Bulitko

Procedurally generating rich, naturally behaving AI-controlled video game characters is an important open problem. In this paper we focus on a particular aspect of non-playable character (NPC) behavior, long favored by science-fiction writers. Specifically, we study the effects of self-knowledge on NPC behavior. To do so we adopt the well-known framework of agent-centered real-time heuristic search applied to the standard pathfinding task on video-game maps. Such search agents normally use a heuristic function to guide them around a map to the goal state.