How Is the Book Organized?

AI Game Development is divided into parts, chapters, sections, sentences, and words; nothing revolutionary there! In the practical spirit of game AI, however, each part of this book covers an aspect of the creation of NPCs, such as movement or combat. Creature capabilities are built up step by step, culminating in an AI that can learn to play a deathmatch game in a first-person shooter. Along the way, we will explore the concepts behind the development, lessons that will prove invaluable for becoming independent game AI engineers.

The chapters in each part correspond to different steps of the AI production:

1. Analyzing the platform

2. Understanding the problem

3. Designing the specification

4. Implementing a simple prototype

5. Researching AI theory

6. Developing a modular component

7. Applying the technique to the problem

8. Experimenting with the results

9. Testing the solution

10. Optimizing the model

This is the basic blueprint for each part, although we'll use artistic variations in the chapters as we progress through this book.