Game Worlds and Creativity: The Challenges of Procedural Content Generation

Implementation and Playtesting for a World Adventure Game’s Procedural Content Generation System

“…Based on some of best practices identified in the community [3], this paper presents the development and playtesting of a third-person adventure game, using a procedural content generation system using the Unity engine. With its debut in the early 1980s, in Richard Garriot's Akalabeth and River Raid [4], these techniques have evolved greatly, and can currently be seen in AAA games such as Left4Dead [5], Minecraft [6], Skyrim [7], Borderlands [8], Payday 2 [9], No Man's Sky [10], Don't Starve [11], and in several infinite runners, popular on tablets and cell phones. In addition to map generation, as in this game, PCG techniques can be used in the generation of narratives and visual assets, such as some of the missions in Skyrim, some of the weapons and rewards in Borderlands 2, or creating randomness in scenarios as in Payday 2.…”