Game Learning

+++ Update 10/2020: FutureWorkGBG: Project themes in GBG for students (PDF) +++

c4board

(see also: GBG: General Board Games in CIOP )

Games are of interest to me concerning their strategies and concerning the question whether a computer can learn these strategies just from self-play, without explicitly programming the tactics or performing exhaustive search.

In our research group we study extensively the game “Connect-4” (“Four-in-a-Row”). We were able to develop an agent which learns Connect-4 nearly perfectly just from self-play. Our Java-based Connect-4 Game Playing Framework (C4GPF) is now open-source for interested researchers. Read more…

The long-term goal of our research group is it to transfer these learning strategies to other games as well (2048, dots-and-boxes, go, chess, checkers, Abalone, Sim, …). The related research field is known as General Game Playing (GGP). The aim of GGP is it to develop agents which are able to learn a great variety of games.

The teaching course WPF Spiele + Simulation (in German) gives an introduction to the foundations of simulation, their application in games and in game physics, which deals with realistic kinematics and dynamics for video game worlds.

 

Project members

Samineh Bagheri, M. Sc., TH Köln Markus Thill, M.Sc., TH Köln
Dr. Patrick Koch, TH Köln Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Konen, TH Köln

 

Publications Games

2024

Marcus, Tobias

Untersuchung von stochastischen und nicht-stochastischen Reinforcement-Learning-Algorithmen für Blackjack und Kuhn Poker Masters Thesis

TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences, 2024, (Bachelor thesis).

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2023

Konen, Wolfgang

Towards Learning Rubik's Cube with N-tuple-based Reinforcement Learning Journal Article

In: arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.12167, 2023.

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Seven, Meltem

KI-Agenten im Vergleich: Erfolg von Agenten des Ludii General Game Systems in Partien gegen perfekte oder starke Agenten am Beispiel der Spiele Vier Gewinnt, Nim und Othello Masters Thesis

TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences, 2023, (Bachelor thesis).

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2022

Konen, Wolfgang

The GBG Class Interface Tutorial V2.3: General Board Game Playing and Learning Technical Report

TH Köln 2022.

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Fabig, Niklas

Reinforcement Learning für Standard Operating Procedures einer Atomkraftwerkssimulation Masters Thesis

TH Köln -- University of Applied Sciences, 2022, (Master thesis).

BibTeX

Weitz, Ann

Untersuchung von selbstlernenden Reinforcement Learning Agenten im computergenerierten Spiel Yavalath Masters Thesis

TH Köln -- University of Applied Sciences, 2022, (Bachelor thesis).

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Raycheva, Ralitsa

Reinforcement Learning in Simulationsspielen: Repräsentation von großen Aktions- und Zustandsräumen am Beispiel von Ökolopoly Masters Thesis

TH Köln -- University of Applied Sciences, 2022, (Bachelor thesis).

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Cöln, Julian

KI-Konzepte für das Erlernen nicht-deterministischer Spiele am Beispiel von "EinStein würfelt nicht!" Masters Thesis

TH Köln -- University of Applied Sciences, 2022, (Bachelor thesis).

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Weitz, Ann

Entwicklung einer allgemeinen Schnittstelle zwischen Ludii und dem GBG Framework Technical Report

TH Köln -- University of Applied Sciences 2022, (Praxisprojekt).

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Scheiermann, Johannes; Konen, Wolfgang

AlphaZero-Inspired Game Learning: Faster Training by Using MCTS Only at Test Time Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Games, 2022.

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Scheiermann, Johannes; Konen, Wolfgang

AlphaZero-Inspired Game Learning: Faster Training by Using MCTS Only at Test Time Journal Article

In: arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.13307, 2022, (Preprint of the IEEE ToG 2022 paper).

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2021

Meissner, Simon

Untersuchung des Spiel- und Lernerfolgs künstlicher Intelligenzen für ein nichtdeterministisches Spiel mit imperfekten Informationen: Blackjack in der Game-Learning-Umgebung ’General Board Game’ (GBG) Masters Thesis

TH Köln -- University of Applied Sciences, 2021, (Bachelor thesis).

