Have you ever wondered how NPCs and bots in games make decisions? How do they seem to “think” or play strategically—even when there’s no human behind the scenes? In this blog series, we’ll take a deep dive into creating your own AI-powered opponent for a turn-based board game—specifically designed to run inside Discord Activities.

Our goal is to create an opponent for turn-based board games that makes strategic decisions, learns from its experiences, and offers a compelling challenge for players on Discord. In this blog series, we’ll learn how to:

• Design an AI opponent tailored for turn-based games
• Integrate your game into Discord Activities for a seamless player experience
• Host and run your game in the cloud using Amazon EC2

Why Discord Activities?

Discord Activities allow you to launch games directly within voice channels, transforming casual hangouts into interactive gaming experiences. This also gives you immediate access to a large and engaged community, making it easier than ever to share and test your game. It’s a perfect environment for social and gaming experiences.

Designing the AI Opponent for Turn-Based Games

Creating an AI opponent is the focus in this Discord game bot tutorial. The AI should analyze the game state, anticipate player moves, and make strategic decisions. We will use TensorFlow.js to create a lightweight neural network model that can run efficiently in-browser or on the server.

Hosting Your Discord Game Bot on Amazon EC2

To ensure that the Discord game bot is always available, we’re going to be hosting it on Amazon EC2. In the next parts, we will be configuring an EC2 instance, deploying your game backend, and securing your server to handle multiple concurrent players.

Tech Stack

To build our turn-based Discord board game with an AI opponent, we’ll use the following tools:

• React – To handle the game’s UI and Discord Activity embedding
• PlayroomKit – For handling real-time multiplayer sessions inside Discord
• TensorFlow.js – For integrating learning or pattern-based AI
• Amazon EC2 – To host your game server or logic for 24/7 play

Conclusion

There are many tools out there to make games—Unity, Unreal, Godot—but this series is about building intelligent, turn-based opponents inside Discord using web technologies. Whether you’re a web developer, game designer, or hobbyist, this guide is for anyone curious about bringing game AI to life.

By the end of this blog series, you’ll have:

• A fully working turn-based board game in Discord
• An AI opponent that plays smart and adapts to game states
• The knowledge to expand, customize, and improve your AI logic

Next: Build an AI Opponent for Discord Activities – Part 1

References

• https://discord.com/developers/docs/activities/building-an-activity#introduction
• https://docs.joinplayroom.com/components/discord