GDC 2025 Session Viewer
Game AI Summit: Delivering a Novel Abstract AI System in a AAA 4X Game
Will Smith Chambers (AI Lead, Oxide Games)
Location: Room 3004, West Hall
Date: Tuesday, March 18
Time: 10:50 am - 11:50 am
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass - Get your pass now!
Track: Programming
Format: Lecture
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: All
CPU player AI in the 4X genre is particularly challenging, with developers having to account for multiple victory conditions and the tactics the AI uses to achieve them. With Ara: History Untold, a new AI framework was developed that can properly predict player moves without the AI resorting to cheating tactics in order to counter.
In this talk, Ara: History Untold AI Lead Will Chambers reflects on the rapid development of a novel AI planning system for 4X games, the challenges that arose, and how the system transformed to cope with them. He will then provide insights and tips for others who wish to deploy similar systems.
Takeaway
This session will provide an overview of abstract AI planning, the outline of a concrete implementation that shipped in a AAA game, and advice for improving related systems in the future.
Intended Audience
This presentation is geared toward programmers and designers of all levels. Some knowledge of AI systems would help, but the intro section will attempt to lay out the necessary knowledge to understand how an AI planning system works.