Game/AI Conference

Line-Up Expanded for Vienna Game/AI Conference 2012

Alex J. Champandard — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:32:39 +0000

Expanding from the original line-up of invited talks and keynote speakers including highlights from MAFIA 2, HITMAN: ABSOLUTION and topics such as procedural story generation and dynamic adaptive music, the line-up for the Game/AI Conference 2012 has grown further. Building on top of the innovative indie games previously announced, the event now also features award-winning AAA games too!

NOTE: Don’t miss out on advanced prices; purchase your tickets online now!

The AI in BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY

This year’s winner of the “Best AI in a AAA Game” Award on AiGameDev.com will be featured in a keynote. Tim Hanagan will be presenting some of the processes and methodologies that Rocksteady Games uses to develop its AI. The team is capable of shipping some of the best rated games, with fewer developers than most other AAA teams. Find out how they do it!

Off-Road Racing AI in MOTORSTORM

Kieran D’Archambaud will be presenting the details behind the AI of the MOTORSTORM franchise. The game not only requires mechanical skill for one of three classes of drivers (bikes, cars and trucks) but also higher-level route selection too. Find out how Evolution Studios solved this problem in practice.

Stealth & Tactics in SPEC OPS: THE LINE

In this talk, you’ll find out more technical details about 2K’s latest stealth action game developed by Yager Interactive. Among other things, the game features a behavior tree with an editor custom-developed for the game. Find out how this helped support the development of stealth AI that’s often one of the most challenging in practice.

Scaling-Up Crowds in HITMAN: ABSOLUTION

Listen to Kasper Fauerby explain some of the very latest crowd simulation technology that allowed HITMAN: ABSOLUTION to scale up its dense scenes significantly higher than past games. You’ll hear about locomotion, avoidance, collision detection and other technical details required to support such large groups on screen.

Book Your Tickets Now!

Tickets are available online with prices ranging from 48€ (for students) to 192€. These prices will not be available for long, so be sure to take advantage of them now before it’s too late!

Dynamic Music & Sound in VESSEL by Kieran Lord

Alex J. Champandard — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:41:32 +0000

Curious about dynamic music & sound systems in games? The first few speakers of the Vienna Game/AI Conference 2012, taking place on September 18th and 19th, have been announced. Among them is Kieran Lord, who wrote an AI-driven system for fluid mixing of audio and a dynamic score in the indie hit VESSEL.

Tickets to this year’s conference are now available here, and come with Early Bird Bonuses if you move fast to secure yours. Prices range from €96 to €192 only, with discounts for students.

On VESSEL

VESSEL is an ambitious puzzle platformer set in a unique world where the player has tools to controls liquids. The entire game is very dynamic and open, and required an adaptive audio system to truly capture the fluid aspect of the game. The implementation is done using a control structure similar to a behavior tree, which dynamically decides what sections of the score to play.

About Kieran

Kieran Lord worked at Pandemic in Australia on DESTROY ALL HUMANS 2 and two un-announced AAA titles for consoles. He’s since become an independent developer, not only building his own games and Unity plugins, but also becoming a core contributor on VESSEL.

Most notably, he worked on the dynamic sound/music system as well as gameplay and NPC artificial intelligence. Kieran is now a resident expert at the AiGameDev.com Labs in Austria.

Behind the Scenes

Q: What motivated you to write a dynamic music/sound system for VESSEL?

KL: There’s two answers to that, need and ambition. We needed dynamic sound to go with the simulated fluid and physics. Static sounds in a realistically simulated world just feel ‘wrong’, and would have ruined the experience. As for the music… that was all about ambition. When we started talking about music it was just a question of how should we should make it dynamic, not if it should be dynamic or not. It turned out to be much harder than I had imagined but it adds a huge amount to the game.

Q: What was your most frustrating moment working on that part of VESSEL?

KL: This one’s easy… we had one awful bug. No new sounds would play if the player walked past a certain area on one map of the game (the very first part of the factory). It drove us mad! In the end it turns out that it was a star crossed combination of level & sound design we had accidentally created the perfect conditions for a super-rare bug in the sound API. The joys of a fully dynamic system.

Q: What was your most rewarding moment in developing the dynamic sound/music system in vessel?

KL: Not so easy, we had lots of these. I think the biggest one for me was when we set up our first puzzle music test (using the system we went on to ship with). Playtesters actually didn’t realise the music had changed most of the time… just that somehow they knew they were doing the right thing each time it did.

Q: Why did you decide to make a Unity plugin and what will it be able to do?

KL: There’s two reasons… firstly, Vessel’s music system was built specifically for Vessel… and we had so many great ideas when building the music for Vessel that just didn’t fit with the game. And secondly, I missed the music when I had time to play with Unity again. Out of the box Unity can handle a looping audio clip in the background and after Vessel I just wasn’t content with that anymore.

