#NPC AI within games (no ML, chat-GPT, etc.)

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

cosmic girder
#

Hey everyone!

I am working on an Unity tool which will allow you to create modular NPC behaviour to stimulate more use of complex NPC's within indie games. From what I hear from peers (that steer away from RPGs) is that their biggest concern are the sheer quantity of different characters and the massive story that they have to create. Usually those 2 are fairly expensive for a smaller studio when they don't have those talents in house.

As someone specializing in game AI (eg. bosses, npc's, animals, etc. so no ML and other popular models), I want to make this a lot more accessible for mainly designers and programmers.

Some of things it will contain (details aren't important for now):

  • patrol behaviour
  • idle behaviour
  • modularity for custom expansions
  • strong code base for custom expansions
  • basic combat
  • basic dialogue
  • various triggers (vfx, audio, etc.)
  • and more technical features, which aren't important for now

Looking at this list, are there things that you would like to see added or maybe even emphasized?
For my own research I discovered that a couple of these do stand out within the people from my network.

Lastly are there any requirements for you and / or your studio in order for this to become a viable thing to use (ignore price for now)?

Thank you in advance!!

jaunty crest
#

From what I see, you are not actually going on the right patch. Instead of providing a toolset you are trying to make the gameplay. Which, would really, really be surprising if it matches what the user wants.

Instead, I suggest you invest your time in creating a really strong toolset. (Personally, I would look into Goal Oriented or Utility Function as the other two have a lot of available asset). Then you create example of what can your tool be use for. Ideally, vary the amount of game type it supports such as Hack n Slash, Card Games or Platformer to really present how robust and flexible your tools are.