I programmed some new API functions for the AI scripting language in a popular RTS game once. I think the most tedious part is exposing the game data in an intu

I programmed some new API functions for the AI scripting language in a popular RTS game once. I think the most tedious part is exposing the game data in an intuitive/helpful way for someone in a design role. It's a bit of an odd mix of optimization, computational geometry, and finding the right level of expressiveness. For instance, a designer might say "It'd be great if I could put a tower between myself and the enemy town, but kind of at the border of mine, but only if I don't have enough money for a cool castle and I'm not overwhelmed." There's a lot of fuzzy logic in statements like those. The API between the game and the "AI" usually has to be general enough not to need spatial information, but also specific enough not to do things that feel unintuitive or silly to the player. It's worth noting that machine learning helps avoid a lot of these issues, but I find AI tends to be designed for an feeling or experience, so I'm not sure if things like the Starcraft AI competition bots tend to make better products. Perhaps if ML could make the building blocks for designers to design AI?