Autodesk, the San Rafael, California based middleware company, announced the acquisition of certain technology -related assets and hired individuals associated with GRIP Entertainment, a privately-held artificial intelligence (AI) game middleware company based in Montreal. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
GRIP develops two middleware products for game development: GRIP Character Control System and GRIP Digital Extra System. The Character Control System is an implementation of behavior trees, which controls NPC actions, while the Digital Extra System allows the creation and management of large numbers of NPCs in a game. GRIP Entertainment co-founders, Dr. Paul A. Kruszewski and Aaron Davey, along with all developers currently working on the GRIP technology will join Autodesk.
The acquisition fits into Autodesk's lineup of game-related production software, including their Kynapse middleware that deals with pathfinding and environmental perception. Autodesk announced back at GDC 2011 that they were trying to link together various pieces of software into what they call Project Skyline, which helps in the entire workflow of creation and animation of characters. Autodesk's 3DS Max and Maya 3D creation and animation software are already used extensively in the game industry, and Autodesk is looking to provide a full suite of additional tools to help with AI programming and animation of the 3D characters their other tools create.
“The acquisition accelerates Autodesk’s strategy to offer a more complete, simplified solution for the creation of believable interactive characters,” said Marc Stevens, Autodesk vice president, Games. “The technology and expertise acquired complement Autodesk’s existing Gameware offerings, including Autodesk Kynapse artificial intelligence middleware. This transaction will enable us to offer game developers a more comprehensive AI solution.”
More information about the acquisition is available on the new Autodesk Gameware website.
