nathan, an npc phd

@[email protected]
200 Followers
402 Following
579 Posts
Professional game programmer turned Ph.D. games researcher on Game AI, PCG + Creativity Support Tools. No LLMs. Let's make weird games!
Pronounshe/him/his
Websitehttps://npc.codes
itch.iohttps://npcdev.itch.io/
nathan, an npc phdNov 9
This Wednesday, November 12th, at 11am Eastern, I will be presenting my dissertation defense! Want to know what I've learned from years of collaboration with independent game designers on a tool for implementing NPC behavior? Want to see me propose an alternative vision of participatory research to counter the current "AI" hype and make tools that actually work for our communities of practice? Reply here or DM me for a link to watch!
nathan, an npc phdMar 18, 2024

back on my bullshit (generating infinite dungeons with constraint solving)

well, it's starting to look sort of like a dungeon layout at least...

(tiles by Calciumtrice, https://opengameart.org/content/dungeon-tileset-1, CC-BY-3.0 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

#ProcGen #WFC #GameDev

Dungeon Tileset

Dungeon tileset by Calciumtrice, usable under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.   An original dungeon tileset suited for rogue-likes with 16x16 tiles and a wall height of 32 pixels. The tileset includes walls, ceilings, floors, doors and gates, furniture and containers, characters, monsters and items.

OpenGameArt.org
nathan, an npc phdFeb 23, 2023

I (along with my research collaborators) am now looking to recruit a few game designers for a participatory design study. (For anyone who doesn’t know me, I’m Nathan, a PhD candidate doing research on game AI at Northeastern.)

The designers would discuss and provide insights to assist us in developing a tool to help solo or small-team independent game designers who want to build robust AI for their game, but may not be able to get support from a dedicated AI engineer.

(1/2)

nathan, an npc phdFeb 12, 2023
At long last, I'm attempting to Strike the Earth in #DwarfFortress today! So happy for Tarn + Zach Adams finally getting the acclaim and money they deserve.
nathan, an npc phdAug 10, 2022

Just released a major new version of EvolvingBehavior, v0.2.0!

(A free and open experimental plugin for evolving NPCs in #UnrealEngine - https://evolvingbehavior.npc.codes)

#GameAI

EvolvingBehavior

EvolvingBehavior: A plugin for evolving Behavior Trees in Unreal® Engine.

nathan, an npc phdDec 13, 2021
Late, but I got constraint-based chunks generating and connecting properly in Unreal for #procjam! And perf doesn't seem bad so far, with ~100 chunks of 10x10 tiles each.
nathan, an npc phdDec 11, 2021
My #procjam attempt at constraint-based tilemap generation in Unreal... just might work? Here's one chunk, with collision + pathing - now to try adding more!
nathan, an npc phdNov 29, 2021
Finally making some progress on usability for my constraint-based tileset editor/map generator GroundCollapse: general settings UI, more performant tile navigation + go-to-tile by name or #.
nathan, an npc phdDec 13, 2020

you ever just get unreasonably excited about the command pattern and events? no? just me?

in related news, my tileset editor for procjam now has undo/redo

nathan, an npc phdDec 7, 2020
#procjam progress on a visual tileset editor for my procedural WFC-like terrain generator, GroundCollapse