AI for games

AI development for games

Given the current level of competition in the game development industry, players have become jaded – today, they want more than just beautiful, high-quality graphics and a captivating storyline. They expect realistic character behavior, adaptive level difficulty, and a unique experience with every playthrough.

Intelligent enemies, living NPCs, and gameplay that reacts individually to the player's actions—all this is possible thanks to the use of AI in games.

Artificial intelligence is what makes a title's world truly alive, interactive, and competitive. The Arionis studio team has been developing AI for custom games for many years. Our experts create advanced AI systems that enhance engagement and increase replayability in game development projects, turning them into captivating adventures.

From enemy logic in shooters to autonomous units in strategy games, we know how to make games successful with AI. You can view our latest work in our Portfolio, and discuss your project in more detail here.

Gaming AI and its potential applications

AI is a set of algorithms that govern character behavior and gameplay responses to user actions. It ranges from simple patrol logic to complex systems that adapt to a specific user's story and playstyle. It's a combination of software techniques that create the illusion of awareness in the behavior of software-controlled characters.

In the game development context, artificial intelligence is used to create more realistic AI characters, adapt gameplay, manage combat dynamics, develop storylines, and even create content. AI can adjust game difficulty based on player analysis and offer skill-appropriate challenges. Creating AI for games can also incorporate algorithms from control theory, robotics, computer graphics, and computer science in general.

The use of AI algorithms has a significant impact on gameplay, system requirements, and project budgets. Therefore, approaches to creating game AI differ significantly from those of traditional AI. Emulations and simplifications are widely used to ensure that game AI simultaneously maintains a balance between complexity and performance.

The Benefits of Implementing AI in Games: How AI Works

The use of AI in game development significantly improves their quality and realism. It is used in character design, adaptive scenario modeling, game world generation, and personalized mechanics. Artificial intelligence expands developers' capabilities, accelerating the production, testing, and launch of game development products.

As a result, audiences experience more dynamic, rich, and engaging gameplay. Thus, games with AI characters and other AI-enabled features enhance the user experience, helping to attract and retain audience attention.

What advantages does artificial intelligence provide in the game?

• Dynamic, unique worlds – procedural generation allows you to create endless levels, maps, and events that can be different every time, and this can be done using algorithms and a combination of preset rules, rather than manually.
• Realistic NPCs and personalization – self-learning AI in games adapts to player actions, is able to analyze and respond to them in real time, adapting to the player's play style.
• Optimized balance – data analysis algorithms identify and correct imbalances in gameplay, improving the quality of the final product.
• Automated testing – AI programming reduces the cost of identifying flaws, speeding up the process of detecting and fixing bugs. Thanks to predictive analytics and player behavior analysis, artificial intelligence helps monitor user gaming habits and select the most popular mechanics.
• Animation and Physics Automation – AI in AI games can be used to automatically improve, simplify, and speed up character and environment animation.
• Advanced voice interaction with NPCs – in open-world titles, AI enables natural dialogue with the player, providing deeper immersion, enhancing the user experience and level of engagement.

Before creating AI for a game, it's important to define the project's goals and objectives, as well as its functionality. Arionis experts will help you analyze these aspects and develop a game design during a preliminary consultation. We'll offer an effective AI solution for personalizing the user experience and optimizing costs, creating an adaptive product, and increasing its realism, engagement, and retention.

AI development stages for games: included in the service

To ensure that a gaming AI is smart, engaging for the user, and effective for the project itself, development must include a series of stages—from preparatory analysis to testing and integration into the product.

Developing AI for business is a much more complex process than simply programming character reactions. It involves creating a comprehensive, multi-layered system that permeates the entire gameplay experience.

What it looks like to create AI for games from scratch at Arionis Studio:

Project and niche analysis

At the beginning of our collaboration, the Arionis team conducts a preliminary consultation to clarify the genre, business goals, and specifics of the project. Technical requirements, target audience, platforms, and game mechanics are discussed.

