I’m feeling like my AI is extremely basic, and poorly implemented, so I’m hoping someone here can recommend a good place to learn about programming AI. A book, a youtube video, a blog etc. I’ll check out anything, it’d be appreciated.
BTW not sure if this was the right place for this, but it sorta falls into scripting so I figured why not?
^ Buckland’s Programming Game AI By Example is nice because it’s hands-on and practical although written with a narrow set of approaches and in C++.
If you’re looking for something more comprehensive, check out Millington & Funge’s Artificial Intelligence for Games.
Good point on the language thing - but the patterns are actually simple enough that it shouldn’t be a problem. I don’t know much C++ and I found it straight forward to translate everything.
Instead of recomanding a resource, I’d suggest to avoid the academic A.I. field (Machine Learning, Pattern Recognition and the likes). Though they are some applications in video games, this field is not specifically oriented towards video games and you might get misleaded. A.I for video games is more about delivering believable and entertaining experiences for the player rather than creating the most intelligent/smart system; it’s has more todo with pathfinding, navigation, steering, decision making…
My favorite topic in A.I is Behaviour Tree, which is a useful tool to describe behaviours and processes. I’ve made scripting engine based on Behaviour Tree. If you are interested , it’s available here:
http://www.pandabehaviour.com
I’ll admit I thought “eric” when I read this article 
… it’s kinda relevant to the topic
AI is an ever changing field; as developers figure out how to do one thing someone else is already trying to figure out the next more complex behaviour or interaction to model; personally it’s one of the more interesting things to try and keep even remotely up to date on 
The author may have a bit of an agenda, since he sells a utility-based AI product on the Asset Store. (Although it looks very well done, btw.)
But AI isn’t a linear evolution. Most techniques have their place in an AI developer’s toolbox. There are times when simple FSMs are the most appropriate choice. Other requirements might call for a planning algorithm. It’s a good idea to have a passing familiarity with as many techniques as possible, and then dig into whatever one you need for your situation.
I don’t think utility-based AI is a good fit for everything. I experimented with it some in my current WIP and it became very unweildy. Behavior Trees were a much better fit and seem like a good all-around way of doing AI and you can implement some very sophisticated behavior using them. Chris Simpson has a great behavior tree article on Gamasutra which is one of the best things I’ve read on the subject.
oh absolutely, and the title is click baiting.
yup
Thanks for the recommendations/advice everyone. I’ll be sure to check them all out over the next few hours (What a way to spend a Friday night eh?)
It might have helped if I’d said what I want to learn about AI for, sorry. I’m creating a 2D space shooter for a project. I just want to make the AI feel good to play against, for lack of a better term and I had no idea where to start.
FSM was the only thing I had in mind, but it’s nice to have other stuff to look at and compare it too. Either an FSM or Behaviour Tree seems like it would be good enough for my game.
you could look into flocking or steering behaviours. They’re relatively straight forward and would offer some good reactive “formation flying”.
I’ve only skimmed over it for now but that’s quite an interesting read.
I read the article about leader following**,** seemed like a nice fit for some of my enemies. Glad I did decide to ask here, I clearly had no idea what was out there. Thanks.
FSMs, Behaviour Trees, Steering Behaviours etc. are the staples of an A.I. toolbox, and I’d second the existing suggestions for Mat Buckland and Millington & Funge, which both offer pretty comprehensive but accessible coverage of all these topics. Don’t bother with the Packt AI for Unity book - it’s very basic and not well written or edited.
If you wanted a selection of more “state of the art” approaches, I’d recommend you either check out “Game A.I. Pro”, (http://www.gameaipro.com/) which has a series of articles in more of an academic journal style, or else look out for articles on GamaSutra or the AI summit videos on the GDC vault, such as http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020592/AI-Postmortem
Artificial Intelligence for Games
AI Game Programming Wisdom 1, 2, 3, 4
I’ve spent the last 2 months on this reading for my current project (and related topics from the authors) and it’s basis of practically any project AI you’re working on.
I’ve heard good things about these as well (Same editor and many of the same contributors)
Game AI Pro: Collected Wisdom of Game AI Professionals 1, 2
A big reason Rabin started the Game AI Pro series is that he wanted the articles to become fair-use after publication stopped. I had no idea that the articles in #1 were already available on the net!
Thanks!