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This thesis explores the possibility of combining a noise-based terrain generator with a multi-agent system-based citygenerator for use in overworld map generation for games.The resulting artifact is a generator capable of creating awide variety of landscapes and populating them with citiesthat take advantage of available space and resources. Thegenerated noise is used as a height map which is colorizedto form the basis of the terrain. City agents traverse the space, looking for an optimal place to settle within their view. Once they find their final position, each city creates a number of building agents based on the nearby resources. The city agents take each other and the terrain into account when deciding where the buildings shall be placed. Then, road agents connectfirst the houses, then the cities together. Lastly, points ofinterests such as dungeons, bandit camps and wizard towers are placed, their final positions determined in a similar fashion to the city agents. The analysis of the results indicate that the generator is capable of producing novel terrain, and cities that adapt somewhat well to their surroundings, but offer little variety in existing features from map to map. In addition, more control is necessary to implement the artifact into adevelopment workflow. Respondents rated the maps produced by the generator lower than a map from an existing game ,converted into a similar format, and on a similar level as another map, also from an existing game.

[pt] A aplicação de inteligência artificial (IA) em jogos digitais atualmente se encontra sob uma constante necessidade de melhorias, na tentaiva de atender as crescentes demandas dos jogadores por realismo e credibilidade no comportamento dos personagens do universo do jogo. De modo a facilitar o atendimento destas demandas, técnicas e metodologias de engenharia de software vêm sendo utilizadas no desenvolvimento de jogos. No entanto, o uso destas técnicas e a construção de middlewares na área de IA ainda está longe de gerar ferramentas genéricas e flexíveis o suficiente para o uso nesse tipo de aplicação. Outro fator importante é a falta de literatura disponível tratando de propostas relacionadas a esse campo de estudo. Esta dissertação discute o esforço de pesquisa no desenvolvimento de uma arquitetura flexível aplicável a diferentes estilos de jogos, que dê suporte a várias funcionalidades de IA em jogos e sirva com base a introdução de novas técnicas que possam melhorar a jogabilidade. Neste trabalho são apresentadas: questões de projeto de tal sistema e de sua integração com jogos; um estudo sobre a arquitetura de middlewares de IA; uma análise dos poucos exemplos desse tipo de software disponíveis; e um levantamento da literatura disponível. Com base nessa pesquisa, foi realizado o projeto e a implementação da arquitetura de um middleware de IA; também descritos nesse trabalho. Além da implementação propriamente dita, é apresentado um estudo sobre a aplicação de padrões de projeto no contexto do desenvolvimento e evolução de um framework de IA para jogos. / [en] The usage of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in digital games is currently facing a steady need of improvements, so it can cater to players higher and higher expectations that require realism and believability in the game environment and in its characters' behaviours. In order to ease the fulfillment of these goals, software engineering techniques and methodologies have started to be used during game development. However, the use of such techniques and the creation of AI middleware are still far from being a generic and flexible enough tool for developing this kind of application. Another important factor to be mentioned in this discussion is the lack of available literature related to studies in this field. This dissertation discusses the research effort in developing a flexible architecture that can be applied to diferent game styles, provides support for several game AI functionalities and serves as basis for the introduction of more powerful techniques that can improve gameplay and user experience. This work presents: design issues of such system and its integration with games; a study on AI middleware architecture for games; an analysis of the state-of-the-art in the field; and a survey of the available relevant literature. Taking this research as starting point, the design and implementation of the proposed AI middleware architecture was conducted and is also described here. Besides the implementation itself, a study on the use of design patterns in the context of the development and evolution of an AI framework for digital games is also presented.

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