Football Evo is a very cool football (Soccer) simulator that uses neural networks to evolve the AI of the teams as they play, slowly turning shaping them from morons that run around in circles to (fairly) highly skilled athletes that knock the ball around the pitch like Pele.
In Football Evo you define the parameters for the neural network AI to work within then watch as they evolve over time. There are a lot of setting that you can choose from, all of which will have differing effects on the success of your little jelly limbed footballers.
The teams play in tournaments, with random mutations of the most successful ones being used to create the next teams. Initially the teams really won’t do much other that run around in circles on the pitch, but as they progress they learn and develop some football skills (depending on the parameters you’ve set). It takes a quite few generations to come up with an AI that has any real talent, but thankfully you can fast forward the progress considerably so that matches are over in a few seconds.
It’s a great concept and it’s oddly satisfying watching as the AI learns and evolves over time (plus the little wobbly limbed footballers are super cute). Look out Barcalcona, your days are numbered when these little guys get their act together!
Controls: Mouse – Point & Click, WASD – Pan Camera, Z/X – Zoom
Available On: Windows, Mac & Linux