Driving bots with a neuroevolved brain: Screaming Racers

Abstract

The Videogame Industry of today is now just as strong as, and generates similar revenues to the Film Industry. Computer Games are distributed throughout the world and are sold to millions of people. Of the many different types of games, one of the most popular genres is car racing. Developers of this type of game are increasingly improving their Artificial Intelligence Systems so that their virtual drivers can exhibit Human-Level behaviours, and even higher. In this paper we show how these virtual drivers can be generically evolved using Neuroevolution, so obtaining several, distinct driving-bots with an increasing level of performance. These driving-bots can then be used as virtual opponents for different racing games, saving time and money in the evelopment of a realistic AI System. To train our driving-bots and to test their performance we have developed Screaming Racers, a simple car-racing online videogame.