Switching Brains And Putting The Cart Before The Horse: EvoCommander, An Experimental AI Game

One of the best ways to make AI that is relevant to game development is to (1) make the AI and (2) make a game around the AI. That is, design a game that needs this particular flavor of AI to work.

To most people in the game industry (and far too many people in academia), this is the equivalent of putting the cart before the horse. The "proper" way to do game AI is to start with a requirement, a problem posed by the game's design, and then come up with some AI to solve this.

But many great innovations would never have been made if we insisted on putting the horse before the cart all the time. And making AI that solves the problems of existing game designs often leads to boring AI, because most games are designed to not need very interesting AI. It's more fun to turn things around - start with the AI and design a game that will need that AI, to prove that such a game design can be interesting.

I am definitely not the first person to think that thought. In particular, Ken Stanley has been involved in a couple of really interesting academic experiments in designing games around evolutionary neural networks, or neuroevolution. NERO is a game where you train the brains of a small army of troops, and then let your army fight other people's armies. Galactic Arms Race (with Erin Hastings as main developer) revolves around picking up and learning to use bizarre weaponry, which is evolved based on players' choices. Petalz (the offspring of my good friend Sebastian Risi and others) is a social network game about flowers, powered by actual evolution. I've been involved in a couple of such attempts myself, such as Infinite Tower Defense which uses several different AI mechanisms to adapt to the player's strategy and preferences, creating an ever-shifting challenge.

Of course, there are several examples of commercial games that seem to have been built partly to showcase interesting AI as well, including classics such as Creatures and Black and White. And there are many games that have chosen non-standard, AI-heavy solutions to design problems. But it would take us too far to dig deeper into those games, as I think it's about time that I get to the reason I wrote this blog post.

The reason I wrote this blog post is EvoCommander (game, paper). EvoCommander is a game designed and implemented by Daniel Jallov, while he was a student at ITU Copenhagen under the supervision of Sebastian Risi and myself; we also contributed to the game design.

A mission being played in EvoCommander.

EvoCommander's game play revolves around training your little combat robot, and then unleashing it against human or computer-controlled enemies. The robot's brain is a neural network, and training happens through neuroevolution. You train the robot by giving it a task and deciding what it gets rewarded for; for example, you can reward it for approaching the enemy, using one of its weapons, or simply keeping distance; you can also punish if for any of these things. Like a good dog, your little robot will learn to do things so as to maximize reward and minimize punishment, but these things are not always what you had in mind when you decided what to reward. Unlike a game like Pokemon, where "training" is simply progression along a pretermined skill trajectory, in EvoCommander training really is an art, with in principle limitless and open-ended outcomes. In this regard, the premise of the game resembles that of NERO (mentioned above).

Fierce PvP battle in the EvoCommander arena.

A key difference to that game, and also a key design innovation in EvoCommander, is the brain switching mechanic. You can train multiple different "brains" (neural networks) for different behaviors, some of which may be attacking tactics, others tactics for hiding behind walls etc. When battling an opponent, you can then decide which brain to use at each point in time. This gives you constant but indirect control over the robot. It also gives you considerable leeway in selecting your strategy, both in the training phase and the playing phase. You may decide to train complicated generic behaviors (remember that you can start training new brains from any brain you trained so far) and only switch brains rarely. Or you may train brains that only do simple things, and use brain switching as a kind of macro-action, a bit like a combo move in Street Fighter.

The robot bootcamp, where you train your brains.

As an experimental research game, EvoCommander is not as polished as your typical commercial game. However, that is not the point. The point is to take an interesting AI method and show how it can be the basis for a game design, and in the process invent a game design that would not be possible without this AI method.

You are welcome play the game and/or read the paper yourself to find out more!

Further reading: I've written in the past about why academia and game industry don't always get along, and strategies for overcoming this. Building AI-based games to show how interesting AI can be useful in games is one of my favorite strategies. An analysis (and idea repository) for how AI can be used in games can be found in our recent paper on AI-based game design patterns.

Stuck In The Middle

I read this Tenkar's Tavern post yesterday, but this is my first opportunity to respond.

Yeah, the middlemen get squeezed.  Those seeking neutral ground will eventually see themselves taking up less and less space.  And that's a shame.  Because politics shouldn't intrude on everything... especially a leisure pursuit like roleplaying games.

