'Indiana Jones' (X360/PS3) Uses Behavioral-Simulation Engine

Posted on Thursday, April 27 @ 15:29:34 PDT

LucasArts announced today that Indiana Jones’ first expedition on X360 and PS3 will feature the euphoria behavioral-simulation engine from NaturalMotion Ltd. For the first time ever, euphoria enables interactive characters – from Indiana Jones himself to the foes he pulverizes – to move, act and even think like actual human beings without the limitations of traditional animation.

Characters move and adapt realistically to their given situations on the fly, resulting in a series of experiences and payoffs that will never be the same twice. As one of only two publishers with early access to the technology, LucasArts is well advanced in integrating euphoria into Indiana Jones’ 2007 next-generation adventure.

Imagine a swaying rope bridge. With euphoria in action, characters visibly attempt to balance themselves, their feet stumbling, their arms flailing, and their hands reaching for security as the unpredictable movements of the bridge threaten to send them plummeting to their doom. Perhaps they all survive. Perhaps they all fall. The use of euphoria means the action isn’t scripted – it’s simulated – so you’ll never be able to predict exactly what will happen, no matter how many times you’ve experienced a certain scenario.

“With euphoria, A.I. drives character behaviors so that there’s a different payoff every time. The depth of this character interaction gives us true next-gen gameplay that you simply couldn’t do with earlier generations of hardware,” said Peter Hirschmann, vice president of product development at LucasArts. “We’ve been working with NaturalMotion since 2004 to help bring their groundbreaking technology to games, and there’s no better character to demonstrate it than Indiana Jones.”

“We have big plans for euphoria, and we are absolutely thrilled to be able to show it off in the first next-generation release from LucasArts,” said Torsten Reil, CEO of NaturalMotion. “LucasArts is an excellent partner with a real passion to raise the bar for next-gen games, and we look forward to working with them to apply euphoria technology to its games for years to come.”

LucasArts will demonstrate euphoria in action when it debuts its next-generation Indiana Jones game on May 10-12 at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, CA.