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Procedural Content Generation in the Beginning, There Was Rogue the gamedesigninitiative at cornell university Lecture 15 Procedural Content Generation In the Beginning, There Was Rogue the gamedesigninitiative 2 Procedural Content at cornell university In the Beginning, There Was Rogue Roguelike Genre Classic RPG style Procedural dungeons Permadeath the gamedesigninitiative 3 Procedural Content at cornell university A Brief History of Roguelikes Precursors (1978) Beneath Apple Manor Like Rogue, but less famous Dungeon (unfamous one) Limited content generation Rogue (1980) Multiplatform launch Immediate Copycats All very close in playstyle Hack (‘82), NetHack (‘87) Open source development Moria (‘83), Angband (‘90) Middle Earth themed Island of Kesmai (1985) Massively (~80) multiplayer Legends of Kesmai (1996) But content less procedural The Modern Revival Relaxing RPG requirement the gamedesigninitiative 4 Procedural Content at cornell university Changing Perspectives on Permadeath Advantages Disadvantages Greater challenge Greater discouragement Used as a badge of honor Seen as a personal failure Higher emotional stakes Missed game content Easy to instill fear & horror Cannot progress in story the gamedesigninitiative 5 Procedural Content at cornell university Changing Perspectives on Permadeath Advantages Disadvantages Make dying Greater challengeexpected & Greater discouragement Used as a badgeinevitable of honor Seen as a personal failure Higher emotional stakes Missed game content Make each Easy to instill fear & horror Cannot progress in story session a complete experience the gamedesigninitiative 6 Procedural Content at cornell university Changing Perspectives on Permadeath Advantages Disadvantages Make dying Greater challengeexpected & Greater discouragement Used as a badgeinevitable of honor Seen as a personal failure Higher emotional stakes Missed game content Make each Easy to instill fear & horror Cannot progress in story sessionContent a complete experienceGeneration the gamedesigninitiative 7 Procedural Content at cornell university Issues with Roguelikes Design is often horizontal Many verbs, game elements Little coupled behavior Each play is a slice Access to limited elements Work with what you get “Expensive” to create Requires a lot of content But historically just text Difficult to balance the gamedesigninitiative 8 Procedural Content at cornell university Issues with Roguelikes Design is often horizontal Many verbs, game elements Little coupled behavior Each play is a slice Access to limited elements WorkProcedural with what you Content get for Modern Games? “Expensive” to create Requires a lot of content But historically just text Difficult to balance the gamedesigninitiative 9 Procedural Content at cornell university Main Types of Procedural Content Simulation World Generation Puzzle Generation Procedural Content Wiki: Story Generation http://pcg.wikidot.com Dynamic Challenges Adaptive Difficulty the gamedesigninitiative 10 Procedural Content at cornell university Simulation Complexity appears random Often a physical process Fires, Fluids, Weather Terrain generation Artificial life Teleological Run the full simulation Accurate; hard to control Ontological Create reasonable output Inaccurate; easy to control the gamedesigninitiative 11 Procedural Content at cornell university Simulation Complexity appears random Often a physical process Fires, Fluids, Weather Terrain generation Artificial life Teleological Run the full simulation ScientificAccurate; Computing hard to control Ontological Create reasonable output AdInaccurate; Hoc Algorithms easy to control the gamedesigninitiative 12 Procedural Content at cornell university Simulation Complexity appears random Often a physical process Fires, Fluids, Weather Terrain generation Artificial life Teleological Run the full simulation ScientificAccurate; Computing hard to control Minimal effect on gameplay Often largely aesthetic Ontological Hard to control difficulty Create reasonable output AdInaccurate; Hoc Algorithms easy to control Lot of work for little payoff the gamedesigninitiative 13 Procedural Content at cornell university World Generation Often thought of as map generation But really generation of game geography Particularly broad category of PCG Basic Format Start with basic geography building blocks Include combination rules for blocks Build until reach a stopping point Algorithms vary widely the gamedesigninitiative 14 Procedural Content at cornell university Example: NetHack the gamedesigninitiative 15 Procedural Content at cornell university Example: NetHack Room Room the gamedesigninitiative 16 Procedural Content at cornell university Example: NetHack Room Hallway Room the gamedesigninitiative 17 Procedural Content at cornell university Example: NetHack Room Exit Hallway Room Entrance the gamedesigninitiative 18 Procedural Content at cornell university Example: Vertical Drop Heroes Movement Can move left-right Down arrow to stomp/fall Cannot jump at all! Combat Space to fire weapon Weapon depends on class Free cage to switch class Goal Collect treasure Reach (a possible) exit the gamedesigninitiative 19 Procedural Content at cornell university Example: Vertical Drop Heroes the gamedesigninitiative 20 Procedural Content at cornell university Example: Vertical Drop Heroes What if a platform were here? the gamedesigninitiative 21 Procedural Content at cornell university The Reachability Problem Levels are effectively graphs Edges are player choices Choices are discretized Fully connected (why?) PCG might make a graph with a lot of dead ends Reachability is not just a with a lot of backtracking spatial issue. that is unconnected Need to remember goal Should always be reachable Else, reset must be painless the gamedesigninitiative 22 Procedural Content at cornell university Example: Spelunky the gamedesigninitiative 23 Procedural Content at cornell university Ensuring Reachability Two Options: Limit generation Verify goal is to reachable reachable or game states regenerate the gamedesigninitiative 24 Procedural Content at cornell university Ensuring Reachability Two Options: Limit generation Verify goal is to possibly reachable or reachable states regenerate the gamedesigninitiative 25 Procedural Content at cornell university Grammars: A Formal Approach Notation Example Set N of nonterminals Set S of terminal symbols N = { S, B} Set P of production rules S = {a, b, c} Have the form A => B P is the list of rules A, B are words of symbols S => aBSc To generate a value S => abc Start with word XAY Ba => aB Pick any rule A => B Bb => bb Replace with XBY Possible outputs Repeat until only terminals abc, aabbcc, aaabbbccc, … the gamedesigninitiative 26 Procedural Content at cornell university Grammars on Graphs Symbols are colored nodes Either terminal or not Edges replace word order Words are now graphs Productions on subgraphs LHS is node+boundary RHS alters the node Output built as before But rule matching harder Graph equivalency the gamedesigninitiative 27 Procedural Content at cornell university Grammars on Graphs Symbols are colored nodes Either terminal or not Boundary Edges replace word order Node Words are now graphs Productions on subgraphs LHS is node+boundary RHS alters the node Output built as before But rule matching harder Graph equivalency the gamedesigninitiative 28 Procedural Content at cornell university Grammars on Graphs Symbols are colored nodes Either terminal or not Boundary Edges replace word order Node Words are now graphs Productions on subgraphs LHS is node+boundary Game Geography is a graph RHS alters the node Output built as before But rule matching harder Graph equivalency the gamedesigninitiative 29 Procedural Content at cornell university Puzzle Generation Basic puzzle structure Discrete actions/moves Moves applied in sequence Goal: get correct sequence Identify move sequences Could be a loose category Represent specific strategies Build up from sequences Start from solved state Invert moves (scrambling) Will require verification the gamedesigninitiative 30 Procedural Content at cornell university Example: Lyne the gamedesigninitiative 31 Procedural Content at cornell university Example: Lyne Backtrack Pattern the gamedesigninitiative 32 Procedural Content at cornell university Story Generation Narrative is tightly crafted Must have emotional arc Very hard to generate But backstory is looser Collection of tales/subplots Combine to form a story Often displayed in a codex Much easier to generate Idea: Create list of subplots Pick some subset at a time Mix with NLG techniques the gamedesigninitiative 33 Procedural Content at cornell university Example: Dwarf Fortress the gamedesigninitiative 34 Procedural Content at cornell university Natural Language Generation Function that outputs language Given: complex set of data Outcome: comment on data Major area of CS research Comment requirements Must be simpler than data Should also be natural Examples Sports commentary Party combat chatter Intelligent townsfolk the gamedesigninitiative 35 Procedural Content at cornell university NLG and Story Dialogue Often a set of “canned” text React to specific events NPC picks text as appropriate Text is parameterized “What do we do, <name>?” “Someone killed <monster>!” “That was <numb> days ago.” Choosing text to say Favor important events? Favor recent events? Random
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