# Evolving simple programs for playing Atari games

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.05695 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.05695/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 14 Jun 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Evolutionary Reinforcement Learning: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.04150/) (2023)
- [End-to-End Neuro-Symbolic Reinforcement Learning with Textual Explanations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.12451/) (2024)
- [Symbolic Visual Reinforcement Learning: A Scalable Framework with Object-Level Abstraction and Differentiable Expression Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.14849/) (2022)
- [From Code to Play: Benchmarking Program Search for Games Using Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04057/) (2024)
- [Kartezio: Evolutionary Design of Explainable Pipelines for Biomedical Image Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.14762/) (2023)
- [Trustworthy AI for Process Automation on a Chylla-Haase Polymerization Reactor](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.13381/) (2021)
- [Qualitative Differences Between Evolutionary Strategies and Reinforcement Learning Methods for Control of Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.07592/) (2022)
- [Synthesizing Reactive Character Behaviors for Continuous Games via Programmatic Policy Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.24025/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Cartesian Genetic Programming (CGP) has previously shown capabilities in image processing tasks by evolving programs with a function set specialized for computer vision. A similar approach can be applied to Atari playing. Programs are evolved using mixed type CGP with a function set suited for matrix operations, including image processing, but allowing for controller behavior to emerge. While the programs are relatively small, many controllers are competitive with state of the art methods for the Atari benchmark set and require less training time. By evaluating the programs of the best evolved individuals, simple but effective strategies can be found.