Influence Map-based controllers for Ms. PacMan and the ghosts

Abstract

Ms. Pac-Man, one of the classic arcade games has recently gained attention in the field of game AI through the yearly competitions of various kinds held at e.g. CIG. We have implemented an Influence Map-based controller for Ms. Pac-Man as well as for the ghosts within the game. We show that it is able to handle a number of various situations through the interesting behaviors emerging through the interplay of the different maps. It is also significantly better than the previous implementations based on similar techniques, such as potential fields.