Digital Media Concepts/Advantages and Disadvantages of Procedural Generation
Digital Media Concepts/ Advantages and Disadvantages of Procedural Generation
editWhat is Procedural Generation?
editProcedural generation is a technique used in video games in which content like characters, quests, levels, or worlds is created automatically by algorithms based on rules instead of manually designed. [1] This technique has been around since early games like Rogue and remains a vital tool for creating games in modern such as Shadows of Doubt and No Man's Sky .
Procedural generation creates many opportunities for diverse game experiences but presents challenges with controlling the design and ensuring unique content.[2]
Resource Efficiency
Procedural generation offers significant advantages by allowing the creation of vast content with fewer resources. This capability empowers small studios or indie developers to construct expansive game worlds without requiring a large design team. This is evident in Shadows of Doubt, where the city, NPCs, crime scenes, and interiors are procedurally generated, creating unique puzzles each time.[5]
Replayability
Procedural generation dramatically increases the game's replayability. If a unique world, dungeons, or quests are created in each new playthrough, it minimizes the likelihood of repeating the same experience. RimWorld{} is an example of a game in which the random generation of the world, characters, and events, driven by storyteller choices, makes the game fresh and unpredictable.[6]
Scalability
Procedural generation creates large, varied worlds using algorithms that combine set elements with random factors to produce unique landscapes. For example, No Man's Sky features over 18 quintillion procedurally generated planets, giving players a virtually limitless galaxy to explore.[7]
Ensuring balance
Developers may struggle to achieve balanced gameplay with procedural generation. Randomly generated levels, quests, or enemies can vary in difficulty, resulting in uneven gameplay. For example, in Shadows of Doubt, offenses generated from start to finish can make some investigations too easy or impassable, resulting in an uneven gaming experience.[10]
Technical Difficulty
Implementing procedural generation is technically complex and requires advanced game development, AI, and mathematics skills, which can pose challenges for smaller studios or less experienced developers.
Lack of Uniqueness
Procedural generation allows you to create levels that are diverse in appearance but often similar in structure. This similarity may decrease player interest as familiar patterns develop. This problem can be seen in Borderlands 3, where procedurally generated loot can feel repetitive despite the many weapon combinations.[11]
References
edit- ↑ "Procedural generation". Wikipedia. 2024-09-06. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_generation.
- ↑ Smith, Gillian (2014). "The Future of Procedural Content Generation in Games". Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment 10 (3): 53–57. doi:10.1609/aiide.v10i3.12748. ISSN 2334-0924. https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AIIDE/article/view/12748.
- ↑ Hendrikx, Mark; Meijer, Sebastiaan; Van Der Velden, Joeri; Iosup, Alexandru (2013-02-19). "Procedural content generation for games: A survey". ACM Trans. Multimedia Comput. Commun. Appl. 9 (1): 1:1–1:22. doi:10.1145/2422956.2422957. ISSN 1551-6857. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2422956.2422957.
- ↑ Schier, G. (2024, October 31). Pros and Cons of Procedural level generation. https://schier.co/blog/pros-and-cons-of-procedural-level-generation
- ↑ "ColePowered Games Ltd. – The Game development adventures of Cole Jefferies". colepowered.com. Retrieved 2024-10-31.
- ↑ "RimWorld - Sci-Fi Colony Sim". rimworldgame.com. Retrieved 2024-10-31.
- ↑ "Development of No Man's Sky". Wikipedia. 2024-08-04. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_No_Man's_Sky.
- ↑ Togelius, Julian; Champandard, Alex J.; Lanzi, Pier Luca; Mateas, Michael; Paiva, Ana; Preuss, Mike; Stanley, Kenneth O. (2013). Procedural Content Generation: Goals, Challenges and Actionable Steps (in en). Simon M. Lucas, Michael Mateas, Mike Preuss, Pieter Spronck, Julian Togelius. pp. 15 pages, 414306 bytes. doi:10.4230/DFU.VOL6.12191.61. ISSN 1868-8977. https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DFU.Vol6.12191.61.
- ↑ "Random/Procedural vs. Previously Made Level Generation". Game Development Stack Exchange. Retrieved 2024-10-31.
- ↑ published, Joel Franey (2024-09-23). "Shadows of Doubt review: "The true potential of this detective sim is limitless - but it just hasn't reached that point yet"". gamesradar. Retrieved 2024-10-31.
- ↑ "Borderlands 3 Weapon Prefix List | What do prefixes do?". GameRevolution. 2019-10-07. Retrieved 2024-10-31.