14 DAY TRIAL // The fact that Quantic Dream is currently working on an unannounced PlayStation 4 game (or potentially more) is pretty well known, but not much else about what they're up to has been revealed so far.
Thankfully, we can always rely on digging up the info regarding who the studio is hiring to get a general idea of what direction they're veering toward, and today's reveal comes in the form of something that is an often overlooked aspect in games: artificial intelligence.
The studio responsible for Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls is hiring a new artificial intelligence programmer who is supposed to work some magic and "bring the quality of Artificial Intelligence technology beyond the standards of the industry."
According to the job listing, the right man for the job will be responsible for developing enhancements and optimizations necessary for the continued evolution of the studio's Artificial Intelligence engine together with the rest of the R&D department, which sounds like the company is intent on making their Kara PlayStation 3 tech demo into something real.
"You participate in the improvement & extension of artificial intelligence on our Playstation 4 proprietary engine, also ensuring the implementation and monitoring during production. (FSM, path finding, behaviors, avoidance, …)," the listing states, while also pointing out that the future Quantic Dream employee will work closely together with level designers and writers, as well as with animators in order to provide the best solutions for AI locomotion.
The acronym FSM stands for Finite State Machine and represents a mathematical model that is used to define the various states that an entity can be in, as well as providing the necessary conditions for triggering transitions between them.
Although speculation regarding what Quantic Dream is up to can range from creating an actual, emotionally responsive android to aiming to put the wheels in motion towards making Skynet a reality, one thing is for certain: that the studio is further pushing the envelope and evolving their games beyond what the "industry standards" represent.
For now, the studio has been criticized for shipping products that feel more like movies with quick-time events than actual games, and maybe this is their push for a more interactive experience that also factors in player agency.
The good thing is that Sony is apparently continuing their support of Quantic Dream, in spite of the fact that their games don't sell as well as multiplayer shooters do, allowing them to experiment and deliver a richer gaming experience to their consoles.