A Video Game Based on Elementary Differential Equations

Abstract

In this paper a prey-predator video game is presented. In the video game two predators chase a prey that tries to avoid the capture by the predators and to reach a location in space ( i.e. its “home”). The prey is animated by a human player (using a joypad), the predators are automated players whose behaviour is decided by the video game engine. The purpose of the video game is to show how to use mathematical models to build a simple prey-predator dynamics representing a physical system where the movements of the game actors satisfy Newton’s dynamical principle and the behaviour of the automated players simulates a simple form of intelligence. The game is based on a simple set of ordinary differential equations. These differential equations are used in classical mechanics to describe the dynamics of a set of point masses subject to a force chosen by the human player, elastic forces and friction forces ( i.e . viscous damping). The software that implements the video game is written in C++ and Delphi. The video game can be downloaded from: http://www.ceri.uniroma1.it/ceri/zirilli/w9