Developers
Browsing this site you might have wondered who the people are behind this project. This is the place where we will tell you about ourself.
Andi Hotz
hotzst – Project initiator
I am a software engineer from Switzerland, developing Java based software for embedded systems and occasionally web application based on Java or PHP.
Concerning computer games I favour strategy games mainly from the last millenium (or at least it’s last decade). This genre of computer game has not seen much change since then, besides the obvious fact that the visual complexity increased resulting in a better gamer experience. To me such games are far more than entertainment: They represent the result of a social/economical behaviour study. All these games contain a part that is controlled by the computer. A entertaining/interesting/thrilling game encompasses that such an artificial intelligence (AI) matches the human behaviour as good as is possible. There are two (or possible more) way to study behaviour:
- Take some rats and put them to the test and observe.
- Define some behavioural parameters and implement them in a mobile agent and observe (that is how artificial intelligence is explored)
This project is based on the second premises. OpenSource does not only encompass the bits and bytes that make up the source code of this project, but also the ideas and knowledge that lead to it. To me it is almost as important to get the result than to achieve it.
In my professional career I probably will never program a computer game, never the less I am interested in understanding, how such a thing works. Not so long ago someone pointed out to me that no one in their right mind would create a computer game based on Java. However it has been done. Furthermore this premises might hold for commercial endeavours with a budget and a time limit. I expect there are a lot of Java developers out there, who would like to create a computer game but are just waiting for the opportunity.