Programming believable AI characters

Artists can produce amazing concept art and designers can think up compelling gameplay loops, but videogames never make it out of the conceptual phase without talented programmers constructing the underlying logic.

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Their work is often invisible-a line of code that makes a character's jump or car's drift feel perfect-but one place a programmer's work gets to shine is in the non-player characters that populate a world. Programming believable behaviors into friendly NPCs or hostile creatures is crucial to the player believing the virtual world they're inhabiting.

A recent example of great AI programming is Arc Raiders, the hit 2025 extraction shooter that attracted millions of players through its unique PvPvE format.

Players can optionally fight each other on its large maps, but they're encouraged to band together because of the presence of Arc-a fleet of mysterious robots that roam the planet's surface.