So I’m sure most of you would agree, one of the hardest things in game development is getting proper AI. I was talking to a team who are making their first game however, and they said they were just making the game multiplayer to avoid the need for AI. Now of course I’ve thought of this before but dismissed the idea since the game would need to attract a good amount of people to even get people playing it, let alone getting it popular. However, on second thought, it has some good points as well.
What do you guys think? Obviously its dependent on the game, but lets talk in general here.
Both are equally important.
AI can be good for testing purposes even if you dont intend to release it. My AI is dumb as a plank atm, but thats because I’ve really only done enough for it to create enemies and then randomly pick targets, without any weighting what so ever. I intend to make it smart once I am sure everything else is working.
MP requires that you have a team to constantly be testing with, which isnt always an option, plus it means people have to dedicate time at the same time. I can have a game of 10 players atm (including myself), which gives me a feel for how the game will actually play out.
Really depends on the game. Words With Friends, Draw Something, and a few other popular mobile games are multiplayer-only with zero AI. But very few large scale games have no AI. Even this year’s poster child for multiplayer-only, Titanfall, still has a lot of AI, and would be a much worse game if it didn’t.