1 A plethora of information
Confused about AI? Get this book! This is a nicely bound reference library with a large variety of techniques and algorithms.
You'll get to read articles written by some of the industries' brightest talent. I keep it next to my desk at all times.
2 Lots of useful tips
It's hard to find good information about game programming and design. The trouble is that people working in the industry have an incentive to keep their techniques secret -- they don't want their competitors to learn them. The people who aren't in the industry can write about games but don't have the experience to back it up.
Game AI Programming Wisdom gives us wisdom from people who have worked on real games. Each section is a short explanation of a particular problem (like pathfinding, tactical reasoning, or pattern recognition). Since they're short and independent, you can pick the section that applies to the problem you're trying to solve and read that without having to read everything in order. However, each section is written by a different person, so if you try to read the book straight through you will be distracted by the change in writing styles and level of detail.
I'm quite glad to see this book. It's actually the first game programming/design book that I purchased. (I'm quite picky when it comes to books. I'm sure Amazon doesn't like that.) Most of the game books I see go into low level programming details. This book teaches you the principles and techniques that will be useful for more than the specific problems they cover.
3 The most complete, the most usefull resource...
This is the best book in my library.
Write by professionals, with usefull techniques and well explained details of almost every cool aspects of AI in the game programming world.
4 A fantastic "a la carte" tool kit
Being in the game development business, I am always on the lookout for new and different tricks, techniques and strategies. When most programmers go to the lectures, panels and roundtables at the Game Developers Conference, we are looking to pick up this same sort of material... we share ideas and approaches - but rarely get the chance to get down to the code details to make it easy for us to implement those ideas into our own work. This book makes that possible.
Along the lines of the other "Gems" series of books, this collection is filled with ACTUAL techniques and code chunks that are used by some of the top professionals in the industry. Just flipping through the list of the contributors to the book is like going around the room at one of the AI roundtables at the GDC... in fact, Steve Woodcock and Neil Kirby are 2 of the "3 AI guys" that RUN those roundtables! (The 3rd being Eric Dybsand who has contributed to the "Gems" series but not this title.)
Many books on game development are informative. This one is actually USEFULL. I have personally adopted Steve Rabin's source code from the section "Implementing a State Machine Language" into my own game and it has saved me many hours of development and improved the readability and understandability of my code for the rest of the team. Just that section alone has netted at least a 1000:1 return on the cost of this book. Other sections have given me a different approach on how to handle the economic strategy layer that I could have come upon myself... but was able to implement a lot quicker than if I had done it myself. It was definately worth the price.
Are any of these sections worth the purchase price for YOU? I suppose that depends on how much you value you your time. Once you equate the cost of the book to the man hours you save, it's a no brainer!
5 By professionals, for professionals
Published by the same folks who brought you Game Programming Gems (and edited by one of the more prolific AI authors in that series), AI Game Programming Wisdom provides a wealth of real knowledge by actual game programming professionals, not professional authors. As a game programming professional, the number of game programming books that sit on my shelf is fairly small. Most have nothing interesting or meaningful to offer beyond rudimentary descriptions and concepts.
AI Wisdom is definitely a cut above the rest. The topic selection is intelligent and relevant, and the articles are all of a consistent quality and polish. I've already referenced articles several times when writing production code, and several co-workers have borrowed it when they had a particularly tricky problem to solve. This is simply a must-have resource for any professional AI programmer, period. Or, if you're an amateur or hobbyist looking to see the tricks and techniques professionals use, then this is a book you absolutely can't afford to miss.
6 A useful collection of AI game techniques
"Artificial Intelligence" means different things to different people. One useful application is the control of nonplayer characters (NPC) in video games. This is the first book to address this field. Like any collection of papers, it is uneven and does not systematically cover the subject. It should be read in conjunction with a traditional AI text, such as Murphy "Introduction to AI Robotics", Russell and Norvig "Artificial Intelligence: a Modern Approach", Tom Mitchell "Machine Learning" or perhaps Bruce Blumberg's forthcoming "Synthetic Characters".
I teach AI at DigiPen Institute of Technology and made this one of the required books. It is good in showing which techniques are most useful in games and what you need to consider when designing your AI. Some papers are overly general and some are too specific. That's probably unavoidable, but game programmers can pick and choose the most appropriate ideas. Unfortunately, some of the better introductory articles on A*, finite state machines, flocking and fuzzy logic are not in this book but in "Game Programming Gems".
Once you understand the basics of AI, this book can save some major headaches by helping with the selection of an appropriate architecture. The CD has source code to help you get off to a good start. Reading the appropriate articles will let you anticipate problems before they happen and design around them. Professional game programmers will likely find at least one technique that pays back the cost of the book.
7 Browse through it at a book store but don't buy it
I do not understand why people rate these types of "gems books" so well. The articles are really scattered, especially compared to other "gems" style books. Some of them want to hold your hand and guide you through easy code. Others are really abstract and I can't see how they can be applied because the authors didn't really do a good job explaining it. But the majority of articles are just concepts that you could probably figure out after thinking about it for a while if you were given that problem. And there are plenty of filler articles that should really not be here (90% of the scripting chapter).
There are a few good articles in this book like the ones on the pathfinding in Empire Earth and the sections on racecar AI. There are lots of cool material on the cd play around with also.
I would give it more stars if this book was [less money], had at least one really awesome article to justify the price, or talked about something nobody has talked about before (hint: good fighting game AI). I would not buy this book if it wasn't required for a class.
8 Absolutely Indispensable
This book is solid gold and belongs on the shelf of all serious game designers.
Programming an AI for a game is a formidable task. But with the secrets revealed in this book you will have an advanced AI up and running in no time.
Logically arranged, and with copious sample code, this book is a powerful addition to your toolbox.
Get this book. You won't be disappointed
9 Excellent reference, useful for a broad audience
I bought this book because of one particular article on swarm simulations. Once I got the book I was amazed by the breadth of topics and by the quality of the articles. I found myself leafing through the entire book and exploring the CD-ROM.
The book is well written and nicely organized into logical sections. Where space considerations prevented an author from going into great detail, the companion CD-ROM and the list of references gave great opportunities to explore the subject further.
I should also mention that my background is not in gaming, but more in scientific applications and consulting. This book is an excellent reference even for non-gamers. It is sufficiently general in its coverage to allow me to understand the context of each article, and sufficiently detailed that I would feel comfortable implementing any of the algorithms presented.
In all, this is an excellent book that should be equally useful to gaming enthusiasts, programmers, and other technical people looking for a solid reference that covers a number of interesting algorithms, techniques and approaches to some challenging computational problems.
10 Up to date coverage of all things AI. Highly recommended.
Written in the same format as the Game Programming Gems books this book should be the first thing you buy if you're serious about AI. Well written and edited by some of today's most knowledgable AI programmers the topics covered include path planning, race AI, team tactics, finite state machines, scripting etc. The path planning section of the book alone is priceless. I did feel there may have been a little overlap with some of the AI sections in the Game Programming Gems books and one or two pearls of wisdom could have been expanded upon but other than that it was hard to fault the book. Therefore, get it! Read it! Treasure it!
