What do you think?
Rate this book
AI for Games, Third Edition
AI is an integral part of every video game. This book helps professionals keep up with the constantly evolving technological advances in the fast growing game industry and equips students with up-to-date information they need to jumpstart their careers. This revised and updated Third Edition includes new techniques, algorithms, data structures and representations needed to create powerful AI in games.
Key Features
A comprehensive professional tutorial and reference to implement true AI in gamesIncludes new exercises so readers can test their comprehension and understanding of the concepts and practices presentedRevised and updated to cover new techniques and advances in AIWalks the reader through the entire game AI development process
Key Features
A comprehensive professional tutorial and reference to implement true AI in gamesIncludes new exercises so readers can test their comprehension and understanding of the concepts and practices presentedRevised and updated to cover new techniques and advances in AIWalks the reader through the entire game AI development process
1030 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2006
39 people are currently reading
508 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
Read
February 10, 2022freaking comprehensive
October 2, 2021
It's way too long. For some reason author placed in his book chapters which are not related with an AI. For example "Procedural content generation" or "Programming game AI" - first one is self explanatory and second one was describing how you can create your own scripting language. Scripts are used in many various departments, not only AI (although I enjoyed this chapter).
I'm also not convinced about practical usage of presented vision senses implementation.
The last objection is related to discussion about Polling vs Events and putting them on an equal footing. I strongly disagree with that as author didn't took dependencies and multithreading into consideration. Polling creates more dependencies between systems and introduces locks while events are solving both of these issues.
Overall, I learnt a lot from this book. I don't regret reading it.
I'm also not convinced about practical usage of presented vision senses implementation.
The last objection is related to discussion about Polling vs Events and putting them on an equal footing. I strongly disagree with that as author didn't took dependencies and multithreading into consideration. Polling creates more dependencies between systems and introduces locks while events are solving both of these issues.
Overall, I learnt a lot from this book. I don't regret reading it.
October 21, 2014
Más que un libro sobre Inteligencia Artificial es un compendio que posee un conjunto de técnicas aplicadas para diversos casos en donde se necesita que un objeto responda automáticamente a los estímulos que se le presentan en el juego, con esto me di cuenta de que la Inteligencia Artificial no se trata solamente de hacer que un objeto "actúe" inteligentemente sino que es apenas una de las características, existen muchas más y están descritas en su mayoría en este libro.
El libro presenta algoritmos en pseudocódigo para la variedad de casos expuestos, una explicación bastante detallada de este y sus usos en juegos populares, pienso que una sola leída aunque sirve para tener una idea de lo que existe en la inteligencia artificial no es suficiente para dominar el conocimiento y que es necesaria la práctica constante para entender, probablemente sea material como por lo menos para un curso de un año sobre Inteligencia Artificial, también es importante conocer sobre grafos y varios métodos de búsqueda porque son bastante usados en los algoritmos que presentan.
El libro presenta algoritmos en pseudocódigo para la variedad de casos expuestos, una explicación bastante detallada de este y sus usos en juegos populares, pienso que una sola leída aunque sirve para tener una idea de lo que existe en la inteligencia artificial no es suficiente para dominar el conocimiento y que es necesaria la práctica constante para entender, probablemente sea material como por lo menos para un curso de un año sobre Inteligencia Artificial, también es importante conocer sobre grafos y varios métodos de búsqueda porque son bastante usados en los algoritmos que presentan.
August 8, 2025
Websites and github page are not up-to-date with the code examples he’s talking about in the book
Luckily, we do have pseudocode that we can read. Overall, the book is very interesting and clear to students who are new to AI games. many times exemplifying using popular classic games and very easy to understand methods, even a difficult chapter like fuzzy control he can still manage to explain very well.
Luckily, we do have pseudocode that we can read. Overall, the book is very interesting and clear to students who are new to AI games. many times exemplifying using popular classic games and very easy to understand methods, even a difficult chapter like fuzzy control he can still manage to explain very well.
May 20, 2024
I have yet to take any classes on programming - beyond learning Unreal Blueprints for beginners through YouTube tutorials - and this book has helped me understand the how and the why behind what decisions I should make in games I make moving forward.
December 23, 2017
Easy to follow, industry standard AI programming. Recommended!
July 23, 2018
Extremely helpful and very readable .
August 27, 2019
Awesome book that clearly explains a wide range of algorithms for game development. It shows practical examples and gives full pseudo code for reference.
February 3, 2017
Just finished skimming this wonderful book. I say I skimmed it since I read parts of it in detail, whereas I could only eye other parts of it. There were things in it that I knew before and I read them curiously. There were things in it that I knew before and I didn't read them thinking that my versions of concepts were well formed.
There were things in it that I did not know and I read them eagerly. There were things in it that I did not know before and I deferred reading them for a better day.
The writers have done a great job at explaining what goes in developing artificial intelligence (AI) for games. Algorithms for pathfinding, movement, decision making, and strategy are really profound and interesting. Why and when we need each of the feats is also explained pretty well.
However, the reader begins to put everything in context when he reaches the twelfth chapter. Here only realizes in a systematic way that what really goes in developing AI for games. Rest of the earlier stuff begins to make sense.
So the best way to read this book is to skim it up to the twelfth chapter in a first pass. Once you have reached there, you would have to make some connections with the dots. Dots are always connected backward, so start reading it back again, and you will find it quite awe-inspiring.
I call it wonderful because it indeed is quite wonderful. And quite insightful as well!
There were things in it that I did not know and I read them eagerly. There were things in it that I did not know before and I deferred reading them for a better day.
The writers have done a great job at explaining what goes in developing artificial intelligence (AI) for games. Algorithms for pathfinding, movement, decision making, and strategy are really profound and interesting. Why and when we need each of the feats is also explained pretty well.
However, the reader begins to put everything in context when he reaches the twelfth chapter. Here only realizes in a systematic way that what really goes in developing AI for games. Rest of the earlier stuff begins to make sense.
So the best way to read this book is to skim it up to the twelfth chapter in a first pass. Once you have reached there, you would have to make some connections with the dots. Dots are always connected backward, so start reading it back again, and you will find it quite awe-inspiring.
I call it wonderful because it indeed is quite wonderful. And quite insightful as well!
October 21, 2013
Reading this book straight through was a slog; however, when I got to the end and read about the different game genres and their uses of AI I was happy to recognize most of the different techniques by name and to know something about them.
I feel that this book was a worthwhile investment. I feel more confident moving on to other AI books. I also have a reference that I can come back to with confidence should I need it.
I didn't read any of the C++ examples as don't much know C++ and don't particularly want to learn more just yet.
I feel that this book was a worthwhile investment. I feel more confident moving on to other AI books. I also have a reference that I can come back to with confidence should I need it.
I didn't read any of the C++ examples as don't much know C++ and don't particularly want to learn more just yet.
March 26, 2018
This is a large comprehensive book but it doesn't explain difficult things well enough.
February 14, 2015
This is by far one of the most comprehensive books on Practical Artificial Intelligence and I have read many. If you have a strong foundation in programming, this book will take you very far.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews