The Importance of Procedural Content Generation In Games

Gamasutra reports on a talk by Far Cry 2 developer Dominic Guay in which he discussed why procedural content generation is becoming more and more important as games get bigger and more complex. He also talks about some of the related difficulties, such as the amount of work required for the tools and the times when it's hard to retain control of the art direction. Quoting: "Initially, the team created a procedural sky rendering approach based on algorithms — which led to a totally unconvincing skybox that was clearly inferior to what a hand-authored skybox would be. 'We considered it to be a total failure,' he said. He explained that a great deal of focus must be put on the tools that surround the algorithms, to allow the systems to be properly harnessed. In the end, the game shipped with a revamped procedural sky system that ended up much more effective than the first attempt."

Re:Absolutely

[RuBLed]

Of course, it's also tricky to do correctly, very few games are there at the moment, and it'll probably take awhile until we have lots of good examples.

Sorry, this might take a bit longer, I'm still working on that Procedural Game Generator. (but I think EA beat me to it)

Re:Fractal Generation

[theheadlessrabbit]

...an extremely realistic-looking city with very little effort. Automatically, with roads that make sense (EG: don't lead nowhere)

roads that lead somewhere...hmmm...it wouldn't be much good for simulating Ireland, then.

Procedural Generation: The latest thing

[damburger]

I hear a chap called David Braben has a space trading game, that uses just this technique, in the pipeline. Its amazing what they can do with computers these days isn't it?

Re:Fractal Generation

[wisty]

Automatic plot content? Let me help.

def generate_mmorpg_quest():
        from random import choice as c

        Compliment = c(['brave','noble','1337'])
        PC = c(['warrior','chevalier','hunk'])
        McGuffin = c(['baby','necklace','iPhone'])
        Lost = c(['stolen','dropped','forgotten'])
        Arena = c(['cave','forest','library'])
        Reward = c(['baby','necklace','iPhone'].remove(McGuffin))
        Enemy = c(['orcs','terrorists','street mimes'])

        Dialogue = """Oh, %s %s. My %s has been
%s was %s in the %s! If you can bring it back
safely, I fill grant you this %s. Be careful,
I fear there may be %s!"""%(Compliment,PC,
McGuffin,Lost,Arena,Reward,Enemy)

        return Dialogue

Real programmers will insist that a domain specific language gets used, so the interpreter can abstract the context handling, but it's good enough for the first version...

                 

Re:Absolutely

[Kjella]

I'm still working on that Procedural Game Generator. (but I think EA beat me to it)

s/2008/2009/g? Or I guess they have created a true prodcedural generator that backreferences last year and adds one, so they avoid the tedious yearly modifications.