Games

This paper presents the preliminary results of a Summer Game Development Camp to improve perceptions and persistence of under-represented minorities in computer science (CS). The focus of the camp was to measure changes in the perceptions of and persistence with CS in girls aged between 9 and 11 years old. The game development camp consisted of four days of practical lessons on programming and game development. The camp concluded with a game jam on the final day.

We propose a game development framework capable of governing the behavior of complementary companions in a video game. A “complementary” action is contrasted with a mimicking action and is defined as any action by a friendly non-player character that furthers the player’s strategy. This is determined through a combination of both player-action and game-state prediction processes while allowing the AI companion to experiment. We determine the location of interest for companion actions based on a dynamic set of regions customized to the individual player.

We present this event report and discussion on the SLO Hacks “local hack day”, a 12 hour free-format hackathon held on December 2, 2017 at the Campus of California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). A first of its kind for our community, the event presents unique challenges and opportunities. SLO Hacks, an entirely student run volunteer organization, has mobilized to overcome institutional, logistical and educational challenges in order to enable hackathon events at Cal Poly.

We explore fully autonomous companion characters within the context of Real Time Strategy games. Non-player Characters that are controlled by Artificial Intelligence to some degree, have been a feature of Role Playing games for decades. RTS games rarely have a player avatar, and thus no real companions. The universe of RTS games where both an avatar and a companion character exist is small. Most friendly RTS units are semi autonomous at best, requiring player micromanagement of their behavior.