Programming Game AI by Example (Paperback)

by Mat Buckland (Author)
Key Phrases: sports simulation, graph search algorithms, fuzzy rules, Miner Bob, Simple Soccer, The Secret Life of Graphs (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Programming Game AI by Example provides a comprehensive and practical introduction to the bread and butter AI techniques used by the game development industry, leading the reader through the process of designing, programming, and implementing intelligent agents for action games using the C++ programming language. Techniques covered include state- and goal-based behavior, inter-agent communication, individual and group steering behaviors, team AI, graph theory, search, path planning and optimization, triggers, scripting, scripted finite state machines, perceptual modeling, goal evaluation, goal arbitration, and fuzzy logic.

From the Inside Flap
"Programming Game AI by Example stands out from the pack by providing industrial-strength solutions to difficult problems, like steering and goal-oriented behavior. Mat guides the reader toward building a foundation robust enough for real games. This book is a must-have for anyone new to the field, and has tips for the seasoned professional as well. I wish I had read it eight years ago!"
---Jeff Orkin, AI architect, Monolith Productions, No One Lives Forever 2 and F.E.A.R

"...a nice combination of a lot of really useful information, put together in a way that doesn’t make my brain leak."
---Gareth Lewis, Project leader, Lionhead Studios, Black & White 2

"Each chapter of Mat’s book gently introduces the reader to a fundamental game AI technology before expanding the new idea into a fully formed solution replete with extensive code and clearly worded examples. The tone of the book is uncomplicated and accessible to the reader, allowing a novice programmer the opportunity to get to grips with the basics of game AI programming by implementing their own systems direct from theory or expanding upon code examples offered to gain understanding in a sandbox environment. Once individual technologies are fully understood, the book goes on to combine these ideas into several complete game environments allowing the reader to understand the relationships between the interacting systems of an overarching game architecture."
---Mike Ducker, AI programmer, Lionhead Studios, Fable

"Using easy-to-follow and well-described examples, this book shows you how to use most of the techniques professional AI programmers use. A great introduction for the beginner and an excellent reference for the more experienced!"
---Eric Martel, AI programmer, Ubisoft, Far Cry (XBox)

"Programming Game AI by Example is an excellent book for the game programming neophyte, the intermediate programmer, and even the expert - it doesn’t hurt to go over familiar ground, does it? The book concisely covers all of the important areas, including basic maths and physics through to graph theory and scripting with Lua, to arm any programmer with the tools needed to create some very sophisticated agent behaviours. Unusually for books of the type, Programming Game AI by Example is solid in its software engineering too, with the example code demonstrating game uses of familiar design patterns. I’d have no qualms about recommending Programming Game AI by Example to any programmer. It’s an excellent read and an excellent springboard for ideas."
---Chris Keegan, Technical director, Climax Studios (Solent)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 500 pages
• Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Publishers; 1 edition (September 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556220782
• ISBN-13: 978-1556220784
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,108 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #15 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Game Programming
  #25 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence
  #50 in	Books > Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Video & Electronic Games

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have., October 22, 2004

By	vrkaya (USA) - See all my reviews

This book is simply one of the best AI texts that I have ever seen. The author has the ability (as those others who have visited his website will attest - http://www.ai-junkie.com/ai-junkie.html ) to take complex topics and break them down into simple, logical steps that make sense even to novice programmers such as myself.

Throughout this book, he does that time and time again. He gives thorough examples and describes them very well. These are not "baby" examples that serve only to highlight this or that point - he delivers real, working examples that you could plug right into your own game or simulation. Take Chapter 4, for example. It is an elegant sports simulation of a Soccer match. This single chapter is worth the price of the entire book, in my opinion.

The examples are cool. The code is modern and efficient. The techniques are those in use today.

For years, I would buy a book on AI Programming, only to find that techniques were only hinted at and not fully explained. It was like, with those authors, they were keeping some mysterious trade-secrets all to themselves.

This author doesn't do that. He is confident enough to give you everything you need to know to program your own AI. Be it a Finite State Machine, an intricate sports simulation, or fuzzy logic - just to name a few of the topics you will find in this book. If you have his other book, you know that he is also adept at Neural Nets and GA.

So, my advice is biased because I have read this book and I love it. I think you will, too. Buy this book. You won't regret it.

38 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars none of the typical Bravo Sierra, November 14, 2005

By	Yoshiro Aoki (Vancouver, BC / Osaka-Kobe, JP) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book has a very high signal to noise ratio. No patsy italicization and explanations of simple concepts like inheritance and polymorphism, and no wasted space towards their explanation. And none of the tired dogma about how important design and washing hands after picking nose is. A book that doesn't try to address everybody on planet Earth...what a concept. Don't know what a singleton object is? The book politely refers to the internet, and moves on to provide game application for a multitude of the concepts typically learned during undergraduate CS work. Concepts like FSMs (agents!), Graph Theory (paths, obstacles), Fuzzy Logic, and more with the perfect mix of theory and reality (mostly reality, thankfully. I got a game to write). If you are comfortable with your C++ coding this book will throw light sometimes on even old, familiar concepts spun in a new gaming application that will have you going like `whoa...how cool and what a piece of cake!'. Its one of those cornerstone books, and I wouldn't be surprised if it became a classic in the game community some day. Maybe. Who knows. A million stars but alas, Amazon limits me to five. p.s. I hope you dont get the impression from me that you need a CS degree to understand this book. No way! All you need are your excellent coding skills.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of a kind book, June 27, 2005

By	Rajan Sharma (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have read many game development books, and this is definitely one of the best ones out there. Just by flipping through the pages, you can see right away how much care Mr. Buckland has taken in writing this book. There are a plethora of diagrams and code examples, and the layout and organization is excellent. The balance between theory and implementation is just right. The writing style is concise and the book covers a lot of material, yet it is enjoyable and painless to read. Personally I also like the fact that the book is physically compact so it fits easily on my desk :)

By far though, my favorite aspect of the book is the "real-life" examples he gives. It's easy to skim over all the theory without really "absorbing" the material, but when you see the concrete examples, it jogs your brain and gets you thinking about how to actually apply it. For example, when discussing the basic idea of "states", he doesn't just make up a contrived example and leave it at that; he gives several examples from actual types of games. For example, a Quake style bot might implement FindArmor, FindHealth, SeekCover, and RunAway. Even the weapons may implement mini state machines like Move, TouchObject, and Die.

Digging deeper into the actual content of the book, it covers all of the practical topics an AI programmer should know, such as FSMs, pathing, group behavior, scripting, fuzzy logic, etc. All topics are explained in enough detail that you can incorporate them comfortably in your game, and if you want to learn more, you have a solid foundation to build on. As it says in the book, being an AI programmer isn't just about memorizing a handful of techniques, but also about how to apply them in combination. So, the book covers two concrete examples: a soccer game and a simple shooter game called Raven. To further your understanding, each section also contains some suggested practice exercises, like "Write code to update their sensory system so that a bot is able to sense when it is being shot at." Finally, as a bonus, this book also talks about UML class diagrams in the appendix, which is very useful to know if you don't already.

It doesn't talk about genetic algorithms or neural networks, but that seems like a good decision because those topics rarely come up in practical AI. If you want to learn more about those, Mr. Buckland has written another book called "AI Techniques for Game Programming".

Incidentally, notice that my review, plus all the reviews before mine, all contain the word "best". This is no accident- this book is a gem, and should be required reading for anyone looking to get into game AI.