Find out more about the dynamic audio system behind VESSEL, how you can build your own and extend the concept at the Vienna Game/AI Conference 2012. Tickets are now available, and come with Early Bird bonuses if you move fast! Click here to secure your seat…

Ticket Available & Early Bird Bonuses

Alex J. Champandard — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:58:13 +0000

Conference tickets ~~will be~~ are now available starting April 18th 2012. Details about the awesome early bird BONUSES can be found here at the ticket detail page.
To purchase the ticket, you’ll need the following:

A free INSIDER account on AiGameDev.com, which you can register for in less than 30 seconds.

A credit card, either Visa or Mastercard, to purchase the tickets from our secure store.

You can now purchase tickets together, for example if you want a main conference ticket for both conference days, and a ticket to one or both of the workshops, you can simply add these to your basket and simply checkout.

In 2011, we sold out all our seats with months to go before the conference, and had to upgrade to the biggest amphitheater. This year, there is nothing bigger available so make sure you secure your seat as soon as you can!

Deadline Extension for R&D Posters and Presentations

Alex J. Champandard — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:25:06 +0000

Due to popular demand (and the fact that an AiGameDev.com team member missed the original deadline), we extended the deadline for R&D posters and presentations to April 18th.

As a reminder: You can submit the following R&D material for the conference:

Presentations of 30- to 45-minute. (Deadline extended to April 18th.)

Demo & Poster reception. (Deadline extended to April 18th.)

Microtalks research sessions. (Deadline April 18th.)

Full paper submissions. (Deadline April 18th.)

See the original deadline announcement here .

First Speakers Announced for the Vienna Game/AI Conf. 2012

Alex J. Champandard — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 09:14:50 +0000

The organizers of the Game/AI Conference are very pleased to announce the first wave of speakers for this year’s event, the fifth 5th of its kind, to take place in Vienna, Austria. Over the years the event has built up its reputation as the best conference on the topic of artificial intelligence and game development, and this year’s line-up is set to continue that trend!

NOTE: Don’t miss out on advanced prices; purchase your tickets online now!

Reinforcement Learning and Animation in HITMAN 5

Michael Bütner will present the most exciting animation technology in development at IO Interactive, which was used in HITMAN: ABSOLUTION and is still under development for future titles.

The engine uses reinforcement learning to help with selection and blending of animations, to provide high-quality responsive controllers that outperform traditional systems hand-crafted by animation programmers.

Dynamic Audio & Music Generation in VESSEL

Kieran Lord is an independent developer who contributed to the indie puzzle platforming hit VESSEL. The game features an adaptive audio system to truly capture the fluid nature of the world.

Kieran will show how this is implemented with a behavior tree-like control structure to maintain structure with authorable variations.

» See the speaker spotlight about Kieran.

Interactive Story Generation in Cotillon

Richard Evans, famous for leading the AI development on both BLACK & WHITE and THE SIMS 3, will present his most recent innovative project called COTILLON, recently acquired by Linden Labs.

The game features interactive story generation, inspired by Pride & Prejudice, which users can interact with on mobile platforms like the iPad.

City & Pedestrian Simulation in MAFIA 2

Jan Kratochvil is a Lead Programmer at 2K Czek, and will present the key challenges of building a large city simulation of pedestrians in MAFIA 2, an open-world game with rich interactions. You’ll find out the challenges in AI design and implementation on modern consoles.

Book Your Tickets Now!

Tickets are available online with prices ranging from 48€ (for students) to 192€. These prices will not be available for long, so be sure to take advantage of them now before it’s too late!

Call for Proposals Now Open!

Alex J. Champandard — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:19:59 +0000

The Game/AI Conference has become the world’s leading event dedicated to artificial intelligence in video games. It’s also one of the most friendly and passionate game development communities you’ll find. In total, over the past two years, almost a thousand programmers and designers have travelled to our Paris event from the world’s leading studios — including Guerrilla Games / Sony, Ubisoft, IO Interactive, Avalanche / Square Enix, Crytek, People Can Fly / Epic, Eden Games, DICE / Electronic Arts, Black Rock Studio / Disney, and the major AI middleware companies such as PathEngine, Havok and Autodesk…

The content of the conference is predominantly industry focused, but also includes innovative and interesting research and development when applicable. It’s split into the following two categories (click for details):

Industry Applications Category

Research & Development Category

Whether you’re working in the trenches of the games industry or doing research and development, what better place to share your work? If you think you have something to contribute, we’d love to hear from you! The conference is a single track event held in one large amphitheatre during two days at the University of Vienna.

