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An Analysis of the Role of Procedural
Content Generation in Game Design
Gillian Smith
Northeastern University
Playable Innovative Technologies Lab
[email protected]
There are many purported reasons for using procedural content generation (PCG) in
games and a variety of generation techniques can be used to meet these design goals. One
of the earliest purposes was data compression: procedurally generating galaxies in Elite
(Braben and Bell 1984; Boyes 2006) meant that players could explore a larger universe,
but it was vital for the designers to retain complete control over the content players would
see. Rogue and its sister rogue-like games (Toy et al. 1980; Rogue Basin 2012) use PCG
to create experiences that are highly replayable, and use techniques that provide relatively
little authorial control over generated content. A recent research focus has been on how to
build games that are adaptive to player’s preferences and personalities (Hastings et al.
2009; Shaker et al. 2010; Shaker et al. 2011). Broad claims regarding replayability and
adaptability have motivated a great deal of research in PCG.
This talk takes a step back from these claims, critiquing the common motivations for
creating PCG systems and attempting to more deeply understand the different ways that
generated content is integrated into existing games, how PCG stands to influence player
experience, and how the design of the PCG systems themselves influence the design of
the game. How can we describe the role of PCG in a particular game’s design? Where is
the boundary between procedurally generated content and simple randomness? Are there
common patterns for how PCG is typically used in games, and are there opportunities for
exploring different avenues for PCG’s incorporation into game design? To answer these
questions, we examine games that incorporate PCG using Hunicke et al.’s MDA
framework (Hunicke et al. 2004) as a lens for analysis.
This analysis is performed on several games that have used PCG to varying extents and
for different purposes, including the “endless runner” games Canabalt (Saltsman 2009)
and Robot Unicorn Attack ([adult swim games] 2010), Rogue and other rogue-likes such
as Diablo (Toy et al. 1980; Blizzard North 1997), Galactic Arms Race (Hastings, Guha,
and Stanley 2009), the Civilization series (Meier 1991; Firaxis Games 2005), and
Rohrer’s experimental game Inside a Star-Filled Sky (Rohrer 2011). These games are
analyzed through asking what the games would look like with the procedurally generated
content being replaced by small amounts of human-authored content.
The result is a vocabulary for describing the construction of PCG systems and the role of
PCG in a game’s design, including a more nuanced view on replayability. The analysis
provides us with a greater understanding for why PCG is used in games, how deeply
integrated it is into the core gameplay, and how its incorporation influences player
experience.
Proceedings of DiGRA 2013: DeFragging Game Studies.
© 2013 Authors & Digital Games Research Association DiGRA. Personal and educational classroom use of
this paper is allowed, commercial use requires specific permission from the author.
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