The Legacy of GoldenEye 007 | Design Dive

Key Takeaways

[Music] hi i'm tommy thompson and welcome to design dive on AI in games where i look at how a IM bank scheme design and vice versa when i look back on the games that i would argue have been prolific in shaping player perceptions of what artificial intelligence can do in games what they're capable of versus how all actually works I always find my way back to Goldeneye sure there are many other games that fit that bill be it theif the dart project half-life black and white halo and fear plus contemporary tales such as Forza alien isolation and shadow of Mordor but Goldeneye really influenced players perceptions of AI behavior even if they weren't really thinking about it now a lot of that isn't don't to how intelligent they actually are but the intentionality of design that enriches the overall experience redefining what we would come to expect of character behavior in games so I'm gonna take a trip back to 1997 and examine what is a bit Goldeneye that is still pervasive in game design today [Music] in 1997 we saw the release of rares Goldeneye double-oh-seven an adaptation of the Pierce Brosnan Bond film released almost two years prior rayar had garnered praise for their work on Nintendo titles such as Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo and had already released two games on the Nintendo 64 killer instinct gold and blast core with Golden Eye originally posited as a launched tale but had gone through a prolonged development cycle it was a first-person shooter on a console and notion in the mid nineties that was still in its infancy what with functional al biet limited ports of doom and Wolfenstein 3d on the snares however the new wave of consoles built for 3d rendering was enabling new titles as well as ports of famous PC games to make their way to consoles Goldeneye was the 4th fps released on the Nintendo 64 where three others brought to market earlier that year acclaims excellent Tarak dinosaur hunter based on the little-known comic-book character from the 1950s during 64 by Midway and a console port of its fantasy FPS hexan by GT interactive note to self I should really do an episode on my doom 64 is just amazing hmm Goldeneye elevated the contemporary first-person shooter on consoles with a greater freedom of movement a variety of weapons and gadgets and a collection of non-player character AI that are hostile to the player or flee when confronted they act in realistic and intelligent ways through nicely refined animations it's something we'd seen kicking off in PC games already but there were very few FPS titles on console that 3d animated characters attacking the player with lovely fluid animations arguably with the lakes of Turlock and codenamed tanka on the PlayStation 1 preceding it well the game established the viability of console shares and even more specifically of local multiplayer on these devices it left behind a legacy in the design of its AI characters and systems that has set the standard for many a shooter to this day so let's walk through some of the more defining traits behind goldeneyes characters and how these influences are still felt today when you consider the AI of goldeneyes non-player characters it's pretty remarkable that it exists in a console game of this age characters navigate around the space to find suitable attack locations flee if they're civilians and non-combat and even move for alarm switches should the player be detected faintly AI such as Natalya Simonova will work with you and attack enemies in proximity their animation systems enables for a variety of dodge and attack stances they respond to nearby gunshots and other characters being killed in proximity plus the number of AI characters visible in-game at once is fairly impressive and doesn't impact the performance too much although Goldeneye and Perfect Dark were prone to the odd framerate drop regardless no well this feature list is what we've come to expect of the modern shooter it's important to contextualize this by the fact that there wasn't really any other game on the market at that time that achieved this doom was still the high-water mark for the FPS experience but the hordes of hell are rather rudimentary in nature the novelty of the gameplay comes not from the level of AI agency but rather that the range of enemy types combined with speed of movement creates a fun speed chess environment for target prioritization and elimination even games that kimo in the same time period such as Tarak dinosaur hunter still prioritize direct assault or standing still while shooting as the primary AI behaviors Goldeneye became more about learning patterns of behavior of knowing when to eliminate enemies as they patrol the route or as they made a move towards cover or attack in the player given the ability to attack through stealth or aggression you could aim to systematically remove enemies in a region or simply go in guns blazing it provided not just depth in the gunplay itself but versatility and ho players can approach each combat segment but that target prioritization still held true enemies could run for the alarm or target your sidekicks thus establishing the boys of escort missions but it was still possible to lose the enemy in the level to hide and wait for alerts to subside this target prioritization extends to silenced weaponry as this allows you the affordance of taking enemies out unnoticed placing greater emphasis on the tactics of selecting enemies that no one on nought as being eliminated it set the standard moving forward and has since been improved upon in many a subsequent release given a lot of these systems aren't as nuanced as players might remember with a lot of the execution dumbed down in an effort to better support an experience on the n64 controller but amazingly parts of it still hold up to contemporary scrutiny for 1997 it's still an amazing feat of design and engineering the stealth elements are later refreshed and expanded upon but one year later with Metal Gear Solid visualizing stealth mechanics in a more amenable and