Tommy Thompson's Blog
Dr Tommy Thompson is the director of AI and Games Ltd.: a company dedicated to providing consultancy and bespoke software solutions for artificial intelligence technologies in the video games industry. All in an effort to help studios to refine the designs, tools and architecture required to elevate AI within their games. The company is largely known for it's crowdfunded YouTube series of the same name that explores research and applications of artificial intelligence in video games.
As of 2021, Tommy is an advisor to the GDC AI Summit in an effort to support developers as they showcase their hard work and contributions to the game development community.
Tommy is a part-time lecturer in computer science and researcher in artificial intelligence applications in video games and has authored over 30 academic publications in areas such as artificial general intelligence, machine learning for non-player characters and procedural content generation. Tommy has been an active participant in the academic community for over 15 years as a reviewer and chair for numerous conferences and workshops.
Tommy also develops his own game projects at indie company Table Flip Games,
You can follow Tommy, the AI and Games series and Table Flip Games over on Twitter.
Expert Blogs
Posted by
Tommy Thompson
on Thu, 28 Jan 2021 11:14:00 EST
in
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Indie,
Design,
Programming,
Production,
Console/PC,
Indie,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Indie
2017's dungeon crawler Unexplored pioneered a new approach to procedural dungeon generation, by designing cycles of gameplay that are translated into level designs.
Posted by
Tommy Thompson
on Wed, 09 Dec 2020 10:11:00 EST
in
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Indie,
Design,
Programming,
Production,
Console/PC,
Indie,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Indie
In an exclusive interview with developers at Ubisoft Toronto, we discuss the challenges of making the Legion's 'Play as Anyone' simulation come to life.
Posted by
Tommy Thompson
on Wed, 04 Nov 2020 08:53:00 EST
in
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Indie,
Design,
Programming,
Production,
Console/PC,
Indie,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Indie
How a fuzzy logic system combined with thousands of rules powers the civilian NPCs in Watch Dogs.
Posted by
Tommy Thompson
on Fri, 11 Sep 2020 11:26:00 EDT
in
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Indie,
Design,
Programming,
Production,
Console/PC,
Indie,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Indie
As the game launches on PC, we sit down with developers Awe Interactive find out how AI design and level generation are built to support this rhythm-focussed first-person shooter.
Posted by
Tommy Thompson
on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 05:53:00 EDT
in
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Indie,
Design,
Programming,
Production,
Console/PC,
Indie,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Indie
The most challenging part of development, let's explore the inner workings of Cities: Skylines citizen and traffic systems.
Posted by
Tommy Thompson
on Thu, 30 Jul 2020 11:04:00 EDT
in
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Indie,
Design,
Programming,
Production,
Console/PC,
Indie,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Design,
Programming,
Console/PC,
Indie
The release of Command and Conquer Remastered comes with an added bonus: the release of the source code. So let's dive in and find out how enemy AI works in Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert.
Tommy Thompson's Comments
Comment In:
[Blog - 01/30/2019 - 04:59]
Yeah... I just correct that. ...
Yeah... I just correct that. Didn 't spot it until after I published it, but I appear to have invented a new machine type. Whoops