The role of AI in gameplay is assessed separately – whether it will be responsible for enemies/allies, NPCs, training programs, in-game economy, analytics, etc. The level of complexity and types of interaction between the AI and the player are also discussed.

The preliminary analysis clarifies the client's expectations, formulates the technical requirements, and defines the functionality of the future artificial intelligence. A technical specification is also developed, outlining the timeframe and stages of work, technologies, and cost of creating the game's AI, among other things.

Designing behavior logic

Having defined the goals for implementing AI in the game, the team selects the appropriate type of artificial intelligence (decision trees, neural networks, GOAP, finite state machines, etc.). Then, the designers create the architecture:

• behavioral scenarios and reactions to user actions;
• options for interaction with others;
• navigation algorithms;
• opportunities for learning and adaptation

Before creating AI for a game, it is important to consider and balance each of these aspects, aligning them with the rest of the product's functionality and gameplay for harmonious integration.

Prototyping

Once the architecture is agreed upon, Arionis experts create a basic version of the AI:

• implement key functions (patrolling, evasion, attacks, pursuit, etc.);
• testing the logic in the engine in isolation - the prototype is integrated into a test environment or "sandbox" to evaluate how it behaves under different conditions;
• check the AI for compliance with the game design.

As a result, the client receives an MVP – a simplified version of the future product. This initial version of the intelligent system allows for testing key hypotheses and assessing how the AI will interact with the game world. This stage of game AI development helps avoid errors, adjust strategy, and test the viability of the concept in practice, as well as evaluate performance and scalability.

Integration into the game

During the AI integration process, the developed intelligent system is connected to the game's core components to enable full functionality. At this stage, the virtual characters' "minds" begin to interact with their surroundings, players, and gameplay logic.

What work is being performed:

• integration of AI with game objects – the AI begins to “see” the environment, users, make decisions and implement them;
• Setting up interaction with animation and physics – the AI’s behavior is synchronized with animations, physical objects, and events;
• Routing and navigation improvements – AI characters are able to move around the map, avoid obstacles, find optimal paths, and react to the landscape in real time;
• Trigger and event processing – the AI learns to respond to enemy spawns, damage, player and NPC signals, as well as scripted and UI commands.

During the integration process, the performance and frequency of product logic updates are optimized, especially during mass deployments. Arionis specialists then perform tuning and unit testing within the engine to detect bugs and conflicts with other systems—in a real game environment. As a result, the AI operates smoothly, predictably, and efficiently, interacting with logic, physics, and animation without performance drops or crashes.

Testing and balancing

We carefully test and fine-tune the game's AI to ensure its actions are predictable and logical:

• We conduct functional testing of the AI's behavior—its reactions to events, the environment, and the user's actions;
• We search for and fix bugs – it is important to avoid situations in which the AI can violate the logic or rules of the world (get stuck in locations, ignore requests, or act too obviously);
• We balance the difficulty – we adjust the parameters that influence the level of challenges in the game (reaction speed, shooting accuracy, level of aggression, strategic decisions);
• We conduct A/B testing – we compare the reactions of real users and/or focus groups to different versions of AI in the game, selecting the solutions that receive the best response;
• We optimize performance – we test the product for load distribution, the stability of artificial intelligence during mass connections, the absence of lags, drops, and conflicts with various systems;
• We perform logging and analysis – adding tools for collecting data on errors and AI behavior. This allows us to prevent failures and facilitates future scaling of the project.

Optimization

At this stage, the key task is to ensure good performance, stability, and consistency of the artificial intelligence's behavior with real-world gameplay conditions:

• We reduce the load on memory and the processor by optimizing resource-intensive sections of code, simplifying algorithms, and using caching;
• We achieve the highest possible sensitivity and realism – we eliminate delays in AI reactions, ensuring smooth transitions between states;
• We are optimizing navigation by reducing the refresh rate of maps and simplifying routes for minor NPCs;
• We adapt the product to the target platform – we configure the technical parameters of the system, optimizing the AI game for PCs, phones (Android, iOS), and/or consoles, taking into account their limitations.

