Optimizing Hearthstone Agents using an Evolutionary Algorithm

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: García-Sánchez, Pablo, Tonda, Alberto, Fernández-Leiva, Antonio J., Cotta, Carlos
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author García-Sánchez, Pablo
Tonda, Alberto
Fernández-Leiva, Antonio J.
Cotta, Carlos
author_facet García-Sánchez, Pablo
Tonda, Alberto
Fernández-Leiva, Antonio J.
Cotta, Carlos
contents Digital collectible card games are not only a growing part of the video game industry, but also an interesting research area for the field of computational intelligence. This game genre allows researchers to deal with hidden information, uncertainty and planning, among other aspects. This paper proposes the use of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) to develop agents who play a card game, Hearthstone, by optimizing a data-driven decision-making mechanism that takes into account all the elements currently in play. Agents feature self-learning by means of a competitive coevolutionary training approach, whereby no external sparring element defined by the user is required for the optimization process. One of the agents developed through the proposed approach was runner-up (best 6%) in an international Hearthstone Artificial Intelligence (AI) competition. Our proposal performed remarkably well, even when it faced state-of-the-art techniques that attempted to take into account future game states, such as Monte-Carlo Tree search. This outcome shows how evolutionary computation could represent a considerable advantage in developing AIs for collectible card games such as Hearthstone.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_19681
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimizing Hearthstone Agents using an Evolutionary Algorithm
García-Sánchez, Pablo
Tonda, Alberto
Fernández-Leiva, Antonio J.
Cotta, Carlos
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Digital collectible card games are not only a growing part of the video game industry, but also an interesting research area for the field of computational intelligence. This game genre allows researchers to deal with hidden information, uncertainty and planning, among other aspects. This paper proposes the use of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) to develop agents who play a card game, Hearthstone, by optimizing a data-driven decision-making mechanism that takes into account all the elements currently in play. Agents feature self-learning by means of a competitive coevolutionary training approach, whereby no external sparring element defined by the user is required for the optimization process. One of the agents developed through the proposed approach was runner-up (best 6%) in an international Hearthstone Artificial Intelligence (AI) competition. Our proposal performed remarkably well, even when it faced state-of-the-art techniques that attempted to take into account future game states, such as Monte-Carlo Tree search. This outcome shows how evolutionary computation could represent a considerable advantage in developing AIs for collectible card games such as Hearthstone.
title Optimizing Hearthstone Agents using an Evolutionary Algorithm
topic Neural and Evolutionary Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.19681