Jacob Barkai

IPHA - An Open Source Framework for Development of Strategy Games based on Microsoft Technology Jacob Barkai

Professorial Dissertation from the year 2009 in the subject Computer Science - Theory, grade: 90, Tel-Hai Academic College, language: English, abstract: Strategy computer games are nowadays a very popular and exciting genre in the world of computer games. Many succeeding commercial games were developed since the end 1980's and contributed to the growth and interest in computer games in general and strategy games in particular. Games such as Command & Conquer? series (by Westwood and EA Studios), Civilization? series (by Sid Meier), Warcraft? and StarCraft? series (by Blizzard) entered to the computer games' hall of fame, thanks to their inventiveness, artificial intelligence challenge and visual effects that they offer. Almost every strategy computer game was based on the idea of an "electronic board game", a modern brother to the classic, "physical" board games such as chess, checkers, backgammon, hexxagon and more. An interesting issue is the fact that both the classic board games and the modern strategy computer games are sharing many of the key elements that make the players think and act strategically and tactically, according to the development of the game. This issue is the basis for the project, and discussed further in the next pages. It is common to divide strategy games into two main types: "Abstract strategy", where there is "perfect information" regard to the game's state. An example for an "Abstract strategy" is Chess. The other type is "Concrete strategy" where there is "incomplete information" regard to the game's state. This characteristic makes the game more interesting and surprising. An example for such a game is "Stratego". This project aims to serve as an open source code framework, written under Microsoft . NET, for easy creation and expansion of "abstract strategy" games by providing operational artificial intelligence algorithms and well-defined class libraries based on concepts taken from "the game theory" for decision making aspects.