Understand your AI Objectives – Most of the AI software on the market focuses on pathfinding and movement, and that’s fine. But if you need something that goes beyond that – something that gives you the ability to create smarter characters with behavioral modeling and game logic design – then your pool of options is limited. For this reason, it’s critical that you understand what you would like to accomplish with your game AI. You need to specify objectives in AI development and then check for software that helps you reach those objectives. If you don't need character behavioral modeling now, but you think you might in the future, then you need to factor that scalability into your purchasing decision.

Platform – Once you understand your objectives, one of the first items to check is which game platform(s) the AI software supports. If you find an AI package you really like, but it doesn’t support the platform you’re developing on, check with the developer of the software package and see if they will port their software to the new platform.

NavMesh Generation – Creating NavMeshes is one of the first steps in the pathfinding process, and also one of the most foundational. To save both time and money, it is important to consider AI software that enables you not only to quickly generate NavMeshes that are optimized for specific game platforms, but that offer you a lot of creative flexibility in the design of your NavMeshes.

Graphical Tools – More and more, AI is falling to game designers to design, which means that AI tools shouldn't require a degree in computer programming and C++ to use. If game designers on your staff are designing all or even part of your AI, then be sure to look at AI software that offers intuitive GUIs, not just code.

Source Code Availability – Source code availability is critical. Without source code, it is impossible to customize an AI package to fit the specific needs of your project or to dig into the code and make changes. Make sure that your AI software comes with source code so that if you need to make changes or add in features, you can.

Support – Most AI middleware includes community support via forums and the like. However, if you have specific questions about the software that can’t be answered in a forum, it is also nice to have dedicated email, phone or onsite support from the experts who developed the software.

That's it for our list. If you have other helpful hints, we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to add your comments below.