interesting way while theif the dart project crafted the template for pretty much every feature stealth game that wasn't Metal Gear Solid meanwhile the core enemy combat behavior set the stage for the likes of half-life to expand upon it with a similar level of Kaieteur agency but a greater diversity of enemy types that enriches that experience further with halo reinforcing this approach in the coming years intelligent AI behavior aside the thing that really helped elevate all of this is the animation system which is based on a fairly early stage motion capture approach alongside the hit detection system that enabled specific contextual death animations having been shot in the head the chest or even in the family jewels sorry fella animation is critical to a non-player Contras behavior and perceived intelligence given it's the primary method through which the player can really interpret what's going on in their head as mentioned earlier this isn't the first game to employ 3d are assets for a shooter with other games even on the n64 also in that space but as one of them was prominent that era that had a variety of animations that helped not just enrich the experience but more importantly Telegraph enemy behavior it helps identify not just when an enemy is moving into attack but whether they're responding to your behavior aggressively or defensively it adds a lot more contextual information about whether a character presents a threat and again reinforces that prioritization process as one guy is rolling across the floor the other is lightening up a shot while a third is throwing a grenade this gives you space to think but also provides a fun puzzle to try and rock your way out of do you take out the grenade thrower and risk being shot or shoot soldier take a name and dodge the grenade or you know take out the guy rolling and get hit by plus I'd be remiss not to take some Glee in the hip response system built into the enemies a system built from the games our least inspirations in virtue are called given they clearly communicate the effectiveness of your aim the Jew temporarily disabled the enemy or take them out with one head taking a soldier with one shot is very satisfying but also so is shooting them in the junk it's so funny and cannot painful to watch 20 years later never mentioned this already but friendly and cooperative AI truly came to the fore and Goldeneye it's the first fps I can think of where escort missions became more commonplace but also the idea of interacting with characters to move the story forward even from the earliest moments without Trevelyan and facility we see a narrative play out that requires not just interaction with characters but the staging of set pieces that revolve around them Trevelyan supported execution at the hands of autumn of spoiler alert natalya helping hack the golden eyes satellite boris being forced to cooperate under duress the idea that the games agency extends beyond the players interactions limited an artificial though it may be was very much a novelty at the time in many respects this has been supplanted by the likes of cutscenes in what have you given even then goldeneye that some of this for the opening and closing of missions but the idea of body AI was cemented both by goldeneye and of course perfect dark with elvis and then of course saw tremendous growth over the years were the wakes of half-life 2 halo 3 Resident Evil 4 The Last of Us BioShock Infinite and Final Fantasy 15 the name but a few all building on the template the bond put forward the last thing that comes to mind may not be immediately obvious but I would consider Goldeneye one of the earliest examples of systemic design in first-person shooters where by numerous gameplay systems can influence and interact with one another often resulting in unexpected or unintended gameplay to occur this is more largely defined in modern games with ilex of the Far Cry franchise the more recent hitman titles and even the lakes of Legend of Zelda breadth of the wild but Goldeneye also exhibits some of these principles with alarm systems triggering responses in different character types meanwhile procedural destruction referred to by game director Martin Hollis as cinematic realism has souls of screens near those that explored chaining after a small delay with often random and unpredictable results this helps create anarchic experiences that either impede your progress or can be weaponized to fill affect the scope is relatively limited here but even being able to lure enemies to proximity mines and blowing up consoles as enemies enter a room laid the foundation from many a game that followed it you might find some of my arguments a stretch but for so many of the core staples of character behavior in games especially in shooters I always find myself returning to Goldeneye a game that was built in a very organic reactive and somewhat chaotic environment but built something that has not only stood the test of time but set the standard that so many games sought to surpass there are still fundamental gameplay in AI systems established in this game that set the stage as the bare minimum for modern games to accomplish it's sort of like Mario 64 and the fish thing remember that remember that from a couple of years ago yeah okay mmm good good thanks for watching this episode of design dive here on EIN games don't forget like subscribe click bales all that jazz I just want you here sticking around to watch more of my videos getting the chance to revisit Goldeneye was a lot of fun and it wasn't find an episode that patrons voted for it to see on the show speaking of which this show is supported over on patreon with a covert show via undercover channels the Bernard Verna and deep deep deep deep now you may already be furiously typing in the comments Tommy this is good and all but what you didn't do is actually cowhide the AI on Goldeneye works oh all right fine be here next week I'll be back with a brand new case study with assistance from none other the doctor doc himself on the AI of Goldeneye double-oh-seven all right you happy [Music]