A Generic Approach to Challenge Modeling for the Procedural Creation of Video Game Levels

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to automatic video game level design consisting of a computational model of player enjoyment and a generative system based on evolutionary computing. The model estimates the entertainment value of game levels according to the presence of “rhythm groups,” which are defined as alternating periods of high and low challenge. The generative system represents a novel combination of genetic algorithms (GAs) and constraint satisfaction (CS) methods and uses the model as a fitness function for the generation of fun levels for two different games. This top-down approach improves upon typical bottom-up techniques in providing semantically meaningful parameters such as difficulty and player skill, in giving human designers considerable control over the output of the generative system, and in offering the ability to create levels for different types of games.