Course Overview

General game players are computer systems able to play strategy games based solely on formal game descriptions supplied at "runtime". (In other words, they don't know the rules until the games start.) Unlike specialized game players, general game players must be able to play games they have never seen, possibly including games that no-one has ever seen. Importantly, general game players cannot rely on algorithms designed in advance for specific games; they must discover the algorithms themselves, with limited computing resources and under strong constraints on time. General game playing success requires intelligence on the part of the *game player* rather than intelligence of the *programmer* of the game player.

General Game Playing (GGP) is an interesting application in its own right. It is intellectually engaging and more than a little fun. But it is much more than that. Success at General Game Playing relies on expertise in formal knowledge representation and reasoning and emphasizes the importance of those technologies in building useful, intelligent systems. More fundamentally, it provides a theoretical framework for analyzing rationality in a way that takes into account problem representation, incompleteness of information, and resource bounds. The upshot is that it raises questions about the nature of intelligence and serves as a laboratory in which to evaluate competing approaches to artificial intelligence.

This course is a hands-on introduction to GGP. Theoretical background is provided through lectures and readings, but the main pedagogical value of the course derives from the use of this theory to create general game playing programs able to perform effectively.

All of the course materials are online here. There are links to lessons, background readings, resources, the Gamemaster competition system, and the course forum. Note that, as you proceed through the online materials, you may occasionally encounter problems. Apologies in advance for this. We are still developing the course. You may get extra credit for reporting such problems (especially if your reports are not especially irate).

There will be ten in-person class sessions. See the table below for a summary of the topics of these sessions and their locations. Note that you are expected to attend all sessions (unless there are extreme extenuating circumstances).

All work in the course must be done in teams; and, except in extreme circumstances, all team members will receive the same grade. Grades for the course will be based on (1) weekly assignments, (2) performance in competitions, and (3) a final report. The majority of the assignments concern the development of a functioning general game playing program. Your program does not need to win competitions to receive a perfect grade; however, it must function correctly and illustrate the lessons of the course. That said, there will be extra credit for especially noteworthy performance in competitions. People who take CS227B tend to immerse themselves in the course and do good work; and, with occasional exceptions, most students receive high grades.

Important note: we use elementary JavaScript in all our examples and software libraries; and, in a departure from the past, we require you to use JavaScript in building your players. JavaScript is quite easy to learn and has the merit of running natively in World Wide Web browsers. If you are unfamiliar with the language, you can learn more by clicking here or here.