Procedural Generation in Game Design

by Tanya X. Short (Editor), Tarn Adams (Editor)

Making a game can be an intensive process, and if not planned accurately can easily run over budget. The use of procedural generation in game design can help with the intricate and multifarious aspects of game development; thus facilitating cost reduction. This form of development enables games to create their play areas, objects and stories based on a set of rules, rather than relying on the developer to handcraft each element individually. Readers will learn to create randomized maps, weave accidental plotlines, and manage complex systems that are prone to unpredictable behavior. Tanya Short's and Tarn Adams' Procedural Generation in Game Design offers a wide collection of chapters from various experts that cover the implementation and enactment of procedural generation in games. Designers from a variety of studios provide concrete examples from their games to illustrate the many facets of this emerging sub-discipline.

Genres: Game Design, Programming, Games, Computers, Nonfiction, Computer Science, Design

336 pages, Paperback

Published June 15, 2017

Reviews

[Joan J. Pons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estas colecciones de artículos escritos por expertos de la industria así como por académicos funcionan muy bien para tener un overview general del tema. No tienen una profundidad demasiado relevante pero si una buena amplitud, que es lo que buscan, claro. Buen libro para iniciarse en la generación procedimental en los videojuegos, imperativo.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this a high rating, but it's complicated.

First, this is a pretty entry-level book. If you've been around for a while, won't be new. And it doesn't reflect the thinking that goes on in top-tier AAA studios.

Having said that, it's a nice to have some articles about what indies are actually doing out there.

The other factor is there are few books to be found on this subject. Some blogs, sure, some articles in journals, but little you can buy that scratches that itch for this topic. This book is a quick read that does that. There are some other niche topics like cloth simulation that lack books that offer sound coverage.

Some chapters in the book are thoroughly skippable, unfortunately. Some feel a bit like ads.

But it's well edited overall, reads clearly, I enjoyed it. I'd suggest it for those with specific interest in this subject, although for experts it will be more a pleasant read. For those coming in with no background, it's a good first step.

[Nick Carraway LLC · Rating 4 out of 5]

1) "Procedural generation is a powerful tool and a great way to ruin your game design."

2) "'Humans are natural pattern-finding machines, and a procedural generation algorithm is often a pattern-creating machine. [...] What's usually the aim of any generator is to mask the fact that it's a generator; we don't think of human authors as automatons who endlessly create a bunch of slightly varied versions of the same thing until they get something they like, despite the fact they sometimes do. We want generators to make something a human would make, or more precisely, something we didn't expect would be made, a spark of genuine creativity. We want to be pleasantly surprised.' --Kenny Backus"

3) "'Your art is valuable and valid no matter where you are coming from.' --Loren Schmidt"

4) "'There are very many aesthetics available for art toys. From frustrating and opaque (Become a Great Artist) to welcoming (Spore Creature Creator), intensive and controllable (Medium and Tilt Brush), uncontrolled and automated (Picbreeder), or meditative (Text Rain and The Treachery of Sanctuary), there can be art toys for every play experience and every artifact type.' --Kate Compton"

5) "'In one of the Versu office comedy scenarios we worked on (but never published), the story included a meeting where all the characters came together to work on an advertising strategy. In testing, I was taken aback when two of the characters, who had been flirting all game long, had sex in the middle of the meeting, in front of their coworkers.' --Emily Short"

[V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read involving numerous simple yet effective algorithms. Usually it’s better not to over engineer and the book explores just that. This simplicity comes at a cost, however, as some entire areas are missing. Particularly I’d liked terrain generation using gradient noises or assembling voxel terrains using marching cubes or surface nets. Maybe emergent patters like flocking or fractal animations. Overall it was a lovely easy read, but gems lie in simplicity isn’t it?

[Ivan Vanev · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of articles, covering broad topics of procedural generation in games - including level design, sound design, narrative, even ruleset generation. All subjects were to the point and neatly explained. As a bonus, by the end of the book there's a great collection of the best-known generation methods, with their technical details explained. Great read and great point of reference when needed!

[Imp · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of essays and articles on procedural content generation, explaining a ton of procedural generation systems and giving plenty of ideas for programming PCG for your own games (or just straight up stealing a method from this book).

Helped a lot with writing my Bachelor's thesis.

[Herbert Wolverson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent overview of procedural generation techniques. It doesn't go into many implementation details, but serves as a wonderful source of ideas and inspiration for how to use procgen in game design & development.

[Daniel Collin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a very interesting and insightful read, although some of the collaborators' contributions are more easily digestible than others.