Intrinsically motivated general companion NPCs via Coupled Empowerment Maximisation

Christian Guckelsberger; Christoph Salge; Simon Colton

doi:10.1109/CIG.2016.7860406

Intrinsically motivated general companion NPCs via Coupled Empowerment Maximisation

Christian Guckelsberger, Christoph Salge, Simon Colton

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Non-player characters (NPCs) in games are traditionally hard-coded or dependent on pre-specified goals, and consequently struggle to behave sensibly in ever-changing and possibly unpredictable game worlds. To make them fit for new developments in procedural content generation, we introduce the principle of Coupled Empowerment Maximisation as an intrinsic motivation for game NPCs. We focus on the development of a general game companion, designed to support the player in achieving their goals. We evaluate our approach against three intuitive and abstract companion duties. We develop dedicated scenarios for each duty in a dungeon-crawler game testbed, and provide qualitative evidence that the emergent NPC behaviour fulfils these duties. We argue that this generic approach can speed up NPC AI development, improve automatic game evolution and introduce NPCs to full game-generation systems.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	2016 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 2016)
Editors	Tommy Thompson
Place of Publication	Piscataway NJ USA
Publisher	IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Pages	150-157
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Electronic)	9781509018833, 9781509018826
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/CIG.2016.7860406
Publication status	Published - 2016
Externally published	Yes
Event	IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games 2016 - Santorini, Greece Duration: 20 Sept 2016 → 23 Sept 2016 http://cig16.image.ece.ntua.gr/ieee-cig-2016-proceedings/index.html (Website & Proceedings)

Publication series

Name	IEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games, CIG
Publisher	IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ISSN (Print)	2325-4270
ISSN (Electronic)	2325-4289

Conference

Conference	IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games 2016
Abbreviated title	CIG 2016
Country/Territory	Greece
City	Santorini
Period	20/09/16 → 23/09/16
Internet address	http://cig16.image.ece.ntua.gr/ieee-cig-2016-proceedings/index.html (Website & Proceedings)

Access to Document

10.1109/CIG.2016.7860406

Cite this

Guckelsberger, C., Salge, C., & Colton, S. (2016). Intrinsically motivated general companion NPCs via Coupled Empowerment Maximisation. In T. Thompson (Ed.), 2016 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 2016) (pp. 150-157). Article 7860406 (IEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games, CIG). IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. https://doi.org/10.1109/CIG.2016.7860406

Guckelsberger, Christian ; Salge, Christoph ; Colton, Simon. / Intrinsically motivated general companion NPCs via Coupled Empowerment Maximisation. 2016 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 2016). editor / Tommy Thompson. Piscataway NJ USA : IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2016. pp. 150-157 (IEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games, CIG).

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title = "Intrinsically motivated general companion NPCs via Coupled Empowerment Maximisation",

abstract = "Non-player characters (NPCs) in games are traditionally hard-coded or dependent on pre-specified goals, and consequently struggle to behave sensibly in ever-changing and possibly unpredictable game worlds. To make them fit for new developments in procedural content generation, we introduce the principle of Coupled Empowerment Maximisation as an intrinsic motivation for game NPCs. We focus on the development of a general game companion, designed to support the player in achieving their goals. We evaluate our approach against three intuitive and abstract companion duties. We develop dedicated scenarios for each duty in a dungeon-crawler game testbed, and provide qualitative evidence that the emergent NPC behaviour fulfils these duties. We argue that this generic approach can speed up NPC AI development, improve automatic game evolution and introduce NPCs to full game-generation systems.",

author = "Christian Guckelsberger and Christoph Salge and Simon Colton",

note = "Funding Information: The authors thank Jeremy Gow for helpful comments on an earlier draft. CG is funded by EPSRC grant [EP/L015846/1] (IGGI). CS received funding from the H2020-641321 socSMCs FET Proactive project. SC is funded by ERA Chair Project GRO (621403). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2016 IEEE.; IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games 2016, CIG 2016 ; Conference date: 20-09-2016 Through 23-09-2016",

year = "2016",

doi = "10.1109/CIG.2016.7860406",

language = "English",

series = "IEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games, CIG",

publisher = "IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers",

pages = "150--157",

editor = "Tommy Thompson",

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Guckelsberger, C, Salge, C & Colton, S 2016, Intrinsically motivated general companion NPCs via Coupled Empowerment Maximisation. in T Thompson (ed.), 2016 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 2016)., 7860406, IEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games, CIG, IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Piscataway NJ USA, pp. 150-157, IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games 2016, Santorini, Greece, 20/09/16. https://doi.org/10.1109/CIG.2016.7860406

Intrinsically motivated general companion NPCs via Coupled Empowerment Maximisation. / Guckelsberger, Christian; Salge, Christoph; Colton, Simon.
2016 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 2016). ed. / Tommy Thompson. Piscataway NJ USA: IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2016. p. 150-157 7860406 (IEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games, CIG).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research

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AU - Guckelsberger, Christian

AU - Salge, Christoph

AU - Colton, Simon

N1 - Funding Information: The authors thank Jeremy Gow for helpful comments on an earlier draft. CG is funded by EPSRC grant [EP/L015846/1] (IGGI). CS received funding from the H2020-641321 socSMCs FET Proactive project. SC is funded by ERA Chair Project GRO (621403). Publisher Copyright: © 2016 IEEE.

PY - 2016

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N2 - Non-player characters (NPCs) in games are traditionally hard-coded or dependent on pre-specified goals, and consequently struggle to behave sensibly in ever-changing and possibly unpredictable game worlds. To make them fit for new developments in procedural content generation, we introduce the principle of Coupled Empowerment Maximisation as an intrinsic motivation for game NPCs. We focus on the development of a general game companion, designed to support the player in achieving their goals. We evaluate our approach against three intuitive and abstract companion duties. We develop dedicated scenarios for each duty in a dungeon-crawler game testbed, and provide qualitative evidence that the emergent NPC behaviour fulfils these duties. We argue that this generic approach can speed up NPC AI development, improve automatic game evolution and introduce NPCs to full game-generation systems.

AB - Non-player characters (NPCs) in games are traditionally hard-coded or dependent on pre-specified goals, and consequently struggle to behave sensibly in ever-changing and possibly unpredictable game worlds. To make them fit for new developments in procedural content generation, we introduce the principle of Coupled Empowerment Maximisation as an intrinsic motivation for game NPCs. We focus on the development of a general game companion, designed to support the player in achieving their goals. We evaluate our approach against three intuitive and abstract companion duties. We develop dedicated scenarios for each duty in a dungeon-crawler game testbed, and provide qualitative evidence that the emergent NPC behaviour fulfils these duties. We argue that this generic approach can speed up NPC AI development, improve automatic game evolution and introduce NPCs to full game-generation systems.

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Guckelsberger C, Salge C, Colton S. Intrinsically motivated general companion NPCs via Coupled Empowerment Maximisation. In Thompson T, editor, 2016 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 2016). Piscataway NJ USA: IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. 2016. p. 150-157. 7860406. (IEEE Conference on Computatonal Intelligence and Games, CIG). doi: 10.1109/CIG.2016.7860406

Intrinsically motivated general companion NPCs via Coupled Empowerment Maximisation

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