Genetic Improvements to Procedural Generation in Games

Abstract: One of the biggest industries today is the gaming industry. A multitude of games are sold each year, competing for the players’ attention and wallets. One of the common important techniques used today to produce game content is procedural content generation, where the computer generates small or larger parts of a game which often affects the gameplay experience. The purpose of this study is to design and implement a framework which can be used to evaluate and improve the procedural content generation in games, so that the gameplay experience for players in procedurally generated games can be increased. The research method used was design science, and the theories upon which the framework is built with are flow, procedural content generation and the genetic algorithm. The framework first was designed, and then implemented as an artifact in the form of a roguelike game, so that the framework’s functionality could be evaluated and validated. The game was then set up on a webpage so that anyone could contribute to the research by playing by giving feedback of how well the procedural content generation was performing in the form of a questionnaire within the game. Hence, the results of the study was twofold. The framework itself, and secondly the implementation of the framework in the form of a roguelike game.