Researchers
Kenny Fung
Master's Student, Unity and Angular Development
Kenny is a recent MBA graduate at Wilfrid Laurier University and has a B.A. Honours Psychology from the University of Waterloo. He is currently interested in the field of computer science and is actively contributing to various projects at the HCI Games Group.
Projects
Publications
Year 2019
Rina R. Wehbe,
Giovanni Ribeiro,
Kin Pon Fung,
Lennart E. Nacke, and Edward Lank. 2019. Biologically-Inspired Gameplay: Movement Algorithms for Artificially Intelligent (AI) Non-Player Characters (NPC). In
Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2019. Kingston, ON, Canada. CHCCS.
doi:10.20380/GI2019.28 @inproceedings{Wehbe:2019:10.20380/GI2019.28,
author = {Wehbe, Rina and Riberio, Giovanni and Fung, Kin and Nacke, Lennart and Lank, Edward},
title = {Biologically-Inspired Gameplay: Movement Algorithms for Artificially Intelligent (AI) Non-Player Characters (NPC)},
booktitle = {Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2019},
series = {GI 2019},
year = {2019},
issn = {0713-5424},
isbn = {978-0-9947868-4-5},
location = {Kingston, Ontario},
numpages = {9},
doi = {10.20380/GI2019.28},
publisher = {Canadian Information Processing Society},
keywords = {Games User Research (GUR), Biological Algorithms, Non-player Characters (NPCs), Artifical Intelligence (AI), Movement in Games},
}In computer games, designers frequently leverage biologicallyinspired movement algorithms such as flocking, particle swarm optimization, and firefly algorithms to give players the perception of intelligent behaviour of groups of enemy non-player characters (NPCs). While extensive effort has been expended designing these algorithms, a comparison between biologically inspired algorithms and naive directional algorithms (travel towards the opponent) has yet to be completed. In this paper, we compare the biological algorithms listed above against a naive control algorithm to assess the effect that these algorithms have on various measures of player experience. The results reveal that the Swarming algorithm, followed closely by Flocking, provide the best gaming experience. However, players noted that the firefly algorithm was most salient. An understanding of the strengths of different behavioural algorithms for NPCs will contribute to the design of algorithms that depict more intelligent crowd behaviour in gaming and computer simulations.