Feel free to submit proposals in either of these two following categories by visiting the submissions page or contacting us directly at the following email address: at AiGameDev.com>.
R&D Category Submission Alex J. Champandard — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:19:07 +0000 The Game/AI Conference is primarily an industry conference, but has a history of bringing innovative ideas from academia to the doorstep of industry and giving researchers the opportunity present applicable techniques. For 2012, we’re most interested in reviews of entire fields of research as applicable in practice to game development, demos and presentations of innovative yet promising technology applied to games. You can submit the following for the conference: Presentations of 30- to 45-minute. (Deadline extended to April 18th.) Demo & Poster reception. (Deadline extended to April 18th.) Microtalks research sessions. (Deadline April 18th.) Full paper submissions. (Deadline April 18th.) As an example, 2010 featured presentations from Ken Perlin of New York University and Bruce Blumberg, famous for his work at the MIT Media Lab, and 2011′s line-up included talks by researchers at the Expressive Intelligence Studio at UCSC (about their work on PROM WEEK) and comprehensive reviews (of data-mining and procedural generation) from professors at the ITU in Copenhagen. 1. Presentations and Demos Deadline on March 18th. If you’d like to present a talk or poster, or demonstrate a project at the Vienna Game/AI Conference 2012, then you can submit your extended abstracts via the submissions page. Once that’s done, here’s how things will proceed: Phase 1 — Initial review by the Advisory Board. This is the first pass filter, and we’ll be looking for basic elements like practical understanding of the problem, knowledge of current implementations, and the risk/benefits of your proposed solution compared to other approaches. Phase 2 — The first review is preliminary and intended to evaluate the research direction overall, and filter out the submissions less relevant for our industry audience. In the second phase, we’ll pick some industry developers who have relevant experience and ask them for their thoughts on your project. Phase 3 — If the reviewers are keen to see your project presented in Vienna, we’ll get back to you and ask you for more details about the presentation content. The Advisory Board will let you know which format fits best (presentation or poster/demo) and iterate over the content with you. The review process for talks is much more of a dialog than other conferences, we’ll give you more feedback and iterate over the content with you if we feel it fits. It’s a great way for you to get a review from developers with industry experience. 2. Research Papers Deadline on April 18th. By popular demand, the Game/AI Conference 2012 will be accepting papers too! These will be peer reviewed and disseminated at the conference and via AiGameDev.com. Combined together, the site and the conference are the largest and most influential platform for artificial intelligence in games. Based on 2011 statistics, the acceptance rate is also expected to be around 15%. Here’s the procedure: Phase 1 — If you’d like early feedback about your paper, submit 1-page extended abstracts for initial review by the Advisory Board. This is recommended to provide direction for the full paper itself, and increase the chances of it being accepted. (Deadline March 18th.) Phase 2 — You can submit your full paper by email to at AiGameDev.com>. Your paper will be reviewed by your peers in the games industry and academia, as appropriate. (Deadline April 18th.) Phase 3 — Once your paper is accepted, you’ll have a month to make the necessary changes suggested both by the reviewers, as well as the editors. This will assure that your paper hits its target audience as you intend. (Deadline May 18th.) If accepted, your paper automatically qualifies you for the R&D micro-talk session that will take place during the Vienna Game/AI Conference 2012. » The deadline for Phase 1 of the Research & Development Category is March 18th, 2012. Visit the submissions page for details. Industry Category Submission Alex J. Champandard — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:19:50 +0000 The 2012 edition of the Game/AI Conference remains focused on practical applications of AI in the games industry. Less hype, more results! This year, the official theme of the conference is AI for Everyone, as increasingly sophisticated and interesting AI is making its way to even wider audiences than before, via free-to-play, mobile and browser games. Of course the conference will continue its focus on cutting-edge AAA games as well, but the line is becoming more and more blurred. We welcome submissions for presentations about AI techniques used in commercial games, ranging from independent games to AAA titles. Post-mortems and technology specific tutorials about R&D are also more than welcome, as well as participation for discussions and panels. Historically, sessions at the Game/AI Conference have been balanced between design and technology, and both are of course welcome in 2012. Possible formats for talks include: 45- to 60-minute game presentations. Topic-specific tutorials or micro-talks. As a speaker, you get the following complimentary benefits: PREMIUM Membership to AiGameDev.com. Speaker Pass for the Conference itself! All submissions are given feedback, whether or not they are accepted — as well as a little surprise for taking the time to submit! If your submission is approved by the Advisory Board, you’ll be informed about the next steps by emails and the team will work with you to make sure you deliver a talk you can be proud of. » The deadline for the Industry Category is now May 18th, 2012. Send an email to at AiGameDev.com> to submit your proposal! Dates Announced for Vienna 2012: Join us Sept. 18-19! Alex J. Champandard — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:54:00 +0000 As announced during and after the event this year, the next edition of the Game/AI Conference will be held in beautiful Vienna, Austria. The dates are now official, and you can book your tickets for September 18th to 19th, along with a standalone workshop on the 17th. The venue this year will be the University of Vienna, and it’s prestigious facilities near the 1st District. It’s not only the ideal location for a conference, but you can easily drop into the town center for lunch or coffee if you want variety in your networking opportunities! Full details about the venue and the initial program will be announced in 2012. Stay tuned to the mailing list for more details: First Name * Email Address * Visual Effects Techniques for Crowd Shaping Alex J. Champandard — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:41:42 +0000 Presenter: Clodéric Mars Type: Presentation Time & Date: 10:00, Friday 24th. Duration: 30m Description: Making realistic looking crowds involves more than just picking an algorithm. How can designers and artists craft the overall behavior of the crowd and what tools should they use to do that? Take Away: Find out what techniques you learn from the latest VFX toolchains used in films, and how their user interfaces can help create better looking crowds in games. Find out about the techniques behind Golaem’s new crowd product!