Namco Bandai Licenses NavPower AI For Afro Samurai

Namco Bandai Games America licensed BabelFlux's middleware package, NavPower, for multiple titles, including its forthcoming multiplatform action game Afro Samurai. Designed to assist with AI motion planning, NavPower features 3D navmesh auto-generation technology, 3D pathfinding, dynamic obstacle avoidance, streaming and more for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC platforms. Afro Samurai is scheduled to release to stores on January 27th for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and will be the first tile published under Namco Bandai's new Surge label, which represents games released from its internal U.S.-based studio and publisher in Santa Clara, California. "Using NavPower AI Middleware allowed us to start content development right away," says Afro Samurai's senior producer Dave Robinson. "The fast navmesh auto-generation required no additional effort from content folks between iterations. Also, it was easy to add our own flavor for gameplay like jumping and wall running using the available hooks."