For those who might\u00a0think that Game AI might be a difficult topic: Tom made it\u00a0accessible because he knows his stuff. He has a PhD in Computer Science specializing in AI and machine learning. The conversational tone meant that\u00a0we talked through some of the finer points. We stayed clear of getting bogged down in code and focused on topics that matter (such as what is a behavior tree, the A* algorithm, and state machines). I learned a lot about navmeshes, as I have not used them myself.<\/p>\n We talked a bit about finite state machines in Unity and I would recommend checking out Playmaker<\/a> as a solid environment for creating finite state machines. While I was unable to show a demo due to technical issues, Playmaker is quite a capable plugin. One of the best aspects of using behavior trees and FSMs is that you can provide basic tools for designers to design, leaving the hard pathfinding and AI\u00a0problems\u00a0to the programmers.<\/p>\n Next month we will have our meeting on March 29th, and Randall\u00a0will be talking about using the Swift programming language and XCode’s ‘Playgrounds’. Hope to see you then!<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.meetup.com\/Tucson-Indie-Game-Development-Meetup\/events\/229124839\/<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Game_AI_-_Google_Slides\"](\"https:\/\/tgdstaging.enemyhideout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Game_AI_-_Google_Slides-1024x575.png\")
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