Game AI that thinks ahead?

Gamasutra have reproduced a short article on anticipatory AI. This is a technique that can be used to make game characters appear to be living emotional beings rather than automata. It draws on experience with traditional hand-animation techniques that help the audience understand the motivations and actions of a character, and on work observing animals. The researchers were able to construct a convincing AI dog that could be trained like a real one.

The ideas in this paper are interesting, but as the authors indicate, not entirely new. Many games have in fact incorporated tricks from hand-animation to make game characters more interesting, or easier to interact with. For example, the 'boss' enemies in many games exhibit cues that indicate when they are about to enter a new behaviour, and the monsters in Doom had a 'wind up' animation before they could fire. Even Space Invaders had their behavioural cues.