Designing Artificial Intelligence for Games (Part 1)

Over the course of the last few decades, the gaming industry has seen great strides. Beginning with simple games like Pong* and Pac-Man* which offered players a short escape from reality and growing into such involved games like World of Warcraft* and Call of Duty 4* which are serious hobbies to those that play them. Today's gamers, who according to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) have an average of 13 years of gaming under their belt, have grown accustomed to seeing each new game become increasingly complex, engaging, and intelligent. For developers, the challenge becomes pushing the envelope to create games that are increasingly compelling. Computer-controlled Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved in many forms to meet the test.