Reinforcement learning agents in complex game environments often suffer from sparse rewards, training instability, and poor sample efficiency. This paper presents a hybrid training approach that combines offline imitation learning with online reinforcement learning for a 2D shooter game agent. We implement a multi-head neural network with separate outputs for behavioral cloning and Q-learning, unified by shared feature extraction layers with attention mechanisms. Initial experiments using pure deep Q-Networks exhibited significant instability, with agents frequently reverting to poor policies despite occasional good performance. To address this, we developed a hybrid methodology that begins with behavioral cloning on demonstration data from rule-based agents, then transitions to reinforcement learning. Our hybrid approach achieves consistently above 70% win rate against rule-based opponents, substantially outperforming pure reinforcement learning methods which showed high variance and frequent performance degradation. The multi-head architecture enables effective knowledge transfer between learning modes while maintaining training stability. Results demonstrate that combining demonstration-based initialization with reinforcement learning optimization provides a robust solution for developing game AI agents in complex multi-agent environments where pure exploration proves insufficient.

Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has attracted much attention in automated game testing. Early attempts rely on game internal information for game space exploration, thus requiring deep integration with games, which is inconvenient for practical applications. In this work, we propose using only screenshots/pixels as input for automated game testing and build a general game testing agent, Inspector, that can be easily applied to different games without deep integration with games. In addition to covering all game space for testing, our agent tries to take human-like behaviors to interact with key objects in a game, since some bugs usually happen in player-object interactions. Inspector is based on purely pixel inputs and comprises three key modules: game space explorer, key object detector, and human-like object investigator. Game space explorer aims to explore the whole game space by using a curiosity-based reward function with pixel inputs. Key object detector aims to detect key objects in a game, based on a small number of labeled screenshots. Human-like object investigator aims to mimic human behaviors for investigating key objects via imitation learning. We conduct experiments on two popular video games: Shooter Game and Action RPG Game. Experiment results demonstrate the effectiveness of Inspector in exploring game space, detecting key objects, and investigating objects. Moreover, Inspector successfully discovers two potential bugs in those two games. The demo video of Inspector is available at https://github.com/Inspector-GameTesting/Inspector-GameTesting.

It was conceived as an online book store, then transformed into an e-commerce giant and now Amazon has entered the world of video games. The firm released its first original big-budget game called Crucible with the hopes to take on rival titles such as Fortnite and League of Legends. The free-to-play, third-person shooter game is driven by choices of players who work with teammates to take down alien creatures. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter told CNBC that Amazon's move into the gaming space is'the same way that they got into books and music.' Amazon has its hands in a range of products and services – it is developing artificial intelligence, provides data storage, produces movies and more.

LOUISVILLE – Even after Kentucky High School Athletic Association Commissioner Julian Tackett sent out an email notifying school officials that esports teams may not participate in the video game "Fortnite," there was nothing to be done among schools here. That's because "Fortnite," an online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017, was never included among the games played by Kentucky students in high school competitions. "Fortnite" is a third-person shooter game that doesn't include any blood, injuries or dead bodies, but nevertheless was given a Teen rating for violence by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Epic Games and PlayVS, a software company that provides a platform for competitive esports, last week announced last Wednesday a partnership to introduce a competitive league for "Fortnite" across high schools and colleges. "There is no place for shooter games in our schools," Tackett said, adding that the KHSAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations had no knowledge that "Fortnite" was being added as part of the competition platform and are "strongly against it."

This video covers the action of the 2018 League of Legends World Championship and previews the 2019 event. Riot Games, publishers of "League of Legends," is looking to expand its lore. For starters, there are some new features coming to the super-popular online video game, which turns 10 this month. Beyond that, Riot Games announced Tuesday it is working on several other projects including new shooter and strategy games, as well as a trio of new video games set in the "League of Legends" universe. The game publisher announced these developments as part of its 10th anniversary livestream Tuesday night.

There is a moment in parenthood when your child discovers you are not infallible, that you can be beaten. The first time a kid wins a game of tennis against their mum or dad, or solves a maths problem their parents can't even begin to understand, it is profoundly bittersweet. While it is wonderful to see your child growing up and becoming independent, when they get good at things, they are a little bit less yours, and you are a little bit less heroic. It is sometimes hard to be the grownup in that situation and not deal with it childishly. I discovered this on Saturday when my eldest son and I were playing Apex Legends.

A nine-year-old girl is in rehab after becoming so addicted to a video game she wet herself to avoid moving and hit her father when he tried to stop her playing. The primary school pupil became obsessed with Fortnite, which been downloaded more than 40 million times since it was launched last July. She would secretly play the survival shooter game during the night and didn't even get up to use the toilet because she couldn't prise herself away from the screen. The girl, who is now in intensive therapy to combat her addiction, would play for up to 10 hours a day. Worn out from all-night sessions, she dozed off at school.

It's been more than three years since the last time a video game based on the "Alien" film franchise was released but it looks like a new one is on its way. FoxNext, a division of 21st Century Fox, has acquired Cold Iron Studios to develop a new "Alien" game. "Cold Iron Studios has amazing design, craftsmanship and development talent that we are excited to welcome at FoxNext Games as we pursue our goal to build a multi-platform, multi-genre portfolio of great games," president of studios at FoxNext Games Aaron Loeb said in the press release, as per Dual Shockers. "I am a personal fan of Cold Iron's previous work and all of us at FoxNext Games are thrilled to be working with them as they create an action-packed persistent world, steeped in the mysteries of this beloved'Alien' universe." FoxNext said that its acquisition of Cold Iron Studios represents its commitment to deliver new AAA games moving forward.

Iconic filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola is asking the public to contribute $900,000 to aid him in his efforts to adapt his blockbuster war film "Apocalypse Now" into an interactive, psychological horror video game, according to a Kickstarter page set up on Wednesday. The video game will transpose the player into the shoes of the U.S. army Captain Willard (protagonist of the 1979 film, played by Martin Sheen) who is sent on a secret mission to exterminate renegade Colonel Kurtz (played by Marlon Brando). Over $93,000 has already been raised for the project being developed by Coppola's privately-held American Zoetrope film studio since it was announced Wednesday. "Forty years ago, I set out to make a personal art picture that could hopefully influence generations of viewers for years to come. Today, I'm joined by new daredevils, a team who want to make an interactive version of'Apocalypse Now', where you are Captain Benjamin Willard amidst the harsh backdrop of the Vietnam War," Coppola said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Julian Gerighty of the video game maker Ubisoft and actress Aisha Tyler speak at a press conference during the E3 video game trade show in Los Angeles. Julian Gerighty of the video game maker Ubisoft and actress Aisha Tyler speak at a press conference during the E3 video game trade show in Los Angeles. The annual video game trade show, E3, began this week in Los Angeles under the cloud of the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., the deadliest in America's recent history. The conference is expected to draw tens of thousands industry professionals who want hands-on experience with games that turn virtual violence into entertainment. There were signs that organizers were trying to bridge the contradictions.