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Computer Science Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [computer-games]

52 questions
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Why are some games np-complete?

I read the Wikipedia entry about "List of NP-complete problems" and found that games like super mario, pokemon, tetris or candy crush saga are np-complete. How can I imagine np-completeness of a game? Answers don't need to be too precise. I just…
racc44
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A scoring approach to computer opponents that needs balancing

This question is about an approach to computer opponents that I have created and are either currently being used, or are planned to be used, in several computer games. Background Last year, when trying to improve a computer opponent for a game…
Simon Forsberg
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Algorithms to play randomized game

I'm interested in building an AI algorithm to play a board game. This is a sequential two-player game, where they alternate taking turns, so minimax or alpha-beta algorithms sound natural. However, the twist here is that the game is randomized. …
D.W.
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What data structure might this game use?

This question is not about game development or about actual implementation details. I was playing Little Alchemy yesterday. (Warning: Productivity hazard.) You start with the four classical Elements of earth, air, fire, and water. You can combine…
JesseTG
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Consensus protocols in multiplayer video games

I'm not 100% sure this appropriate for CS. Sorry. I'm looking for prior art on an idea I had, but either my Google fu is lacking, or it genuinely hasn't happened. In distributed systems, there are a number of consensus protocols and implementations…
nfirvine
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Detecting conservation, loss, or gain in a crafting game with items and recipes

Suppose we're designing a game like Minecraft where we have lots of items $i_1,i_2,...,i_n\in I$ and a bunch of recipes $r_1,r_2,...,r_m\in R$. Recipes are functions $r:(I\times\mathbb{N})^n\rightarrow I\times\mathbb{N}$, that is they take some…
flinty
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Algorithms for procedural generated mazes

For the purposes of this question, a maze is a spanning tree on a square grid (although the type of grid isn't super important). There are many Maze generation algorithms, but they only work on a finite grid. What if instead you are working on an…
Christopher King
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Can systems that prevent double-spending (e.g. crypto-currencies) be used to attach other unique data?

The Bitcoin-solution can be described as "[...] a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network. (official Bitcoin paper, PDF, abstract, first page). Now I wonder if a similar technology can be used to collect, send and…
nilshi
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Can Real-Time Strategy games be ever solved?

With the advent of BWAPI, many AI enthusiasts have been making amazing AIs that can compete against top players in Starcraft. This led me to wonder if RTS (Real-Time Strategy) games can ever be solved theoretically. One of my colleague argues no,…
TtT23
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How to validate a connect X game (Tick-Tak-Toe,Gomoku,...)?

Currently I am working on a Gomoku AI (or generally Connect-X games). Implementing the search tree was no problem, but then I got to the point where I had to implement the value function and was surprised how difficult this is to make with a decent…
Miemels
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Why is the video game Braid Turing-complete?

It's written in wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_completeness#Games that the video game Braid is Turing-complete. I've played Braid before but I can hardly reconcile it with Turing completeness. In what sense is it Turing-complete?
dontloo
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Is it possible to "unshift" onto a queue using this theoretical "queue automaton"?

I have been playing Manufactoria, a game in which one has to build a production line that tests/modifies "robots". Each robot has a "tape" where each cell is colored either red, green, blue or yellow. The production line can test/modify a robot by…
jameshfisher
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What could you learn from studying player movement and behaviour on online FPS games?

Just thinking of Counter Strike as a canonical example, if you have a coordinate representation of the map and for every player you have a complete history of everything you might need for every moment of time, say every 10 miliseconds or something…
taylor
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What's the value of this game (rebalancing counters)?

Suppose you have the following game: There are infinitely many counters $\{c_1,c_2,\ldots\}$, all initialized to 0. In each step, you may choose a counter $c_i$ and increase it's value by 1. Unfortunately, every $T$ steps, each counter that has a…
R B
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Playing video games to solve SAT instances

This paper shows that computer games, such as Super Mario, are NP-hard, by reduction from SAT. It may be possible to use this reduction to help solve hard instances of SAT: use the reduction to construct a Super Mario level and let experienced…
Erel Segal-Halevi
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