Behind The AI of Horizon Zero Dawn (Part 2)

AI and Games is a crowdfunded series about research and applications of artificial intelligence in video games. If you like my work please consider supporting the show over on Patreon for early-access and behind-the-scenes updates. In part 1 of my case study on Horizon Zero Dawn - Guerilla Games 2017 Playstation exclusive - I explored how the game is built to create herds of AI-controlled machine animals. This requires a complex agent hierarchy system where each machine can make decisions about how to behave using a Hierarchical Task Network planner, but also groups agents together to dictate their roles and responsibilities as part of a herd. This is all part of a system known as'The Collective', which maintains the ecosystem of all machines in the world as you are playing it.