Learn Behavior Trees

Behavior trees are the standard way to structure decision-making for game AI and, increasingly, robotics. These guides teach the concepts from the ground up — and every example can be opened in our free online behavior tree editor, so you can poke at real trees instead of just reading about them.

• What Is a Behavior Tree? A Practical Introduction for Game AI

  Behavior trees explained from scratch: what they are, how ticks, sequences, selectors and decorators work, why games and robots use them, and an interactive editor to try one yourself.

• Sequence, Selector, and Decorator Nodes Explained

  A complete reference to behavior tree node types — sequences, selectors, parallels, memory variants, decorators, conditions and actions — with worked examples you can open in a free online editor.

• Behavior Trees vs Finite State Machines: Which Should You Use?

  An honest comparison of behavior trees and finite state machines for game AI — scalability, reactivity, debugging, performance — with concrete guidance on when each one wins.

• Behavior Trees in Unity: Options, Assets, and How to Choose

  Every way to get behavior trees into Unity in 2026 — Unity Behavior, Behavior Designer, NodeCanvas, open-source libraries, or rolling your own — with honest trade-offs and a design-first workflow.

• Behavior Trees in Unreal Engine: How UE's Built-In System Works

  Unreal Engine ships behavior trees natively. Learn how UE's behavior trees, blackboards, tasks, decorators and services fit together, how UE's model differs from classic BTs, and how to design trees before you build them.

• Behavior Trees in Robotics: BehaviorTree.CPP, ROS 2, and Nav2

  Why robotics adopted behavior trees from games — and how BehaviorTree.CPP, ROS 2, and the Nav2 navigation stack use them today, with the key differences from game-style trees.

• Behavior Tree Examples: 5 Common Game AI Patterns

  Worked behavior tree examples you can open in a free online editor: patrol/chase/attack enemies, guard posts, fleeing at low health, retry loops, and cooldown-gated special attacks.