The idea of making an AI – driven game comes from a simple idea: What if the enemy knows how I beat him before. It gives the enemy AI ability to read the past, so you can call it a meta game as well.

In many AI related games, there are ways for players to cheat. Like in a stealth game, player can walk to some soldiers’ back without being noticed. And a ‘good’ game AI must explain all the time what will they do next to give players enough information. That is not fair with the AI.

The goal of this game is quite simple – beat the enemy certain times. There will be only one scene and one enemy to kill. Seem easy enough? Except that the enemy will know what method you have used so far which means player cannot beat him with the same method twice. That gives a little advantages to the AI.

Also, if possible, the dialogue between AI and player can also be an enjoyable part of the game. Maybe in the end they will become friends rather than stay hostile.

The brief story of the game will be like this: a strange doctor is building a time machine/space ship which can travel through time. And player will act as a brave soldier to stop him, because the world in the future have been destroyed by the machine.

So in developing the idea of this game, a clear scene occurs to my mind: nerdy doctor like Rick in Rick and Morty, messy lab which will give player many items and weapons to use, a time machine. These elements combined will grant creative player ways to beat the boss.

Looking back, I always thought of a scene in the game first rather than mechanics. So sometimes I get extremely frustrated when realizing that I may not be able to rebuild the scene due to lack of certain art assets or programming skills. As an indie developer, I think it is the best to develop your game from game mechanics instead of fancy scenes. In that case, the cost will be acceptable and tasks will be easier.

And in this term’s development, I will try to follow my course mates’ habit – stick to the plan of timeline. Use Trello or other software to record problems, thoughts and maybe possible innovations and further plans.

But let us hope that this simple idea will grow into a complete game.