Project #5 :: Artificial Companion(s)

Watch a little group of bots float around, and see if you can keep them alive by feeding them or nudging them towards food. Spawn more food or bots via the interface in the bottom left. The bots have 3 simple needs to manage: energy, hunger, and sleep, each with their own downsides when they get too low. A bot low on energy will fall asleep, not waking up (even if they'd die of starvation) until their energy hits 100, unless the player nudges them. A bot that's too low on social gets lonely, and will wander around aimlessly and ignore the map's colliders, floating away to their deaths unless interacted with beforehand. Finally, a bot that hasn't found food recently will die of starvation.

Reflection

I've always loved simulation games like the Sims and SimAnt, so creating a group of mostly autonomous AIs is something I've wanted to try doing for a very long time. In the end I'm not sure how well they qualify for the I part of AI, but I learned a lot and hope I can take some of those lessons into future projects.