The effect of visualising NPC pathfinding on player exploration

Abstract

Foregrounding AI behaviour through visualisation is an underexplored but potentially powerful technique for in uencing player behaviour, particularly in terms of sparking the player's curiosity and encouraging them to spend more time exploring the game environment. is paper looks at visualising various methods of enemy NPC path nding in a 3D Metroidvania game. We demonstrate a number of cases where player exploration and player deaths are a ected by either a change in path nding method or by visualising the path nding process. is suggests that the choice of path nding algorithm and the option for this to a ect the visuals of the game are useful considerations for game designers.