To be clear, I'm also a moderate, a centrist, a classical liberal who'd rather not get involved in the culture wars of increasing polarization.  But it wasn't so long ago that free speech, rationality, the rule of law, and focusing on gaming were nonpartisan issues that everyone could agree on.

That is not what's happened over the last 3 or 4 years.  Social media is everything and everything has been influenced (corrupted?) by politics.  The more radical, the better... according to the loudest and least compromising among us.

Any clearheaded person can see that Erik Tenkar contributes to the RPG HIC (Hobby/Industry/Community).  And Pex, as Erik's mouthpiece, has every right to post links to whatever the Tavern is talking about at the moment.  Those SJWs over on Discord can believe what they want... because they're creating a reality all their own.

If Erik and Pex hadn't distanced themselves from me, I'd be there to fight alongside them.  But instead, they chose to throw the baby out with the bathwater and are now being ostracized within certain segments of the HIC because not enough babies were thrown.  Yes, also a subtle jab at post-birth abortions that's now part of mainstream Democrat policy!

Hoist on their own petard.  Sad, but not unexpected.  Live together or die alone, as Lost so eloquently stated.  Meanwhile, I'll be here patiently waiting for my apologies.  Fighting the good fight.  Designing games and doing my za'akier thing.

Good luck to everyone who wants to stay on the sidelines, where it's "safe," and go about their business without getting involved.  Eventually, you too will be swept up in the mob.  Wake up before you suddenly find your head upon the guillotine of social justice!

VS

Done With Amos Yee

Given that I had previously supported Singapore's dissident blogger Amos Yee, I feel a responsibility to comment on the revelations that he has endorsed the legalization of child pornography and sexual relations between adults and minors. As free speech advocate, I not only believe in the right of people to speak, even people we detest, without undue interference, but that the righteous must use our speech to counter the poisonous ideas others wish to spread. To think that one who's unjust imprisonment violated the UN Convention's Rights of the Child, would then endorse the violation of the rights of other children. Yee has rightfully gained asylum in the United States, but I recommend that all those who supported his release, utilize their own free speech to condemn his filth in the strongest possible terms.


In a series of tweets, Yee decided to extrapolate on his views of child pornography, which sound like the ramblings of a disgruntled NAMBLA member, "Child porn is not rape, children can give consent to fucking. If you can provide evidence that all child porn is non-consensual, show it." He also said, "Children should have the rights to fuck, the high possibility of them making a regrettable decision is not enough to take away their rights." When confronted, Yee tends to weasel his way out of this position, saying that he only advocated for sex between adults and thirteen or fourteen year olds. This is wrong on so many fronts. The first is that this still counts as statutory rape in many regions. The second is that statutory rape laws tend to differentiate between teens having sex with one another, and teens having sex with adults. The third is that he routinely referred to "children", not teens, in his arguments, and has himself tweeted, "If you're fucking a baby and he moves away in fear, that's rape don't do it. If he likes it continue possibility is low but still." Yee, thinking that he had eloquently rebutted any arguments against child pornography, then proceeded to prove Godwin's Law and refer to his critics as a "bunch of bloody fascists." Talk like this is disgusting, and reveals him less provocative intellectual, and more churlish edgelord.


Some will argue that he's only eighteen, and many adolescents tend to carry reactionary and ill-informed viewpoints. This is true, but I knew no one, and I mean no one, in middle school or high school, even the worst of them, who would've advocated for child pornography in the slightest. I couldn't imagine being friends with such a kid. I'd argue that, given he's still young, it's all the more important that he be held to account for his regressive views, lest he keep them into adulthood. In this respect, Yee's critics are doing him a good favor in the long run. If Yee fancies himself smart enough to criticize religion and government, then he'd better be damn well smart enough to know that child pornography is among the most grotesque forms of rape.

To Singaporean critics of the government, you have lost an activist. Yee had certainly brought up important points of debate regarding free speech laws and the legacy of Lee Kuan Yew, but his inconsistency on human rights have destroyed his credibility. You don't need cretins like him in the fight for more equal rights, indeed, you're probably better off. To the skeptic community, I ask that we look in the mirror, and decide whether or not critiquing religion and liberalism is sufficient criteria to overlook reprehensible behavior. While the skeptic convention, Mythicist Milwaukee, disinvited Yee for standing by his child pornography comments, they saw little issue with inviting a "rational skeptic" who subsequently boasted of taunting a sexual assault victim, and received applause.

