Invited Talks

Invited Talk by Bruce Blumberg chine learning technology to create LiveMove and LiveCombat. LiveMove is a groundbreaking Bruce Blumberg (Blue Fang Games) artificial intelligence product that enables the Blumberg leads Blue Fang’s Synthetic Animal Wii Remote to learn. Instead of complicated Team, which is focused on creating the tech- programming, developers need only take a few nology, tools and processes that will enable minutes to train Wii controllers through exam- Blue Fang to create expressive, intelligent and ples. Nintendo now sublicenses and promotes engrossing animal characters that will set the LiveMove to Wii developers around the world. bar for the next generation of digital entertain- Our other product, LiveCombat, gives develop- ment experiences. ers and players the power to build AI charac- Prior to joining Blue Fang, Blumberg was an ters that learn how to behave by observing the associate professor at The Massachusetts Insti- actions of human players. Your AI characters tute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab where he learn in seconds to be trusted companions or served as the director of the Synthetic Charac- deadly foes. The talk will include many anec- ters Group. This group performed ground dotes and observations that we learned, often breaking research on behavior, learning and the hard way, along the way. motor control for autonomous animated char- Wolff Daniel Dobson received his PhD in acters. computer science from Northwestern Universi- As director of the Synthetic Characters ty, specializing in artificial intelligence and in- Group, Bruce has led teams that created and telligent user interfaces. At Visual Concepts developed numerous award-winning interac- Entertainment, he constructed emotional be- tive installations at such prestigious venues as havior on NBA2K for Dreamcast, and then be- SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica, E3, and AAAI. came colead for artificial intelligence on An impressive list of published papers can be NBA2K1 (garnering a .com score of added to the list of awards he and his group 93). For the past 5 years he has worked for have received, including grand prize for Alpha- AiLive Inc., a startup devoted to next-genera- Wolf at the 2002 Digital Art Awards. tion artificial intelligence in games. Working as Prior to joining the MIT Media Lab, Blum- a designer, producer, engineer, and artist Wolff berg held management positions at Apple has been instrumental in developing two com- Computer and NeXT Computer. mercial products, LiveMove and LiveCombat, Bruce Blumberg holds an MS in manage- that bring groundbreaking real-time machine ment from the MIT Sloan School of Manage- learning technology to the computer entertain- ment and a PhD in media arts and sciences ment industry. from the MIT Media Laboratory. John Funge is a cofounder and one of the lead scientists at AiLive Inc. At AiLive he helped develop LiveMove and LiveCombat, two AiLive's LiveMove and LiveCombat commercial products that bring ground break- ing real-time machine learning technology to Wolff Daniel Dobson and John Funge (AiLive Inc.) the computer entertainment industry. Funge previously worked at Computer Enter- In this talk we describe how we successfully tainment America's research lab. He received productized our state-of-the-art statistical ma- his PhD in computer science from the Univer-

