Subspace Reticulum

Subspace Reticulum is a project attempting to further the research and development of the next generation of AI used as agents/NPCs within video games. I'm releasing this as an early preview prototype of what I'm hoping becomes something much bigger.

As it stands, it is a Deathmatch Style 2d Spaceship Shooter. The goal I set for myself with this project was to produce an AI that plays the game, providing as close to a natural human interactive experience as possible. In my opinion, the AI plays the game in a way that feels very different from what you traditionally feel with NPCs in a game. It isn't necessarily good at the game yet, but I think as I continue working, results will improve. The AI in this project is controlled by a 5 layer transformer with positional encoding, trained on data derived from matches I played within the game. The current model pushes the limits of my current hardware, so I have tried to balance everything to maintain decent performance. The model can be scaled up, and does seem to gain a better understanding of the game, making me optimistic that future generations of hardware will enable truly intelligent NPCs within games.

It began as a Python/PyGame project, exploring what I could build with PyTorch. I began building the project as it is now in October 2024, but have been researching and testing much longer than that. I decided to port my PyGame version to MonoGame/C# to distribute easy to play builds of the project. I've built the current iterations on MacOS, but my training is run on Windows. The game runs smoothly on a M2 Mac, so I have built it initially with that in mind. I plan to build for windows but I haven't tested performance  nor looked into running the model on the GPU yet. It seems to run pretty well on Windows.

My inspiration for the project comes from a game I have loved for decades - Subspace Continuum. In recent years, the player base has dwindled, and servers have shut down. The idea of losing the ability to play this game deeply saddens me. It played a huge role in my earlier years, contributed heavily to my interest in game development, and was just overall a genuinely fun time. I wanted to make something that could stand as a bit of an homage to Continuum,  a timeless counterpart that could be easily picked up and played any time the yearning to annihilate n00bs began to itch my soul. It ultimately is a game for me to enjoy, but I would like to share it with the world, offering the opportunity to experience my vision for the future of gaming with transformers.

Controls:

• Arrow Keys [ Left , Right ] - Rotate
• Arrow Keys [ Up, Down ] - Control Thrust
• Tab - Shoot ( Will also stop ship when over safe zone )
• Shift - Speed Boost
• ESC - Quit

Alpha 

0.0.3

• Fixed the safe zone bug. Ships properly deflect damage while safe.
• Added some placeholder sound effects.

0.0.2

• Added background stars
• Made ships filled instead of outlines
• Didn't fix the safe zone bug, which is pretty important, and like, a basic element of the game... it is really easy to fix. 
• Built for Windows.

0.0.1

• Collect the Flag (represented as a circle) to earn points
• Destroy enemy ships with a single shot
• 1 Beautiful hand crafted 150x150 Tile Map to play on
• Bonkers particle effects that definitely make the splodey things cooler
• 7 pretty nifty AI opponents  that almost seems like they know what they're doing

TO-DO / Planned features:

• Add stars to the background
• Fix the bug that makes the safe zones(green areas) not safe at all
• MORE WEAPONS
• Powerups (Speed increase, reduce reload time, stuff like that)
• Continue training AI to make it better at not running into walls
• Continue training AI to make it better at not missing the target
• Visual overhaul
• I guess maybe make a Windows build?