Game Design: All Articles
Declarative AI Design for Games—Considerations for MMOGs |
Abstract: The design of behaviors in games and massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) is based on a style of scripting that is consistent with a cinematic perspective of game design. This style is paradigmatic of how AI is conceptualized in games. This article claims that this approach is not likely to scale in the future and calls for a more declarative style of developing and conceptualizing AI. The objective of this article is to acquaint games AI developers with thoughts and techniques that form a declarative AI design.
Abstract: As gamers demand more realistic AI and more dynamic, non-linear, and interactive game worlds, traditional methods of developing AI are beginning to show their limitations in terms of salability, robustness and general fitness for purpose. Emergence and the broader "emergent approach" to game design hold great potential as an efficient tool for avoiding these limitations by allowing high-level behaviors and flexible game environments to emerge from low level building blocks without the need for any hard-coded or scripted behaviors. Our goals in this article are to both demonstrate this case, and to explain in practical terms how emergence can be captured by the game designer.
Fun Game AI Design for Beginners |
Abstract: This article is meant to provide food for thought on a number of issues involving AI design. Creating predictable, understandable and consistent AI that doesn't beat the player all the time is no easy task. The AI programmer must make sure that the AI gives the player time to react, doesn't have cheap shots against the player and isn't too simple or too complex. The AI is meant to enrich the player's enjoyment of the game, not to frustrate them, so these rules are important to consider in order to create an enjoyable experience for the player. If you are developing a game AI the best thing you can do (besides considering these rules) is to come up with your own rules from games that you enjoy playing.
Writing Effective Design Treatments |
Writing the Adventure Game |
The Designer's Best Friends |
When Good Design Goes Bad |
World Building: From Paper to Polygons |
Meaningful Game Mechanics |
Pros and Cons of Hit Point Systems |
Alternatives to Numbers in Game Design Models |
Increasing Challenge without Frustrating Players |
Nine Trade-Offs of Game Design |
Adapting Licensed Properties |
Warning Signs of Faulty Game Design |
Six Principles of User Interaction |
Breaking the Looking Glass: Designing User Interfaces for 3D Computer Games |
Camera Control Systems for 3D Games |
Learning Artistic Articulation without Reinventing the Wheel |
Designing Gameplay for Interactive Television |
Memory-Friendly Design for Small Platforms |
Online Interaction Patterns |
Special Issues in Multiplayer Game Design |
Online Persistence in Game Design |
Storytelling in Computer Games |
Show and Tell: Applying Screenwriting Techniques to Computer Games |
Storytelling in Level-Based Game Design |
But What If the Player Is Female? |
Designing for Online Community |
Character Interaction Outside the Game World |
Utilizing the Consumer-Making the Most of Modding |
Following Up after the Game Is Released: It�s Not over When It�s Over |
Virtual Worlds: Why People Play |
The Three Thirties of MMP Game Design |
Balancing Gameplay for Thousands of Your Harshest Critics |
Power by the People: User-Creation in Online Games |
Games Within Games: Graph Theory for Designers-Part 1 |
Worlds Within Worlds: Graph Theory for Designers-Part 2 |
Guild Management Tools for a Successful MMP Game |
A Stock Exchange-Inspired Commerce System |
Alternatives to the Character Grind |
Telling Stories in Online Games |
Great in Theory: Examining the Gap Between System Design Theory and Reality |
Toontown Online: Building Massively Multiplayer Games for the Masses |
Everybody Needs Somebody: Practical Advice for Encouraging Cooperative Play in Online Virtual Worlds |
Game Balance for Massively Multiplayer Games |
Game Balance and AI Using Payoff Matrices |
Describing Game Behavior with Use Cases |
Using a Hit Point to Coin Conversion Factor |
Designing Massively Multiplayer Games for Narrative Investment |
Customer Support and Player Reputation: It�s All About Trust |
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