Words of Wisdom: Northeastern Biz Panel and BPM AI Panel
So what do you think of the new website? Pretty badass, huh? If you are experiencing problems viewing the page please, PLEASE e-mail us at support<at>firehosegames[dot]com so we can fix the bug. Please include what browser and version you were using when you saw the bug (you can find out by clicking in the top bar on Help, then About to find out what browser version you’re using), and a screenshot would be super useful too. Thanks!
This week has been packed with talks. On Tuesday I was part of a panel at Northeastern on business and making a name for yourself in gaming. Some of the highlights? The most game changing innovation in gaming in the past 5 years has been the advent of social networking in games (and games in social networking), that new UIs will be one of the main changing forces in the next 5 years, and that the iPhone is a complete shit platform for developers without major IP to make real money (although the business model of a 70/30 split with the distributor is a pretty good one). The panel was a bit pessimistic about one’s chances of “making it big” in the games industry given how fragmented and hit driven the industry is, but that’s with good reason! Think how many studios are shutting down nowadays, and how many people try to make games and never get off the ground.
The AI talk at Boston Post Mortem on Wednesday was a bit more technical, and featured a high powered panel of AI designers for major titles like Halo 2/3, Bioshock, and F.E.A.R. . The panelists discussed some of the problems with making “intelligent” AIs (”Ray casting is the bane of my existence”), and there were lots of interesting anecdotes. One panelist pointed out that it is more important for characters to NOT look stupid than to look smart, since people may not notice an AI that is coming up with a neat plan but will definitely notice a character trying unsuccessfully to walk through a wall. Another good point was that many people won’t notice AI when they are desperately trying to survive, but that if you put the game on god mode all of a sudden you can see all sorts of little bugs you might not have normally noticed. The panel was really great, I hope future post mortems are of the same quality!
November 19, 2009 | | Comments Off
Category: Words of Wisdom
Tags: AI, Bioshock, BPM, FEAR, Halo, iphone, Northeastern, pessimism, post mortem, social
MIT’s Battlecode AI competition round up
Last night MIT’s annual battlecode competition had it’s final tournament, with the top teams squaring off against each other for the title of baddest ass programming team. After a long arduous battle that lasted the better part of the evening, team g2g ice skating lessons won in a nail biting come-from-behind victory. Steve Bartel, Spenser Skates, Randy Shults, and Karen Sun had apparently spent the entire past month quarantined in their rooms writing AI scripts in their bid to win. Steve is actually an ex-GAMBINO, having worked on Muzaic this past summer. Congratulations team!
Follow the link for a quick synopsis of the competition. (more…)
February 1, 2009 | | Comments (1)
Category: Events, News
Tags: 6.370, AI, artificial intelligence, battlecode, MIT, muzaic, tournament
RTS done right, MIT’s Battlecode Tournament
I know some of you will be attending the Global Game Jam this weekend. But maybe that’s not enough for you, maybe you need more exciting video game plans this weekend. Well boy are you in luck!
This Saturday is the Battlecode final tournement. For those of you who don’t know, every January MIT has a one month course imaginatively called 6.370 in which students attempt to create the best game artifical intelligence (AI) around. The competition is fierce, and this Saturday the finalists will battle to see who’s AI reigns supreme from 7pm to 9pm in the Kresge Auditorium. If you haven’t been before I strongly recommend checking the competition out, it’s really exciting and worth the trip!
Oh, and us Fire Hose nerds will be there as bronze sponsors of the event. You can check out the competition’s website for more details, but there aren’t tons.