[Stardust Colonies]

Games C++ AI

Date: Aug 2014



Technologies used: C++, OpenGL, Boost, Model-View-Controller, PHP, CodeIgniter, MySQL, JavaScript, RESTful Web Services, HTML, CSS, Git

Stardust Colonies is a strategy game in which player-controlled units are aware of and affected by both their own memory and preferences, as well as of their colony's well-being. The game offers a tutorial campaign, as well as randomly-generated maps with randomised objectives.

An innovative approach to the unit AI

Aliens in the game are able to collect resources and breed. To move, they use an obstacle avoidance algorithm for continuous environments that was based on Bourg's and Seeman's work. The units have an inner state which consists of happiness and activity - two variables which are adjusted for each alien based on what it did previously and whether it liked it or not, as well on how well the entire colony does in terms of the amount of stored food and living space.



In Stardust Colonies, each unit is an individual and its behaviour and work performance are affected by its happiness.

Frustrated aliens perform tasks slowly and sometimes disobey the player's orders, but doing their preferred job makes them very efficient. Furthermore, movement of an alien is slowed down if it is tired of frequent travelling of because of its age. Player therefore has to keep a constant eye on all colony members and make sure they stay happy and active. Fuzzy logic is used both for evaluation of a unit's current inner state as well as to adjust its behaviour.

Reception

The game was tested by a number of players who found the individualised behaviour interesting and harder to predict. The Kickstarter and Steam campaigns generated some attention, although the marketing and development had to be paused indefinitely due to my other engagements.

I started developing this game under the name "Alien Farm" as my Undergraduate project. Alien Farm was a great success amongst students and academic staff and was presented on the University's open day in May 2009.

My Roles

I pursued this project in my spare time during my MSc and PhD, and was the sole developer of the game as well as of its website. The game does not use an engine and all code was developed from the ground-up. I created the in-game assets, wrote the campaign story and designed the website. I contracted a freelance artist to develop promotional materials. My responsibilities also included marketing on KickStarter, Steam Greenlight, IndieDB and on other indie development websites.