Amos Yee fought for his free speech and won it, but even in America, free speech comes with consequences. Here, we do not imprison or fine those who hold views we despise. Instead, we expose, critique, and alienate their positions, depriving them of oxygen, until those holding them are left dishonored and ashamed.

Treasures Of The Savage Frontier - PC (MS-DOS) - 1992

Treasures of the Savage Frontier marks the end of the road for SSI's Gold Box engine.  It has given good service over the nine AD&D (and two Buck Rogers) games starting with Pool of Radiance in 1988.  There have been a couple of hiccups along the way, but for the most part the series has been very good.

This game is the follow up to Gateway to the Savage Frontier released the previous year.  The main things I remember about Gateway was the step backwards the Gold Box engine took and the contrived ending.  This time I am playing the DOS version as the VGA graphics are a big improvement over the 16 colours displayed on the Amiga.  Things got off to an inauspicious start when I had to create my party using the awkward character designer.  Picking the icons was so much easier in The Dark Queen of Krynn.

I can't say I'm sorry to see the back of this.

Indeed, it seems like Treasures of the Savage Frontier used a Gold Box engine several versions older than the last couple of games:-

1. You have to press (M)ove to enter a move mode and then (E)xit before you can perform any other actions.  In most of the games you can simply use the cursor keys or the mouse to move.
2. You have to quit the game and restart in order to load a saved game.
3. It's not so easy to move around with the mouse - the cursor no longer changes to show your intended direction in the 3D window.
4. The graphics aren't as good as The Dark Queen of Krynn which was also released in 1992.
5. This last point affects all Gold Box games - what is described is not what you see in the first person view.

Description vs reality.

The manual says that Amanitas has magically transported your party, the Heroes of Ascore, to the city of Llorkh.  Zhentarim survivors from the last game are battling the resident dwarves for control of the city.  You have been summoned to aid the dwarves in defeating the Zhentarim and are then to visit Amanitas in Secomber.

Amanitus was the mage in Gateway to the Savage Frontier  who told us where to go next.  He does this again but this time we can communicate with him via a magic crown so we don't need to travel to Secomber each time we complete a task.

As the game goes on it is revealed that the Zhentarim, Hosttower Mages and the Kraken society have joined forces with the goal of taking over the region.  The Lord's Alliance is made up of a dozen cities who have grouped together to combat common threats in the area.  The evil union is intent on breaking up the Alliance using kidnapping, deception and subterfuge to set the cities against one another.  They have also framed the Heroes of Ascore as traitors.

Miscellaneous notes...

• Combat has been tweaked by occasionally adding fresh opponents or friendly NPCs to a battle already in progress.  This can make the fights a little more interesting.

• Some higher level items of magic equipment have been given names such as Sword of Stalking +4, Squid Shield +2 and Redflame Armour +2.  I'm not sure if they are imbued with extra abilities.

• I kept picking up loads of Lucky Papers during the game.  Without knowing what they were for I didn't want to throw them away...

• It turned out you can read them with three coloured crystals, one each from a Zhentil Lord, a Hosttower Sorceress and a Kraken Master.  If you meet them in battle and kill one of the enemies you can pick up their crystal. The remaining opponents smash theirs.  To collect them all you have to ensure you kill a different type of opponent first.  Lucky papers show the enemy objectives in each town.  I guess you can use these if you want to complete any city quest out of order.  I didn't.

• There is a cheesy romance between the main character and a recruited NPC.  It doesn't detract from the plot but doesn't really add anything either.

*barf*

• There were at least a couple magic stores that sold the whole gamut of +1 weapons and armour.  I don't recall seeing one in any of the other gold box games apart from the occasional store that sold wands, potions and scrolls.

After completing quests in all the cities it was off to Mirabar to meet with the Councilors of the Lord's Alliance and to prove our innocence.  This brought up the usual end game screens with pages of reading...

What came next seemed disconnected from the main quest and felt like it was tacked on afterwards.  We were tasked with retrieving a magical gem from the hoard of a long dead (yeah, right) dragon.  This was to be found in Ice Peak in the far north of the overworld map.

The dragon's lair was located in a maze-like area on the far side of a one way door - once in you can't get out.