xv sity of Toronto and also holds degrees from Game Developers conference for many years Oxford University and King's College London. and is a regular speaker at the GDC, Siggraph, Funge is the author of numerous technical pa- and other conferences. A frequent contributor pers and two books on Game AI, including his to Game Developer magazine, Hecker was the latest book Artificial Intelligence for Computer technical columnist for the magazine for two Games: An Introduction. years and the editor-at-large for three. Before joining he was an indie game developer Streaming, Open-World Pathfinding for 8 years with his company definition six, inc. He is also on the editorial board of the com- Quinn Dunki (Midway Games) puter graphics research publication, The Jour- nal of Graphics Tools. Open-world, streaming environments are com- mon in next generation games, but pose signifi- Exotic AI Techniques for Sims 3 cant challenges for pathfinding. We're now tasked with accurate pathfinding for hundreds Richard Evans () of agents in a very large, highly dynamic envi- I will show some of the more unusual AI tech- ronment, which is subject to the chaos of mul- niques we are experimenting with in Sims 3. ti-threaded streaming and physics. This talk These include very long-term planning, au- will detail our approach on a particular project tonomous traits, and a new socializing model here at . based on overlapping normative processes. I Quinn Dunki is an AI programmer at Pan- will show how these technology components demic Studios. She was born and raised in allow us to meet two high-level design goals: to Canada, but has been living and working in make each Sim be a unique snowflake, and to for the past 8 years. She has been move up Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I will be making games for a little over 20 years, the last showing these ideas working in action in our 11 of which have been professional. In her 2D experimental testbed. spare time, she races cars, writes, and travels as Richard Evans is senior AI engineer on The much as she can. She also looks forward to be- Sims 3 at Electronic Arts, where he is responsi- littling her coworkers with sarcasm each and ble for the AI architecture, and also likes to get every day. involved in game design. Previously, he was head of AI at , where he de- signed and implemented the AI for Black & Invited Talk by Chris Hecker White. The artificial creature in Black & White Chris Hecker (Maxis/Electronic Arts) holds the Guinness world record for most intel- ligent being in a game. Hecker focuses on solving hard game design and technical problems found at the intersec- tion of gameplay, aesthetics, and engineering. A Work in Progress: He is an outspoken advocate for pushing the Writing AI for Civilization current boundaries of design and interactivity, Soren Johnson (EA Maxis) in the hope that games will achieve their full potential as an art and entertainment form. To As one of the best-loved single-player strategy this end he helps organize the yearly Indie games, Civilization relies heavily on its AI to Game Jam and the Experimental Gameplay provide an engaging experience for the player. Workshop, and his recent work at Maxis has A review of the game's development suggests centered around using advanced proceduralism answers to many of the questions that often to enhance player creativity and agency. Heck- plague AI developers. How do we make the AI er has been on the advisory board for the fun? Do we want the AI to win? Should the AI cheat? If so, how much? Should we adjust the University of Abertay and was inducted into game design to accommodate the limitations of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences the AI? Can the AI behave like a human? Hall of Fame. Peter was also awarded an Order Should it? When and how should the AI be of the British Empore (OBE) in the Queen’s developed? What happens if we expose the AI 2005 New Years Honours List for services to to the modding community? the computer video games industry. Soren Johnson served as the project lead, lead designer, and AI programmer for Sid The Illusion of Life, Revisited Meier's Civilization IV, which was Gamespy’s game of the year for 2006. He also pro- Ken Perlin (New York University) grammed the AI and codesigned Civilization Many years ago, Walt Disney spoke of the III. He joined Firaxis in 2000, after serving an quest to create the “illusion of life.” In fact in internship at Electronic Arts working on every era of human history, this quest has for the PSX. Soren has com- evolved new kinds of literacy, from the first pleted a BA in history and an MS in computer cave paintings to the written word, music, dra- science from Stanford University. His thoughts ma, cinema, animation and beyond. Recently on game design can be found at designer- it has become possible to create this illusion in- notes.com. teractively. But what makes for an effective ex- perience, once an audience can respond back? What makes us care about an interactive char- Invited Talk by acter? I will show some recently developed techniques for breathing life into interactive Peter Molyneux (Lionhead Studios) characters. These techniques may point the Peter Molyneux is one of the best-known way to a new era where cinema intersects with names in the international world of computer interactive narrative and on-line community. games. He cofounded in And we're also going to make sheep waltz. 1987 and created a new genre of computer Ken Perlin is a professor in the department games, “the ” with the release of Pop- of computer science at New York University, ulous. Since then Peter has been responsible for He was founding director of the Media Re- a string of massive selling games including Pow- search Laboratory and also directed the NYU ermonger, Theme Park, Magic Carpet and Dun- Center for Advanced Technology from 1994- geon Keeper. Cumulative sales of these Bullfrog 2004. His research interests include graphics, games are around ten million worldwide. In animation, user interfaces, science education 1997 Peter left Bullfrog Productions to form a and multimedia. In January 2004 he was the new games development company Lionhead featured artist at the Whitney Museum of Studios. The company has released five games American Art. In 2002 he received the New Black & White in 2001, Fable in 2004 Black & York City Mayor's award for excellence in sci- White 2 (PC), (PC) and Fable The ence and technology and the Sokol award for Lost Chapters (PC and Xbox) in 2005. Cumula- outstanding science faculty at NYU. In 1997 tive sales are approaching the 5 million mark. he won an Academy Award for technical Lionhead now numbers over 135 employees. In achievement from the Academy of Motion Pic- April 2006 Lionhead Studios was sold to Mi- ture Arts and Sciences for his noise and turbu- crosoft Corp. lence procedural texturing techniques, which Molyneux is recognized as one of the com- are widely used in feature films and television. puter games industry’s most articulate and elo- In 1991 he received a presidential Young In- quent speakers on the subject of the develop- vestigator Award from the National Science ment of computer games. He has recently re- Foundation. ceived an honorary doctorate from the Perlin received his PhD in computer science

xvii from New York University in 1986, and a BA eral manager of Systems, a subsidiary in theoretical mathematics from Harvard Uni- of Electronic Arts. During his time at ORIGIN versity in 1979. He was head of software devel- Systems, Young supervised the launch of the opment at R/GREENBERG Associates in New world's first massively multiplayer online role- York, NY from 1984 through 1987. From 1979 playing game, Online. to 1984, he was the system architect for com- Since that time, Young has flourished at EA. puter generated animation at Mathematical He was the creator and driving force behind Applications Group, Inc., Elmsford, NY, where Majestic, the first Internet-based interactive the first feature film he worked on was TRON. game that places players in the center of an He has served on the board of directors of the unfolding conspiracy-thriller. Majestic blurred New York chapter of ACM/SIGGRAPH, and the line between fiction and reality by engaging currently serves on the board of directors of players through nontraditional gaming media the New York Software Industry Association. such as the telephone, e-mail, and fax.

Invited Talk by Neil Young Neil Young (EA Los Angeles) As vice president and general manager of EA Los Angeles (EALA), Neil Young oversees all aspects of the studio that is responsible for the blockbuster franchises, Medal of Honor, Com- mand & Conquer, and The Lord of the Rings. Notably, Young was instrumental in securing the ground-breaking long term agreement with Academy Award winner who is currently collaborating with the game mak- ers at EALA to create three new original fran- chise properties. Prior to taking the helm of EALA, Young was general manager of the award-winning Maxis studio, where he was responsible for de- livering ™ 2, the sequel to the best- selling PC game of all time. In 2002 and 2003, Young led the development of the first The Lord of the Rings games at EA Redwood Shores — The Lord of the Rings, The Two Tow- ers, and The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. British-born Young began his career in the interactive entertainment industry in 1988, as a programmer and then producer at UK based Imagitec & Probe Software respectively. In 1992 Young joined when he moved to the United States. At Virgin, he pro- duced a number of Disney-licensed titles and was promoted to vice president for product de- velopment. By 1997, Young moved on from Virgin and was named vice president and gen-