#Live blogging the #procjam 2014 talks
Sorry for any inaccuracies, typos and words... *
The full schedule can be found at http://procjam.tumblr.com/post/101676802994/procjam-talks-schedule
#12:40 pm - Make Something That Makes Something That Isn’t A Game
##Dr. Gillian Smith, Northeastern University
Sorry got here late so missed the start, but holodecks played a key part of the talk!
##Cool Stuff
- Tanagra - smith et al
- Sentient sketchbook - liapis et al
- wekinator - fiebrink et al - opencv? you can use webcam movement to designate action? can you use sound too?
- procjam - not just game, procedural generated tangible objects (3d printer), smells
##Generating From Data
- data drive monopoly friberger & togelius
##Expressivity
how controllable is your content generator, what range of things can it make?
##Misc
www.sokath.com / @gillianmsmith
big computer interaction convention?
##Q&A
is there an equivalent of lambda calcus for procedurally generated content?
#13:10 pm - Involving the Player in Procedural Generation
##Darren Grey, Games of Grey
how rogue has evolved bsp trees and automata. the biggest problem with pcg is that we currently use it to replace the designer. this inceasee replayability, but doesn't heavily influence the mechanics.
##Dynamic environment
DWARF FORTRESS NAME CHECK!
The lava is an dynamic environment.
brogue - you can manipulate the environment to trap or escape from enemies.
##Player-Instigated Generation
Well known examples: Minecraft, terraria
Board games can be a great source of inspiration
###Board games examples that use PIG
- Hey that's my fish! dynamic generated grid of fish. Place your pieces on start board. Each fish you eat clears that tile from the board.
- Hive - you can tile and stack pieces on the board. Goal of game is to surround the enemy queen. Procedurally geometry.
- Carcasonne - player build the city maps whilst applying tactics against your components.
###Example video games using PIG
- AX-5300 (Darren's) - You are an invincible robot with unstoppable bullets. THe bullets destroying everything in their way and loop. Eventually the bullets become part of the landscape.
- Mushroom 11 - you're a fungi and you have to erase cells to navigate the landscape (2d/world of goo like physics).
- Versu (Linden Labs aka SL) - pg'd stories. looks like interactive fiction, but isn't you end up with a stand alone story you can read later on.
###What happens when the player plays the game differently?
- Mosaic (Darren's) - procedurally generated music by manipulating the landscape. enemies add their own discordant notes. looks like a grid based tracker (tenori?) Play it wrong and the song is terrible.
- Darren's game based on the Hive board game. Couldn't remember the side effect of the player playing differently from the norm.
###Ideas
Make the environment react, trees scream for help and run away if you walk near them with a torch.
@dgrey0 / http://gamesofgrey.com
#14:00 pm - Units of Meaning - ##Tanya X Short, Kitfox Games
Sadly audio was too garbled to take notes.
Tanya X. Short / KITFOX GAMES / @KITFOXGAMES
##Q&A
Q: Procedurally generated myths are easier to do versus other types of content? A: It's easier because there isn't an expectation for myths to be complete or whole vs a story (Myths are a smaller subset? - editor)
#14:30 pm - Procedural Doesn’t Mean Random: Generating Interesting Content ##Hazel McKendrick, Hello Games
No man's sky demo procedurally generated terrain. audible jawsdroppage in the audience
##using random noise to generate texture
- pseudo-random numbers
- evenly distributed
- not determinmistic
- bad idea
##nicer noise
- deterministic
- more visually interesting
- continous
- build up amaths toolkit (perlin?)
- generatering from scratch
- adapting content
##gradient noise
-
perlin or simplex oise
-
not just for terrain
-
cohernent
-
combine octaves (by summing)
- fractal brownian motion
-
whorley noise
- voronoi diagram
- pseudo random points
- regular patterns
- perlin worms
- threshold on noise
- turbulance
##interesting content
Screenshot of a beautiful galaxy with colourful nebulous formations.
##distribution
- rarity
- special moments
- placement
example: dungeon crawlers - caves of ice, rock, gold. no one will care about gold (despite it being rare in the real world).
##scale
- applicable regardless of scale
- apply in layers
##Content specific techs
- awareness of assset type
- for example
- tile based terrain
- markov chains text
- ik based animation
- modifying existing content
##Directing Content creation
Concept art to guide the PGC.
##Inputs
- Seeds
- Initial assets
- Lookup tables
- <etadata
Diagram of content generator workflow:
Min, Max > Generator > Metadata > Generator > Model
##Nothing Exist in isolation
- Generated world
- Not random combos
- Ties to the games
- Audio cues
- AI and physics
- Gameplay logic
- Consistency
##Managing Context
- Share input
- Pick out signficant data
- What do you need ot know?
- Write consistent generator
##results
- Get an overview
- Auto gathering outputs
- Check expected distributions
This is a good test of the algorithm.
Example: Generate 50 ships then you might see that every 20 you get a row of 5 red ships.
##summary
- Procedural doesn't mean random
- Random doesn't just mean random noise
- Guide generation
- Layer generation
- Consider context
@hazelmckendricks
#15:00 pm - Playing With Scale In Procedural Generation: Linking World History To Individual Characters
##Mark Johnson, Ultima Ratio Regum
##First slide
@UltimaRegum www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk
(OMG ASCII CARDS! - editor)
(Sorry for the lack of updates, this was an awesome talk but I needed to do soe github plumbing to setup the live blog. - editor)
##emergent "detective work" gameplay
pg graveyards, links with the history of the game.
#15:50 pm - Flow In Procedural Generation ##Tom Coxon, Bytten Studio
Art of Game Design (Jesse Schell) talks about flow in video games.
##Flow in Map Generation
An example of poor map generation: if your generator adds enemies at the end of the level, the game will be poorly balanced.
- dynamically
- scale enemy level to meet plaer's level
- ai director e.g. l4d
- statically
- lock and key systems
##Making Lock and Key Puzzles
- Dungeon: set of rooms connected by corridors
- Solvable by constructions:
- Sequence of keys: 1, 2, 3
- If the player has key 3 they also have keys 1 and 2
- Keep track of how many keys a player en
- The art of Game Design, Jesse Schell - http://tinyurl.com/SchellAOGD (Amazon)
- Game Design Theory Applied: The Flow Channel, Toni Sala - http://tinyurl.com/SalaFlowApplied
- Lenna's Inception: Overworld Overview - http://bytten.net/short/overworld
@tccoxon
#16:20 pm - Q&A Session with Hal Barwood, project lead on LucasArts’ procedural gem Indiana Jones And His Desktop Adventures.
cancelled :()
#16:50 pm - panoramic.al ##Fernando Ramallo
Change in schedule because there's technical issues with the 16:20 Q&A session.
@compositeredfox
#17:20 pm - Closing ##Mike Cook, PROCJAM Organiser (superhero)
footnotes
✱ - missing