This paper presents a method for player modeling using gameplay data and neural networks that does not require domain knowledge, and a method of biasing MCTS with such a player model to create Spades playing agents that emulate human play whilst maintaining strong, competitive performance. In collaboration with the developers, we showed in a previous study that the playstyle of human players significantly differed from that of the AI players. AI Factory Spades, currently the top rated Spades game in the Google Play store, uses a variant of MCTS to control AI allies and opponents.

However, the emergent playstyle of agents using MCTS is not necessarily human-like, believable or enjoyable.

N2 - Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) has become a popular solution for game artificial intelligence (AI), capable of creating strong game playing opponents. T1 - Emulating Human Play in a Leading Mobile Card Game

The methods of player modeling and biasing MCTS presented in this study are applied to the commercial codebase of AI Factory Spades, and are transferable to MCTS implementations for discrete-action games where relevant gameplay data are available.', The methods of player modeling and biasing MCTS presented in this study are applied to the commercial codebase of AI Factory Spades, and are transferable to MCTS implementations for discrete-action games where relevant gameplay data are available.Ībstract = 'Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) has become a popular solution for game artificial intelligence (AI), capable of creating strong game playing opponents. These engines are used to develop in-house games as well as licensed as 3rd party applications to other companies.Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) has become a popular solution for game artificial intelligence (AI), capable of creating strong game playing opponents. The company also contracts other engineers from around the world when needed to collaborate on their products remotely.ĪI Factory has created custom engines for use in games, with the primary expertise being turn-based games. An additional branch has since been opened in Birmingham. AI Factory is an independent United Kingdom development company co-founded in 2003 by Jeff Rollason, Dan Orme and Kirstie Berry.Īt the time of its founding, the company operated out of a single location in Pinner (UK), which is now considered the headquarters.

Ai factory spades scoring