Automatic Game Design via Mechanic Generation

Alexander Zook; Mark O. Riedl

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arXiv · 1908.01420

Automatic Game Design via Mechanic Generation

Alexander Zook·Mark O. Riedl

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Abstract

Game designs often center on the game mechanics---rules governing the logical evolution of the game. We seek to develop an intelligent system that generates computer games. As first steps towards this goal we present a composable and cross-domain representation for game mechanics that draws from AI planning action representations. We use a constraint solver to generate mechanics subject to design requirements on the form of those mechanics---what they do in the game. A planner takes a set of generated mechanics and tests whether those mechanics meet playability requirements---controlling how mechanics function in a game to affect player behavior. We demonstrate our system by modeling and generating mechanics in a role-playing game, platformer game, and combined role-playing-platformer game.

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Alexander Zook, Mark O. Riedl. 2019-08-04. Automatic Game Design via Mechanic Generation. https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.01420

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