Elevate Your Game: Crafting Intelligent Opponents in Microsoft MakeCode Arcade

What if you could take your Microsoft MakeCode Arcade game to the next level by incorporating AI-controlled characters that adapt to your player’s actions? Well, you can, and we’re here to show you how.

Why AI Opponents?

Why might you want to introduce AI opponents in your game? As you probably know, player engagement is a key factor in the success of any game. When your game offers dynamic, challenging opponents, it increases the replay value and keeps players coming back for more. Adding AI opponents allows you to introduce new layers of strategy, making the game experience more rich and fulfilling.

Basic AI Logic

Before we dive into the complexities, let’s talk about the basic AI logic. At its simplest, you could have enemy characters follow pre-determined paths or mimic the player’s movements. However, this doesn’t make for a very engaging opponent. The real magic happens when you program your AI characters to make decisions based on certain conditions, like the player’s location or health level.

To be clear, this logic has nothing to do with ChatGPT or any of the other generative AI tools that have burst onto the scene, we’re just talking about some basic decision-making capabilities, created by providing simple parameters inside your program.

For example, start with opponents that either turn around when they hit a wall or attempt to jump over barriers. Once you make that happen, see if you can get opponents to toss items in the exact direction of the main character.

The blocks on the left make your enemies intelligently follow the player with animations, while the blocks on the right make it so that your enemies try to jump obstacles that are in their way.

Decision Trees and Randomization

For those who are up for a bit of a coding challenge, introducing decision trees can make your AI smarter. Decision trees (or if/else statements) evaluate different game states and make choices accordingly. For example, if the player’s health is high, the AI character could be more aggressive. Add an element of randomization to these decisions, and you’ll get an opponent that is both smart and unpredictable.

Advanced Techniques: Learning from the Player

Taking it one step further, you can even design your AI to “learn” from the player’s actions. While this may sound complex, it’s mainly about setting conditions and variables that change based on what the player does. If the player frequently jumps to avoid obstacles, your AI opponent might start throwing objects that are harder to dodge while airborne.

This would take some fancy work with variables and conditionals, but it’s absolutely possible inside MakeCode Arcade!

Testing and Tweaking

Implementing AI will require frequent testing. Once you have the basic logic in place, play your game multiple times to observe how the characters behave in different situations. Based on your observations, tweak the AI logic to make it more engaging and challenging.

Wrapping Up

Adding AI-controlled opponents is a great way to breathe new life into your games. Remember, this isn’t just a one-off process; as you grow as a developer, your AI can grow along with you.

So, go ahead. Accept the challenge and let your creativity run wild. We can’t wait to see what incredible, intelligent opponents you’ll craft in your next MakeCode Arcade game.