What does this mean to the game? Isn’t it enough to just throw in varied herd sizes and let the players have fun? - The answer is no, not at all. Population - Herd size, gender composition, etc. Since the goal of theHunter franchise is to make the “most realistic hunting games ever created,” this means that a ton of research and prep work goes into creating new animal species, including all the nitty gritty details of their lives, such as: (The above behavior tree image is from Robert Meyer’s GDC 2017 talk on Just Cause 3’s AI Design.) How Did AI Design Enhance the Believability of Animal Behavior?

Where species roamed, ate, slept, and drankĭesigning herd size, gender composition of herds, animal schedules, etc.ĭetermining additional needs (such as habitats) for gameplay considerations.ĭesigning & implementing animal behaviors, while ensuring each species (including different deer types) were unique from each other.Ī cool thing about Avalanche Studios is that their in-house engine - Apex Engine (the latest version of technology used in Mad Max and Just Cause 3) - includes proprietary behavior tree tech, allowing designers to implement AI behavior. I worked with team members across different disciplines (sound designers, animators, programmers, world artists, etc.) to ensure the AI matched the expectations of actual hunters, while also meshing well with gameplay. I came onto theHunter: CotW team just as a few animals made their way into the game but didn’t yet have any behaviors. In fact, they sometimes watch an animal (or group of animals) for a couple minutes or so, waiting for the perfect shot (or snapshot! - Some players play simply to enjoy the environments and take in-game pictures of the wildlife).Therefore, players spend a ton of time observing the animals and their behaviors, making animal behavior a critical component in adding to the game’s believability.Īn Overview: What Does an AI Designer Do Anyway? Unlike FPS games (and arcade-style hunting games), players don’t immediately shoot everything that moves. Players absolutely know when an animal behavior is off or when a species doesn’t reflect real-life. In fact, many fans of theHunter games are real-life hunters. It was critical to learn as much as I could about hunting and animal behavior, as theHunter franchise was created with the goal of being the “most realistic hunting games ever created.” Leveling Up My Hunting Knowledgeĭespite knowing very little about hunting when I first came onto the project, I quickly became an expert in animal behavior across 10+ species. Now that the game has shipped, I want to take the time to write about some of the design considerations for the game (from an AI Design perspective), as some of what I learned may be useful to others who are designing game AI. I joined theHunter: CotW team because it provided an incredible opportunity to focus entirely on AI design. Prior to working on theHunter: Call of the Wild (CotW ), the closest I ever got to hunting was skeet shooting with relatives in the midwest (shooting at orange discs fired into the air). Introduction: theHunter: CotW - The Most Realistic Hunting Game Ever This blog post was published with permission from Avalanche Studios.

Karin Cederskoog was a former AI Design Intern at Avalanche Studios, who worked on theHunter: Call of the Wild.

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