RTMM, a real-time variant of the standard minimax algorithm, is presented and its applicability in the context of RTS games is discussed, its strengths and weaknesses are discussed, and it is evaluated in two real- time games.
Game tree search algorithms such as minimax have been used with enormous success in turn-based adversarial games such as Chess or Checkers. However, such algorithms cannot be directly applied to real-time strategy (RTS) games because a number of reasons. For example, minimax assumes a turn-taking game mechanics, not present in RTS games. In this paper we present RTMM, a real-time variant of the standard minimax algorithm, and discuss its applicability in the context of RTS games. We discuss its strengths and weaknesses, and evaluate it in two real-time games.