Overall looking back on the what I have learnt throughout this module I feel as though the lecture on artificial intelligence had the largest impact on my own opinion. Using what I learnt I believe this could help me move forward into learning about AI programming NPCs for games. AI is becoming a larger part of life as time goes on and is becoming more advanced but I initially I thought the consequences of this would be bad in the future. At first, I was not delving into the topic enough and only looking at the surface which was what I was being told by social media. A dystopian idea about AI had engraved itself into my head. However, looking back, I learnt that AI can be very helpful to humans. Looking at modelling for games, AI becomes an important part of making games seem more realistic and immersive. The best video games make the player feel as though they are truly part of the experience. Emotive modelling is a technique I learnt about during the lecture and research processes and how it is being used to help further video game capabilities. Emotive modelling is a technique that enables developers to capture the essence of emotion within an NPC. This is important because it gives players a connection to certain NPCs thorough feelings. This emotive modelling could be programmed for different situations thereby interlinking a relationship with a player on a virtual level. This has all impacted me on a serious level as I never thought that artificial intelligence could help to improve the video game industry at such a phenomenal level, advancing in modelling came as a big surprise because I didn’t know that AI technology was capable.

In addition, the lecture on history of indie and considering different developers and indie companies changed my mind. I never really thought of indie developers being one person and the scene becoming so large like it is in the market today, looking back I learnt a lot about the history in terms of how far indie goes back. Indie games can be traced back to the 1970s which is unbelievable when you think about how the term has only become mainstream now. These small team’s indie teams are competing with large scale companies and beating them. Many smaller scale teams are becoming household names which helps to inspire me as a developer. The work of Jonathan Blow interested me the most because his success has come from such a small team of developers and his outlook on the game industry was like mine. Blow has a strong distrust in the cooperate greed of companies like EA and sees that many companies are going down a cooperate route i.e. microtransactions. Furthermore, Blow also believes that video games are an art form, this passion for design is something I look for as inspiration when I’m developing. I think I resonate with statements and beliefs of Blow and hope to take these forward into my own work.

Sources

http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/ai-video-games-toward-intelligent-game/

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/the-most-dangerous-gamer/308928/

References

Norman, D. (1988). The Design of Everyday Things.

Lebowitz, J. (2011). Interactive Storytelling for Video Games.

Hudlicka, E. (2009). Foundations for Modelling Emotions in Game Characters: MOdelling EMotion Effects on Cognition.