Alas, I was unable to finish the game due to an impossible penultimate battle.  You are attacked by three groups made up of blackrobed mages, spies and masters.  The blackrobed mages and blackrobed spies always get the jump on you and have a propensity for casting hold monster and hold person spells.  The blackrobed masters finish off held characters and disrupt my mages spells.  I'm lucky if I can get through the first round with half my party able to move.  Having a hasted party, invisible characters, and even turning the level down to Novice makes no difference to the outcome.  After many failed attempts I watched a couple of 'Let's Plays' on YouTube to see how it was done.  The videos showed the players being attacked by two groups of four and one group of five.  I had this...

Thirteen opponents would have been doable, twenty-five were not.  If anyone has any ideas please let me know*.

Although I couldn't complete the game I did like it.  Contemporary reviews weren't very kind calling it more of the same.  This is fine by me as I like the series.  Also, I found Treasures of the Savage Frontier was refreshing as it took us back to where Hold Person and Stinking Cloud spells still worked and my starting characters couldn't yet cast Fireballs. 

It was not quite the fitting end to the series I had hoped for but I still enjoyed it.  Here's hoping SSI's Dark Sun engine games are just as good.









*Addendum

After finishing writing this entry I did go on to complete the game.  I needed to load up my final save just to confirm the names of the enemies in the 'unwinnable' battle so I didn't bother buffing.  I decided to have a go anyway and was lucky enough to get off two fireballs before the enemy started to cast, so disrupting most of their spellcasters.  Their first volley of 'holds' only affected a couple of my party.  Some friendly dwarves and extra enemies turned up and I eventually won with only three dead characters.  The end game....

Having no chance to rest or heal we were thrown into a battle against Freezefire.  This was an ancient dragon that once terrorised the realm.  After the last battle it was disappointingly easy.  Although it had a -8 AC, it only had 56 hit points and was not immune to magic.  It went down within two rounds managing to hit only one accompanying dwarf with some kind of cold attack.

"You do realise this game doesn't have a sequel don't you?"

The End

 

Apply Now To Be A GDC 2019 Conference Associate!

Hey there! Want to help make sure the 2019 Game Developers Conference goes off without a hitch?

Then you should consider applying now to be a volunteer Conference Associate (CA), because you can earn the equivalent of an All-Access Pass by putting in roughly 25 hours of on-site work!

Next year GDC 2019 runs from Monday, March 18th through Friday, March 22nd. Applicants chosen to be Conference Associates will be given pre-conference assignments and asked to attend a required orientation dinner on Sunday, March 17th! This is a paid position, so you must be eligible to work in the United States.

If you are accepted into the program, you are expected to be on-site from the start of your pre-conference assignments through the end of the conference on the evening of Friday, March 22nd, during conference hours. Please plan accordingly so you have no job, school, or other conflicts during that time.

What will you be doing, you ask? CA duties may include guarding doors and scanning badges, monitoring sessions, answering attendees' questions, and more. In your free time, you will be able to use your All-Access pass to do things like attend talks or visit the Expo floor.

To apply, head over to the GDC 2019 CA application page and read the instructions. The deadline for applications closes at 11:59 PM PDT, December 21st, 2018. Applicants will be notified if they are accepted (or not) by January 10th.

Applications submitted after the positions are filled will be offered the opportunity to be put on the waiting list. Applications will be accepted up until 11:59 pm (Pacific Time, UTC-8) on March 12th for the waiting list.

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17. SHRINKPE.COM

    SHRINKPE.COM is also one of the best and most trusted shortener websites.It is also one of the fastest growing URL shortener sites.It is paying high for 1000 views.One of the best things about this site is that one visitor can click 15 times on your link and you will be paid for that clicks.
    You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $5.You can earn $9 for 1000 views.These rates are not permanent they change every time.They also depend on the advertisements currently available for the visitor's country.
    
    • The payout for 1000 views-$15
    • Minimum withdraw-$5 PayPal
    • Referral commission-20%
    • Payment methods-PayPal
    • Payment-instantly
    
    

18. ADmy.link

    ADmy.link is also one of the best URL sites.It is a trusted site.You can earn simply by registering for an account.It's fast and free!then you can Find URLs you would like to monetize and shorten your links.You just have to Share your shortened links and drive traffic to your content.
    Then Earn money by sharing in the advertising revenues for each real visit to your links!You can earn $5 for 1000 views.Minimum payout is $5.You can earn extra money by their referral system.They offer 15% as a referral program.
    
    • Payout for 1000-$5
    • Minimum payout-$5
    • Referral commission-15%
    • Payment method-PayPal
    • Payment time-start of every month.
    
