AI in video games
As some of you might already know, we are hosting a gaming challenge with the Department of Defence called “Disaster at the Joadia Islands Gameathon”. It’s a great initiative and looks to help the Australian Defence Force (ADF) with their planning and strategy for potential future rescue operations.
Taking a step back from the event itself, it’s interesting to look at what role artificial intellgience (AI) has had to play in gaming over the years. There’s some great content online including this article from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence_in_video_games) which looks at the history of intelligence in computer games. From the opponents in the golden age of arcade games where we saw Space Invaders and Pac-Man opponents to more recent times with IBM Watson playing Jeopardy or AlphaGo beating the world’s best Go player. AI has come a long way.
Whilst one type of AI in video games comes in the form of an opponent NPC (non-player character), another is the helpful teammate. This might be in the typical Call of Duty, Halo or other shoot-em up games or it might be in Fifa, NBA 2K or other sports games. It’s a common source of frustration for players when your NPC teammate gets it wrong or just doesn’t perform up to player expectations:
Whilst we can laugh (or cry) about it for video games, for DSTG and the ADF, it’s a different matter. Within that group, wargaming is a priority. Running scenarios like this is important to thelp them understand the potential outcomes of various strategies and look for ways to continuously improve them. Having bad NPC teammates in their industry is a serious matter.
So, how can a challenge like the Joadia Gameathon help?
Just like we have our variety of smart assistants in our every day lives, in wargaming scenarios, smart assistants can also come in handy. They might suggest a next-best action based on proability or be a trusty sidekick that can quickly relay information to someone in the heat of the battle (where the mind is racing and memory can have lapses).
I’m sure you can come up with even better ideas here.
For now, you can see the challenges they’ve set are designed around game design and AI assistance and cover a variety of areas we’ll dive deep into over the coming days and weeks.
Game Design Challenges
AI Assistance Challenges
Check out https://joadia.dsai.org.au/ for more info and register.