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Zeh, Tim

Untersuchung von allgemeinen KI-Agenten für das Spiel Poker im General Board Games Framework Masters Thesis

TH Köln -- University of Applied Sciences, 2021, (Master thesis).

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Raycheva, Ralitsa

Erstellung eines Custom Environments in OpenAI Gym für das Spiel Ökolopoly Technical Report

TH Köln -- University of Applied Sciences 2021, (Praxisprojekt).

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Konen, Wolfgang; Bagheri, Samineh

Final adaptation reinforcement learning for N-player games Journal Article

In: arXiv preprint arXiv:2111.14375, 2021.

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2020

Scheiermann, Johannes

AlphaZero-inspirierte KI-Agenten im General Board Game Playing Masters Thesis

TH Köln -- University of Applied Sciences, 2020, (Bachelor thesis).

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Konen, Wolfgang; Bagheri, Samineh

Reinforcement Learning for N-Player Games: The Importance of Final Adaptation Proceedings Article

In: Vasile, Massimiliano; Filipic, Bogdan (Ed.): 9th International Conference on Bioinspired Optimisation Methods and Their Applications (BIOMA) , Bruxelles. Video (15 min) + slides available at https://youtu.be/OcpX7ITeH9w, 2020.

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Konen, Wolfgang

The GBG Class Interface Tutorial V2.2: General Board Game Playing and Learning Technical Report

Research Center CIOP (Computational Intelligence, Optimization and Data Mining), Oct 2020.

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Konen, Wolfgang; Bagheri, Samineh

Final Adaptation Reinforcement Learning for N-Player Games Technical Report

Research Center CIOP (Computational Intelligence, Optimization and Data Mining) 2020.

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Scheiermann, Johannes

Sind (trainierte) General-Purpose-RL-Agenten im Brettspiel Othello stärker als (untrainierte) General-Game-Playing Agenten? Technical Report

TH Köln, Institut für Informatik 2020, (Praxisprojekt).

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2019

Konen, Wolfgang

General Board Game Playing for Education and Research in Generic AI Game Learning Proceedings Article

In: Perez, Diego; Mostaghim, Sanaz; Lucas, Simon (Ed.): IEEE Conference on Games, London, 2019.

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Konen, Wolfgang

The GBG Class Interface Tutorial V2.0: General Board Game Playing and Learning Technical Report

Research Center CIOP (Computational Intelligence, Optimization and Data Mining) 2019.

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Barsnick, Felix

Implementierung und Untersuchung eines Turniersystems für KI-Agenten in Brettspielen Masters Thesis

TH Köln -- University of Applied Sciences, 2019, (Master thesis).

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Cöln, Julian; Dittmar, Yannick

Untersuchung von KI Agenten im Spiel Othello Technical Report

TH Köln, Institut für Informatik 2019.

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2017

Galitzki, Kevin

Selbstlernende Agenten für das skalierbare Spiel Hex: Untersuchung verschiedener KI-Verfahren im GBG-Framework Masters Thesis

TH Köln -- University of Applied Sciences, 2017, (Bachelor thesis).

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Konen, Wolfgang

The GBG Class Interface Tutorial: General Board Game Playing and Learning Technical Report

Research Center CIOP (Computational Intelligence, Optimization and Data Mining) Cologne University of Applied Science, 2017, (e-print published at http://www.gm.fh-koeln.de/ciopwebpub/Kone17a.d/TR-GBG.pdf).

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Kutsch, Johannes

KI-Agenten fur das Spiel 2048: Untersuchung von Lernalgorithmen für nichtdeterministische Spiele Masters Thesis

TH Köln -- University of Applied Sciences, 2017, (Bachelor thesis, 2nd prize in CBC award 2018).

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2016

Bagheri, Samineh; Thill, Markus; Koch, Patrick; Konen, Wolfgang

Online Adaptable Learning Rates for the Game Connect-4 Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 33-42, 2016, (accepted 11/2014).