    

19. Link4.me

    Link4.me is another trusted and fast growing site.You can earn by creating an account for free.You have to shorten your long URL into the short one.Then you can paste it into websites, blog, and social networking sites.You can earn $9 for 1000 views.they offer 20% referral commission for the lifetime.
    When your earning will reach $5 then you can claim your earning.Paypal is the only method through which you can withdraw your earnings.
    
    • Payout for 1000 views-$9
    • Minimum payout-$5
    • Referral commission-20%
    • Payment method-Paypal
    
    

20. BIT-URL

    It is a new URL shortener website.Its CPM rate is good.You can sign up for free and shorten your URL and that shortener URL can be paste on your websites, blogs or social media networking sites.bit-url.com pays $8.10 for 1000 views.
    You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $3.bit-url.com offers 20% commission for your referral link.Payment methods are PayPal, Payza, Payeer, and Flexy etc.
    
    • The payout for 1000 views-$8.10
    • Minimum payout-$3
    • Referral commission-20%
    • Payment methods- Paypal, Payza, and Payeer
    • Payment time-daily
    
    

21. Wi.cr

    Wi.cr is also one of the 30 highest paying URL sites.You can earn through shortening links.When someone will click on your link.You will be paid.They offer $7 for 1000 views.Minimum payout is $5.
    You can earn through its referral program.When someone will open the account through your link you will get 10% commission.Payment option is PayPal.
    
    • Payout for 1000 views-$7
    • Minimum payout-$5
    • Referral commission-10%
    • Payout method-Paypal
    • Payout time-daily
    
    

22. Shorte.st

    Shorte.st is another very popular and most trusted URL Shortening Company. Shorte.st comes as a user-friendly URL Shortener Service with many creative options for making money by monetizing the links you share. Shorte.st provides you an opportunity to earn from $5 to $15 per 1000 views for promoting their shortened links.
    For WordPress Bloggers, Shorte.st brings its WordPress Plugin which will help you greatly to boost your earnings. Shorte.st has a low minimum payout of $5.
    The payment is credited automatically on the 10th of each month. The payment methods include PayPal, Payoneer, and WebMoney. It also presents a referral earning opportunity wherein you can earn 20% commission on referrals for a lifetime.
    

18 Useful Websites for Hackers

1. Hacked Gadgets: A resource for DIY project documentation as well as general gadget and technology news.
2. SecTools.Org: List of 75 security tools based on a 2003 vote by hackers.
3. DEFCON: Information about the largest annual hacker convention in the US, including past speeches, video, archives, and updates on the next upcoming show as well as links and other details.
4. Hakin9: E-magazine offering in-depth looks at both attack and defense techniques and concentrates on difficult technical issues.
5. HackRead: HackRead is a News Platform that centers on InfoSec, Cyber Crime, Privacy, Surveillance, and Hacking News with full-scale reviews on Social Media Platforms.
6. Makezine: Magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.
7. Hack Forums: Emphasis on white hat, with categories for hacking, coding and computer security.
8. Exploit DB: An archive of exploits and vulnerable software by Offensive Security. The site collects exploits from submissions and mailing lists and concentrates them in a single database.
9. SecurityFocus: Provides security information to all members of the security community, from end users, security hobbyists and network administrators to security consultants, IT Managers, CIOs and CSOs.
10. Packet Storm: Information Security Services, News, Files, Tools, Exploits, Advisories and Whitepapers.
11. Hackaday: A hardware hack every day.
12. KitPloit: Leading source of Security Tools, Hacking Tools, CyberSecurity and Network Security.
13. Phrack Magazine: Digital hacking magazine.
14. NFOHump: Offers up-to-date .NFO files and reviews on the latest pirate software releases.
15. The Hacker News: The Hacker News — most trusted and widely-acknowledged online cyber security news magazine with in-depth technical coverage for cybersecurity.
16. Black Hat: The Black Hat Briefings have become the biggest and the most important security conference series in the world by sticking to our core value: serving the information security community by delivering timely, actionable security information in a friendly, vendor-neutral environment.
17. Metasploit: Find security issues, verify vulnerability mitigations & manage security assessments with Metasploit. Get the worlds best penetration testing software now.
18. Offensive Security Training: Developers of Kali Linux and Exploit DB, and the creators of the Metasploit Unleashed and Penetration Testing with Kali Linux course.