Managing Game Characters with Artificial Intelligence

Starship Crafter is a starship repair and crafting simulation. The player runs a workshop in space with an open roof, repairs ships, crafts components and builds defences while pirate drones raid the base. Mainstream game engines offer no navigation in three dimensions in real time and no believable enemy behaviour at large scale out of the box, so the raids needed an AI of their own.

The Project

The call "Promoting the development of innovative products or innovative product prototypes by start-ups in the field of GameTech" (02-113-J-0001-J07) of the Innovation Agency Lithuania is funded by the European Union under NextGenerationEU and the New Generation Lithuania plan. MB Rysesoft applied on 30/06/2025, the application was approved on 29/08/2025 and the project (02-113-J-0001-J07-00039) was financed in full, 59,296.65 euros without own contribution. The plan was to complete Starship Crafter by adding the NPC AI system and the final touches, and to end with a fully playable PC game ready for commercial release.

What We Built

The NPC AI was developed with Unity ML-Agents and has four drone types. The Scout enters the workshop, scans the base and sends what it finds to the Leader. The Leader assembles a team that scales to the player's defences, never overpowered and never too weak, and decides when to retreat. Fighters attack the defences and protect the Leader, Guardians put up shields in front of the team. Underneath, the drones rely on 3D volumetric navigation, a formation system, flocking, pathfinding, an AI budget manager, an AI level of detail system and a shared blackboard for talking to each other.

The Result

We delivered everything the application promised. The AI is in the game, and the game was improved with player feedback. The Prologue has been on Steam since 31/07/2026, and the full version comes out on Steam and the Epic Games Store on 27/11/2026. The project took part in GAMEBCN's GameTech accelerator, which lasted twelve weeks, and came first in the programme at the Demo Day in Vilnius. GAMEBCN (Peninsula Corporate Innovation S.L.) committed an investment of 42,000 euros. Before the Prologue came out, PlayWay S.A. offered to publish the game, and MB Rysesoft accepted. The implementation report was submitted on 24/03/2026. Funded by the European Union (NextGenerationEU).