Skills required to be an AI game programmer

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7 comments, last by Alberth 4 years, 3 months ago

Hello everyone!

If you couldn't figure it out I'm new here. I've been reviewing jobs regarding AI game programming because I love working on AI systems. A few searches have been well straight forward and I'm grateful for that, but for anybody whose has or who still is currently working as an AI programmer, what skills would you say are necessary? I've learned (and still am learning because well learning and getting BETTER never ends) C and C++. Of course I'll continue to sharpen my skills there as much as possible. I've seen some jobs list python and/or lua in their descriptions. Would you say these extra skills are, I guess, major in the game industry? I know python a bit, but lua I don't really know much at all. 

However I'm most definitely willing to learn.

Thank you to anyone willing to give feedback!

Need monster energy drinks to debug code.

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Believe it or not, psychology is a huge one. Other than that and the obvious programming skills, being able to model systems to address or create completely arbitrary and unexpected things. You never know what it is you are going to have to model... and much of it is not even behavior... and there is no "canned" answer to most of it. So yeah... thinking and solving this kind of crap on the fly is pretty much the prime skill.

Dave Mark - President and Lead Designer of Intrinsic Algorithm LLC
Professional consultant on game AI, mathematical modeling, simulation modeling
Co-founder and 10 year advisor of the GDC AI Summit
Author of the book, Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI
Blogs I write:
IA News - What's happening at IA | IA on AI - AI news and notes | Post-Play'em - Observations on AI of games I play

"Reducing the world to mathematical equations!"

Psychology? That actually kind of makes sense. The human mind and what makes it make certain decisions is definitely a factor. I honestly took this into consideration when working on a game I already made in C. It's a guessing game, a word guessing that's related to football (soccer). And I've played a few games like this when I was younger and going to school. I used vowels to basically give me a chance of the word, or the topic. 

This is opposite of the other game I recently put on my portfolio which is literally a stealth game of avoiding the eye sight of enemies.

Thanks for your reply! And also sorry about it taking a while, was so busy with work and school all week. 

Need monster energy drinks to debug code.

Yes I would have to agree with psychology, for a project I've been working on I researched different emotional, personality and behavioral models,  although it depends on what kind of Ai you are working on. I would definitely suggest reading up on many different existing Ai topics, I would recommend utility function for sure.

Thank you as well for the reply!

I'll definitely research the emotional and personality side of things. Especially emotional.

I keep going back and forth how emotion can really be used in AI programming personally. Because I've gone because and watched some Walking dead and wondered how the game probably used Kenny's emotions in I guess, a technical way. Like if he was super mad at a certain time then he wouldn't be helpful if a played over to him my pressed the controls and asked for help by presses 'a'. 

I'll read up on utility function for sure mate!

 

Thanks!

Need monster energy drinks to debug code.

Try this lecture re psychology and AI... one of my more popular ones.

https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1015682/Less-A-More-I-Using

Dave Mark - President and Lead Designer of Intrinsic Algorithm LLC
Professional consultant on game AI, mathematical modeling, simulation modeling
Co-founder and 10 year advisor of the GDC AI Summit
Author of the book, Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI
Blogs I write:
IA News - What's happening at IA | IA on AI - AI news and notes | Post-Play'em - Observations on AI of games I play

"Reducing the world to mathematical equations!"

A bit of robot programming. npcs have similar behaviour.

TheAICodeGuy said:
I keep going back and forth how emotion can really be used in AI programming personally.

There is a whole field of social robots with their primary function to intelligently interact with humans, that may be of interest tp you.

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