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2015

Konen, Wolfgang

Reinforcement Learning for Board Games: The Temporal Difference Algorithm Technical Report

Research Center CIOP (Computational Intelligence, Optimization and Data Mining) Cologne University of Applied Sciences, 2015.

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Konen, Wolfgang

Reinforcement Learning für Brettspiele: Der Temporal Difference Algorithmus Technical Report

Research Center CIOP (Computational Intelligence, Optimization and Data Mining) Cologne University of Applied Science, 2015, (Updated version 2015).

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2014

Thill, Markus; Konen, Wolfgang

Connect-4 Game Playing Framework (C4GPF) Miscellaneous

2014.

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Konen, Wolfgang; Koch, Patrick

Adaptation in Nonlinear Learning Models for Nonstationary Tasks Proceedings Article

In: Bartz-Beielstein, T.; Filipic, B. (Ed.): PPSN'2014: 13th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving From Nature, Ljubljana, pp. 292–301, Springer, Heidelberg, 2014.

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Bagheri, Samineh; Thill, Markus; Koch, Patrick; Konen, Wolfgang

Online Adaptable Learning Rates for the Game Connect-4 Technical Report

CIplus no. TR 03/2014, 2014, (Preprint version of the article in IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games, 2016).

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Thill, Markus; Bagheri, Samineh; Koch, Patrick; Konen, Wolfgang

Temporal Difference Learning with Eligibility Traces for the Game Connect-4 Proceedings Article

In: Preuss, Mike; Rudolph, Günther (Ed.): CIG'2014, International Conference on Computational Intelligence in Games, Dortmund, pp. 84 – 91, 2014.

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2012

Thill, Markus; Koch, Patrick; Konen, Wolfgang

Reinforcement learning with n-tuples on the game Connect-4 Proceedings Article

In: Coello Coello, Carlos; Cutello, Vincenzo; others, (Ed.): PPSN'2012: 12th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving From Nature, Taormina, pp. 184–194, Springer, Heidelberg, 2012.

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Thill, Markus

Reinforcement Learning mit N-Tupel-Systemen für Vier Gewinnt Masters Thesis

TH Köln -- University of Applied Sciences, 2012, (Bachelor thesis, 1st prize in Opitz award 2013, Festo award 2012, Ferchau award 2012).

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2011

Konen, Wolfgang

Self-configuration from a Machine-Learning Perspective Technical Report

Research Center CIOP (Computational Intelligence, Optimization and Data Mining) Cologne University of Applied Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering Science, no. 05/11; arXiv: 1105.1951, 2011, ISSN: 2191-365X, (e-print published at http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.1951 and Dagstuhl Preprint Archive, Workshop 11181 "Organic Computing -- Design of Self-Organizing Systems").

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2009

Konen, Wolfgang; Bartz-Beielstein, Thomas

Reinforcement learning for games: failures and successes -- CMA-ES and TDL in comparision Proceedings Article

In: GECCO '09: Proceedings of the 11th Annual Conference Companion on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, pp. 2641–2648, ACM, Montreal, Québec, Canada, 2009.

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Konen, Wolfgang; Bartz-Beielstein, Thomas

Evolutionsstrategien und Reinforcement Learning für strategische Brettspiele Technical Report

Cologne University of Applied Sciences 2009.

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2008

Konen, Wolfgang; Bartz-Beielstein, Thomas

Reinforcement Learning: Insights from Interesting Failures in Parameter Selection Proceedings Article

In: Rudolph, Günter; others, (Ed.): PPSN'2008: 10th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving From Nature, Dortmund, pp. 478–487, Springer, Berlin, 2008.

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Konen, Wolfgang

Reinforcement Learning für Brettspiele: Der Temporal Difference Algorithmus Technical Report

Cologne University of Applied Sciences 2008.

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Konen, Wolfgang; Bartz-Beielstein, Thomas

Reinforcement Learning für strategische Brettspiele Technical Report

Cologne University of Applied Sciences 2008.

Links | BibTeX