Mixed-Initiative Procedural Generation of Dungeons Using Game Design Patterns

Abstract: Procedural content generation (PCG) can be a useful tool for aiding creativityand efficiency in the process of designing game levels. Mixed-initiative level genera-tion tools where a designer and an algorithm collaborate to iteratively generate gamelevels have been used for this purpose – taking advantage of the combination of com-putational efficiency and human intuition and creativity. However, it can be difficultfor designers to work with tools that do not respond to the common language of games:game design patterns.It has been demonstrated that game design patterns can be integrated into PCGalgorithms, but formally-defined and hierarchically-arranged game design patternshave not yet been used as a means of increasing gameplay-based control in mixed-initiative dungeon generators. We present a method for evolving dungeon rooms usingmulti-level game design patterns in the objective function of a genetic algorithm, aswell as an instantiation of this method in a mixed-initiative dungeon design tool. Ourresults show that we are able to control the frequency and type of design patterns ingenerated rooms using pattern-related input parameters, enabling us to create dungeonrooms containing a wide variety of patterns on different levels of abstraction.Results from a small-scale user study of professional game developers suggest thatthe use of game design patterns in mixed-initiative level design tools can be a promisingway of providing a good starting point when designing a level, as well as offeringmeaningful gameplay related feedback throughout the design process. We also identifychallenges that will need to be faced if game design pattern-based mixed-initiative leveldesign tools are to become a part of the game designer’s toolkit.