As a result, the AI behaves as realistically as possible and is less predictable for users, creating the illusion that the characters are conscious of their actions.

Documentation and support

After developing the AI for a game, the Arionis team systematizes the information and technical solutions, and also optimizes the process for further project support, if required:

• We prepare technical documentation – describing the main algorithms, AI architecture, NPC behavior logic, and configuration parameters. The developers also describe methods for connecting, configuring, and modifying modules, documenting all APIs and engine integration points.
• We're creating guidelines for the team on updating and adapting the AI to new game scenarios, adjusting difficulty, balance, and behavior options.
• We outline the terms of technical support and product maintenance (bug fixes, adding new behavior scenarios, adapting AI to engine updates, game content, etc.).

Arionis specialists can also prepare training video demonstrations, step-by-step instructions, and behavioral logic diagrams, as well as provide training to the client's team.

A comprehensive approach to creating AI in games ensures transparency, scalability, and ease of implementation. It also simplifies the integration of AI into a product and its subsequent support, regardless of who provides it.

What is included in the AI development service for games?

We carry out a range of work on developing intelligent behavior for game objects.

Additionally, we can implement adaptive difficulty systems, emotion/character simulation, user interaction through dialogue or training, as well as a game format against AI opponents with team logic.

Tools and technologies

The Arionis team utilizes a wide range of tools and technologies to ensure effective solutions to the project's business challenges in line with audience expectations:

• Game engines and built-in tools – Unity (C#), Unreal Engine (C++/Blueprints), NodeCanvas, Behavior Designer.
• Programming languages – C#, C++, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript.
• Approaches and architectures – FSM (Finite State Machine, Behavior Trees) GOAP (Goal-Oriented Action Planning), Utility AI, ML (machine learning).
• Navigation systems – NavMesh (Unity, Unreal), A Pathfinding Project (Unity) Recast/Detour (C++).
• Frameworks and libraries – TensorFlow, PyTorch, ML-Agents (Unity), OpenAI Gym.
• Third-party plugins – Behavior Designer and NodeCanvas (Unity), Rogo Digital LipSync, Dialogue System.
• Network and cloud technologies – Photon, Mirror (Unity), AWS, Azure, GCP.

A carefully selected technology stack ensures effective implementation of project objectives using artificial intelligence and makes it "smart" within the game. A pool of relevant technologies enables sophisticated state logic, the flexibility of a modular behavior system, the AI's ability to make decisions based on the current situation and the user's playstyle, and realistic movement.

We perform AI programming in Python and other languages. Our specialists will be able to determine the tools and technologies needed for your project after a detailed review of the task.

Where to order AI for the game

Arionis is a studio with extensive experience creating and implementing AI systems in game development projects of various scales, from mobile RPGs to massively multiplayer MMOs. The company provides comprehensive AI development for games from the ground up, integrating them into gameplay.

Our team also works on a project-based basis, through outsourcing and outstaffing, and offers dedicated IT team services. Examples of our latest games can be found at the link. If you're interested in specific genres or platforms for which we've developed games, our manager will be happy to answer all your questions in more detail.

Key benefits of cooperation:

• Deep expertise in game development and AI development for games – we understand the needs of businesses and their audiences, the specifics of genres and target platforms;
• individual approach – we work on each project taking into account the specific features, goals, and specific tasks;
• Structured collaboration – we implement products iteratively, with clear objectives, regular reporting, and adherence to deadlines and budgets.

We provide flexible AI integration for any platform – from mobile arcades to large-scale multiplayer titles. We'll create artificial intelligence that will effectively solve your project's problems and meet audience expectations. Contact us – we'll offer the optimal AI solution for your game.