For other games, though, it’s not such an ideal solution. That is what the algorithms are supposed to do and the procedural generation meshes well with the overall game design. As a long term Civ player I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a map feature that was unexpected or out of the ordinary. While this random aspect of the game is crucial for providing a spur to exploration and city development in the early epochs, Civilization’s map generation mostly does what it says on the tin and produces predictable, samey map shapes. The small detail of the maps is different but the broad structure is the same every time depending on which algorithm you’ve picked the actual procedural generation part is only really relevant when considering the nearby terrain features and special resources of a potential city site. So you pick Continents if you want a game with two large, equally-sized landmasses separated by an ocean Archipeligo for a set of small, scattered islands Pangaea for a single enormous continent that guarantees plenty of conflict etc. The player can pick what general shape or outline the map will have by selecting which world generation algorithm to use at game start, as well as fine tuning variables such as the planet age to determine the frequency with which certain specific tiles appear scattered over this broad outline.
#Building generator algorithm series#
The Civilization games have been relying on procedural generation to create world maps ever since the first iteration in the series back in 1990. In fact I’d argue that unless used sparingly and in very specific contexts procedural generation can end up achieving exactly the opposite, and I’d really like developers to stop trying to jam it in where it doesn’t fit – or, even worse, letting it stand in as a substitute for something they should really be doing themselves Let’s look at some case studies. In practice, it doesn’t quite work like that. It seems that many of today’s developers look at procedural generation as a kind of holy grail of game development because the algorithm outputs and the content they generate is pseudo-random it means in theory that you can provide a player with a potentially limitless amount of content for a game and in effect give it infinite replayability, as every time they load the game up they’ll be practically guaranteed to see something different.
It’s hardly a new concept in computer games – even the earliest roguelikes incorporated it to a significant degree, for example – but it’s one which is getting more and more traction in today’s gaming market, especially on the indie scene.
Procedural generation has become shorthand for any game content that isn’t designed and constructed ahead of time by a human being, but which is instead created on the fly by an algorithm or two inside the game program itself. Entire games are becoming procedurally generated 1. Loot and equipment is procedurally generated. Character names are procedurally generated. “Procedural generation” is a phrase I’m seeing in gaming press releases increasingly often.
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