A.I. Wars: The Insect Mind

The game allows the player to program the artificial intelligence of a robotic insect like war machines called 'Cybugs'. Cybugs have their own programming language called 'CAICL' and editor. The language is similar to BASIC and allows the player to start with simple commands such as 'move forward' or 'launch missile', and graduate up to advanced mathematical scanning options too complex to describe here. Cybugs have shields, mines, missiles, guns, grenades, energy discharges, and all sorts of devices such as scanners, communications, cloaking, and self destruct. They have to manage resources such as ammo, fuel consumption, and heat.

Once the player has created (or downloaded) a favorite Cybug, the player may then place them into the 2D or 3D battle simulator and watch how they behave against other Cybugs as they play out the player' strategies in real time. Cybugs have many weapons, scan, movement, defensive and attack options to choose from. The battlefields have features such as strategy nodes and flags for replenishing ammo and fuel during the battle. Once a battle is complete, the player is given a full printable summary describing the blow by blow commentary of what took place on the battlefield along with the individual and team scores. The player also has options to save, trade, and play back recorded battles. Cybugs are encrypted and can be password protected so other players can use them, however are unable to see what the player has done with the code.