On Friday March 16, I gave a talk at the IEEE Patras Games Expo 2012, which was organized by the IEEE Computer Society Student Chapter in collaboration with the IEEE Student Branch of University of Patras.

My talk was related to artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for specifying the behavior of non-player characters (NPCs) in video games. As a quick introduction to the main ideas behind the most common techniques that have been used in commercial video games, I went over three approaches: Finite State Machines (FMSs), Behavior Trees (BTs), and Goal-Oriented Action Planning (GOAP). The intention was to introduce students to the ideas and highlight what I consider to be the past, the present, and the future of techniques for NPC behavior.

The slides of my talk (in Greek) can be found  here. Some examples in the slides are taken from the book Artificial Intelligence for Games by  Ian Millington, and John Funge, an excellent resource for all types of AI methods for game development.