Hello world!
My name is Kevin, and I'm a Game AI programmer. I started this blog as a means to motivate myself into continuing my research and exploration into newer methods and examples of making strong game AI.
I have worked on AAA titles at large studios including Ubisoft and Crytek, and while I find the challenges there rewarding and practical, I also believe it's important to think about problems which might not be relevant to the "current project". Let's face it, with tight deadlines and well-defined visions, we developers often find ourselves asking those what-if questions when we ponder those problems immediate to the day's tasks. But more often than not, those questions are quickly answered with a "not relevant to this game" or "we don't need to worry, we can just do X and move on."
Those what-if questions are what I like to explore more when I'm not in the studio, because while I might be able to skirt around the problem there, to not explore it further here could mean a lot of new opportunities and tangents missed - those which might result in a clearer understanding of the more-relevant problems or possibly better answers to them. Simply put: To not explore, is to not grow.
OmegAI is my own little sandbox, or at least that's what I want it to become. Truth is, I have only just started working on it today. I want it to be a tight 2D tile-based engine, clean of bloat, and capable of supporting my throwing on top new ideas as I come up with them. I've already got a lot of ideas I have been wanting to try, but there's still a lot of work to be done before I am at that point.
I want to use this blog to share those ideas when they come up. I also want to use this blog as a means of cataloging what work I've put in to OmegAI and these ideas. Who knows, I might even use it to point out something relevant that I stumble upon on them internets and find interesting.
Feel free to join in at any time on the things I share here. And thanks for reading. :)
Kevin
Sounds good Kevin. I particularly like the "tight 2D tile-based" concept. I got to thinking, back in Crytek days, that maybe 3D was a total dead end we'd been running down for years ;P
ReplyDeleteWhen you take FPS-style encounters and then experience them with a top-down view, the tactics of the AI should become far more apparent to the player and they have more opportunities to show off their actions. Plus, 2D done well just looks awesome :-)
For me, it's just about limiting the scope so that I can better concentrate on the things that interest me. 3D has its own advantages, for sure. But the things that I have in my head that I want to try first will work fine in 2D, I think. :D
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