Sources of inspiration can be very diverse.
Recently, a specialist from CD Projekt RED spoke at the Game Industry Conference. Senior AI Programmer Maciej Cielmer talked about how they reworked the police in Cyberpunk 2077.
As it turned out, Pac-Man helped. CDPR studied the ghosts in this game and applied a similar approach to the police:
Remember the game Pac-Man, where each ghost had its own tactics for catching the player? We did something similar in our chases. For example, one car might try to reach the player by the shortest route, while another might flank or intercept him at an intersection. In total, we applied seven different strategies for chase cars.
The developer clarified that Pac-Man is one of "many" sources of inspiration. They tried to leave players a way to escape:
We wanted to surround the player with cars chasing him, but at the same time always try to leave at least one "road to freedom" - in fact, a way to escape. However, the situation in Night City, especially during a chase, can be very dynamic, so the word "try" is definitely chosen here not by chance
Many players eventually liked the ideas of the Cyberpunk 2077 developers, and the updated version of the police was praised.
