About the project
A 3d horror stealth game built in the Unreal Engine. Players must avoid AI robots that hunt them down. One of the primary goals for this project was for the AI to feel smart, but not be so smart that the player is unable to avoid them. In service of this goal, I used Unreals' built in Behavior Trees and Environment Query System. Allowing me to create a multitude of behaviors for the AI such as; patrolling, investigating, chasing, ect.
What I contributed
I developed the AI for this project. Using a combination of state machine and behavior trees I was able to achieve complex behavior within each state, while avoiding a large brittle behavior tree. Using the environment query system allowed the AI to make smart decisions about where to look when hunting the player, prioritizing locations that it can't see, and avoiding turning around constantly. The project included two different AI. One could 'see' and 'hear' the player, the other could only 'hear'.
What I learned
Most AI behavior is fairly simple to achieve. Making the behavior fun, is another story completely. Too smart? it's frustrating. Too dumb? There is no real pressure on the player.