AI isn't just for players: AI-based authoring tools

Abstract

Game AI research has successfully focused on improving the player experience, creating better tactical and strategic opponents, more convincing non-player characters, better path-finding approaches, and so on. However, as we create richer AI-based experiences for players, we can not forget authors. Human authors must be able to craft game experiences, creating the richness and nuances that make games compelling, while still taking advantage of the generativity and adaptability that is the hallmark of next generation game AI systems. This will require new AI-based authoring support tools. In this talk I will describe the authoring problem, and present a number of authoring support tool projects currently taking place in the Expressive Intelligence Studio at UC Santa Cruz.