# From Chess and Atari to StarCraft and Beyond: How Game AI is Driving the World of AI

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.10433 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.10433/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 24 Feb 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [High-Accuracy Model-Based Reinforcement Learning, a Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.08241/) (2021)
- [Player-AI Interaction: What Neural Network Games Reveal About AI as Play](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.06220/) (2021)
- [LLMs May Not Be Human-Level Players, But They Can Be Testers: Measuring Game Difficulty with LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02829/) (2024)
- [From Gameplay Traces to Game Mechanics: Causal Induction with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.00190/) (2026)
- [Diversity is Strength: Mastering Football Full Game with Interactive Reinforcement Learning of Multiple AIs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.15903/) (2023)
- [Trust the AI, Doubt Yourself: The Effect of Urgency on Self-Confidence in Human-AI Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.07535/) (2026)
- [Learning to Play: Reinforcement Learning and Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.17391/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper reviews the field of Game AI, which not only deals with creating agents that can play a certain game, but also with areas as diverse as creating game content automatically, game analytics, or player modelling. While Game AI was for a long time not very well recognized by the larger scientific community, it has established itself as a research area for developing and testing the most advanced forms of AI algorithms and articles covering advances in mastering video games such as StarCraft 2 and Quake III appear in the most prestigious journals. Because of the growth of the field, a single review cannot cover it completely. Therefore, we put a focus on important recent developments, including that advances in Game AI are starting to be extended to areas outside of games, such as robotics or the synthesis of chemicals. In this article, we review the algorithms and methods that have paved the way for these breakthroughs, report on the other important areas of Game AI research, and also point out exciting directions for the future of Game AI.