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It doesn't matter how intelligent your video game AI is if the player doesn't understand it. One of the simplest and most effective ways to communicate intelligence is to simply have it say out loud what it's thinking – a concept known in game development as "barking."

This may sound pretty silly, but you'll be surprised how effective it is in practice.

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For more information, see the following videos from other developers:

– @PeopleMakeGames interview with Supergiant about Hades' dialogue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwdYL0KFA_U

Also check out these @Gdconf talks:
– Elan Ruskin on Fuzzy Pattern Matching for Dialogues:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAbBID3N64A

– Darren Korb and Greg Kasavin on Hades' dialogue systems:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5KJSAj4afg

– Jason Gregory on contextual dialogue in The Last of Us:
https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020386/A-Context-Aware-Character-Dialog

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Video chapter
[00:00] Introduction
[00:53] Bark Basics
[05:16] Designing for Immersion
[06:50] Barking for NPCs
[10:14] Communicate game status
[14:38] Simple dialogue systems
[18:15] End

The music in this episode is by Teknoaxe:
http://www.teknoaxe.com

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