Classical AI in Games

The ultimate goal of any video game is to be an immersive experience.

To achieve this, the NPC (Non-Playable Characters) must look smart: they should smoothly navigate the map and make logical decisions. This is crucial to contribute to the illusion of a coherent and believable world.

To accomplish this goal, the gaming industry developed multiple algorithm designs such as Navigation Mesh, Behavior Tree, Goal Action Oriented Planning and more.

Learning these tools is critical to work on AI in games.

Therefore, in this bonus unit, we’ll study classical AI in games. You’ll learn about Navigation Meshes, Behavior Trees, Goal Action Oriented Planning, Finite State Machines and more.

In the first section, you’ll learn the theory behind these algorithms, how they are used in games, and then, in the following sections, you’ll learn to implement these with Unreal or Unity.

So let’s get started 🚀.