A game changing technology sought after in the world of gaming, procedural generation enables infinite possibilities and unprecedented creativity. So what exactly is procedural generation, and how is it transforming our modern video game world? What sort of effect does this ingenious solution have on gaming and we must see into this.
What is Procedural Generation, though?
Or, in short, procedural generation is the process of creating the content that plays a game, say an entire game world, or quest, or any of the myriad extrinsic elements of the game world (extrinsic world models for land, extrinsic models of game characters, game objects etc.) . Sophisticated procedural generation techniques are dependent in composing content at runtime (or at run time) with respect to predefined rules, but not completely deterministic.
Procedural Generation In Modern Games
It’s something very broad that I think will work nicely across all sorts of genres written about, be it something huge like a big open world adventuring game, or something little and simple like a roguelike game.
And even if these were not benefits, procedural generation would still be appealing anyway.
1. Infinite Replay-ability
The biggest pro of procedural generation is never ending variety. What I mean in short is that in both Minecraft and No Man’s Sky these worlds aren’t being generated until you run the game, and this of course holds true for this game with every game that’s run creating a unique world.
2. Reduced Development Time
Procedural generation reduces a portion of burden for creating assets by automation. The way it’s set up allows them to focus on other parts of the game design, like storytelling, or gameplay mechanics, while they’re on the track.
3. Scalability
This is procedurally generation, and a way you’ll be able to be indie developers and have this huge content without you having to hire a lot of people or paying for it.
Procedural Generation in Games: Key Examples
1. Minecraft
Minecraft is a pioneering of procedurally generated worlds, blocky biomes, caves, resources everywhere. It’s on different worlds, it makes sure you will never get bored moving through it forever and every world is different.
2. No Man’s Sky
It’s essentially creating a universe with millions and millions of planets the way you’d want to explore space. Additionally, each planet features an ecosystem that is unique to itself and so you’ll always have new gameplay introduced.
3. Spelunky
Spelunky’s levels are procedurally generated so each playthrough their levels gets a little worse and reaches the most overly made levels to play through and explore.
Procedural Generation Challenges
1. Lack of Cohesion: Procedurally generated content at its best is random or disconnected, random but disconnected from a dedicated amount of a hand crafted level.
2. Repetition: This doesn’t necessarily imply procedural generation is always random, but randomness by definition also creates some kind of repeatable pattern which in the end becomes boring.
3. Technical Complexity: Procedural algorithms design is an effective problem, yet for smaller studios a very large technical expertise problem.
Procedural Generation: The Future?
Artificial intelligence is going to bring this to fruition. With AI driven procedural, this gives AI a shot at learning player behavior and preference and generating the coherent, meaningful game worlds. For example:
Adaptive Worlds: Games may begin to learn how to morph their environments (to what they are used to playing games on) to give unique experiences to them.
Improved Storytelling: Procedural Generation endeavors to uncover the space between narrative design and ambitiously integrate it with procedural storytelling that will progress in an organic way.
Beyond Gaming Procedural Generation
We are starting to see a proliferation of uses of procedural algorithms in film, architecture and virtual reality industries, resulting in a suite of simulations and environments. This case instead proves just the opposite: the application is indeed very transformatary, being very cross industry and thus this case proves that this case can be applied to other contexts.
Conclusion
Because of cost effective development and dynamic experiences and infinite replay-ability, it has been an important cornerstone in today’s popular titles. Procedural generation is far from perfect, and won’t be for a while. Procedural Generation is something that you will see continuing to come to the forefront of development as devs push the boundaries of what can be done using it.