© 2004 team bondi pty. ltd. interactive drama – dynamic dialogue and sandbox worlds / agdc
TRANSCRIPT
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
Jason HutchensAI Team Lead – Team Bondi
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
Interactive DramaDynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
ABOUT ME
Research in Grammatical Inference and Data Compression.
Worked at Lionhead Studios on Black & White.
Former “Chief Scientist” of Artificial Intelligence Inc. in Israel.
Recently joined Team Bondi as AI Team Lead.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
BLACK & WHITE
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
SCOPE
No State Machines, Scripting, A* or Flocking.
Use AI to create a dramatic experience for the player.
What can be achieved on Sony's next-gen console?
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
A contentious term. Slippery to define
Turing un-asked the question “what is intelligence” via his Test.
We're specifically interested in behaviour that appears intelligent.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
INFORMATION THEORY
Intelligent behaviour is unpredictable yet relevant.
Eliminate randomness and repetition – maintain reasonable surprise.
Behaviourism predicts the “slot machine” phenomenon.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
EXAMPLE
Stochastic language models generate unpredictable sentences:
MegaHAL: WITHIN MY PENGUIN LIES A TORRID STORY OF HATE AND LOVE.
Keyword-based generation helps to make them relevant.
User: In 1793 the french king was executed.
MegaHAL: HA HA! CORRECT. ALTHOUGH, EXECUTED HAS MULTIPLE MEANINGS.
Users talk to this thing for hours on end, and respond emotionally.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
SANDBOX WORLDS
Graphics got fast and detailed, so players wanted more interaction.
Physics improved, and is now practically mandatory.
It's fun to “muck around” within these “sandbox worlds”.
AI required to populate the world with believable characters.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
INTERACTIVE DRAMA
All the world's a stage – add a compelling story to the mix.
Façade, by Mateas and Stern, is an example (InteractiveStory.net).
Dialogue is a necessary component.
AI required to present the story, and process the dialogue.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
AUDIENCE OR PROTAGONIST?
Cut-scenes are non-interactive and quickly become repetitive.
Sandbox worlds lack dramatic tension.
Rather than “being” the protagonist, the player may “act” in their role.
AI required to interpret player action with respect to its context.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
GAME AI
Typically, only 5% of resources spent on AI.
We'll soon have the power of a desktop PC of the early 1990's.
Create a compelling experience on such technology.
We need to look beyond the search-and-optimise of GOFAI.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
SUMMARY
AI is required to populate the world with believable characters.
AI is required to present the story.
AI is required to process the dialogue.
AI is required to interpret player action.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
THE CHALLENGE
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
ARCHITECTURE
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
PLAYER MODEL
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
PLAYER MODEL
Requirement: Interpret player action.
Goal: Balance player freedom with narrative consistency.
Goal: Enable cinematic presentation of gameplay sequences.
Abstracted commands – context provided by story, world and subject.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
DIALOGUE ENGINE
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
DIALOGUE ENGINE
Requirement: Process the dialogue.
Goal: Ubiquitous, believable conversations.
Voice acting, localisation and input devices limit the possibilities.
Move beyond menu-based conversation and “taunts”.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
DIALOGUE ENGINE
Adopt Mann's “Dialogue Macrogame Theory”.
A conversation is a sequence of short dialogue games.
Players take turns speaking, and negotiate game entry and exit.
Dialogue Engine moderates the games, and issues potential actions.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
DRAMA MANAGER
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
DRAMA MANAGER
Requirement: Present the story.
Goal: Select a story thread and direct other components.
Provide potential dialogue games to the Dialogue Engine.
Constrain the behaviour of the Player Model and the Cast.
Inform the Camera, etc.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
STORY ENGINE
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
STORY ENGINE
Requirement: Present the story.
Goal: Provide potential story threads to the Drama Manager.
Story threads specify cast, dialogue, locations, props, etc.
Story Engine selects relevant story threads opportunistically.
Each thread is a network of potential dramatic moments, or “beats”.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
CAST MANAGER
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
CAST MANAGER
Requirement: Populate the world with believable characters.
Goal: A world of 1.5 million inhabitants.
Goal: Embodied, autonomous, reactive and conversational NPCs.
“Extras” provide background, and ad lib when necessary.
“Heroes” participate in the overarching story.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
CAST MANAGER
NPCs have personality, emotion and a hierarchy of relationships.
Extras are spawned at “random”, according to demographics.
Extras behave reactively, foraging the environment and exiting ASAP.
Heroes are hand-crafted, and inhabit the world persistently.
Heroes behave deliberatively, as specified by story and routine.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
WORLD MODEL
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
WORLD MODEL
Provide world knowledge to Story Engine and Cast Manager.
Manage non-story events that occur throughout the world.
Provide appropriate dialogue games for talking about them.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
WORLD MODEL
Adopt Milgram's “Six Degrees of Separation”.
A “grapevine” extends from the NPC to an item of world knowledge.
Probability of existence may be estimated.
Each NPC appears to have their own knowledge of the world.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC
CONCLUSION
Suspension of disbelief requires believable worlds.
Technology only worth using if it enhances the player's experience.
We have the resources to build an AI team to achieve them.
And the opportunity to create a groundbreaking, immersive game.
© 2004 Team Bondi Pty. Ltd.Interactive Drama – Dynamic Dialogue and Sandbox Worlds / AGDC