TIGCompo: Procedural Generation!

By: Derek Yu

On: May 4th, 2008

Procedural content generation has been applied to video games forever to create random content and to reduce the space requirements for games. Roguelikes are a genre that generally depend on procedural generation for level creation. And recently, Will Wright’s Spore has put this idea in the spotlight, since the game is mostly procedurally-generated.

But all in all, I think this is a concept that is still relatively unexplored, and it could be applied creatively to every part of a game to do some really neat stuff! The focus of this competition is to develop a 4-week game that uses PCG to create compelling, new content every time the player starts a game.

LET US BEGIN!

Posted in Community, Competitions, Developers, Features

shinygerbil

I’d love to take part, but my finals start in five days. :<
Cow

D: it’s here
Fishy Boy

Sounds good! I might be able to make a game for it, even!
xerus

I am not tuff enuff for this one. I think Rom Check Fail will win again.
Mazapán

Ooh, exciting theme!
BaronCid

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=700.msg31126#msg31126

I recommend we give the “BaronCid grand price” to the winner.

And I wont be able to participate… DAMN YOU SPENDING MY HOLYDAYS IN ROME PROBABLY WITHOUT INTERNET, DAMN YOU.
but I’m taking my laptop + Wlan-receiver with me, so if there are some stupid people with Wlan around my appartment I could maybe haxX0r them or something. that would be awesome. I’d just hijack Dustin’s skillz and off we go! :P
Pip

*Hell yes.*
Zeno

Hrm, right when I decide to get into programming again, something like this pops up. An omen? Sure, why not.

Now, to relearn everything I’ve forgotten to create a game in one month…
Oob

YES.
guesst

ROM Check Fail wins again!
Pragma

10 print “Awesome concept!”
20 goto 10
v-rus

Fractal Fighter (Cactus) anyone?
http://www.bigpants.ca Jim McGinley

4 weeks?

I’ve got a TOJam to run (May 9 – 11, 2008 – REGISTER NOW :) not to mention a full time job. You guys have to cut a working man some slack!

My current plan is to rename “Microsoft Paint” and submit it.

p.s. Did you notice that plug for TOJam?
Squidi

I don’t do Windows. Does that mean I can’t enter the competition?
http://www.sophiehoulden.com GirlFlash

great compo idea, I’ll prolly knock around a couple of concepts, if anything is actually playable I’ll enter it :)
Koolaid Jesus

Squidi: no one is going to stop you from entering the competition. Make stuff and release on your platform of choice, I’m sure there will be at least a few people who will be able to run it. Better yet, release the source and perhaps someone will do a quick compile for you before the end of the competition (assuming you are using cross platform libraries).
colorFool

Ooh, looks like a chellenging one. Unfortunately too challenging for my puny coding skills.
But I like what you’ve done to Mr.TIGStick. ;)
Splinter of Chaos

This one makes me feel so existential. If I built a procedural game that allowed the player to do anything, and then the game worked against him or her, how would I define for and against? The goals of the player. Well, I could only tell those by his or her actions, but couldn’t the same action be for two separate goals?

What defines good? What defines bad? What is for? What is against?

Oh well, I’m not experienced enough to try for this one anyway. But I’m really anticipating some interesting ones, so good luck!
Cave story

What if my game acquires a consciousness of its own and tries to eliminate humanity?
Gr.Viper

*What if my game acquires a consciousness of its own and tries to eliminate humanity?*

It’s about bloody time…
Raemuz

Thank fucking god, an independent game design contest not being run by jayisgames <3
Cutman3030

NEEDS MORE PROCEDURALLY GENERATED CHARACTERS!
Not my results…

…but thanks Jay and Game Developers! :D
OrR

Come on, Introversion! You’ve got until June 2nd to enter Subversion! :D

I LOVE this competition. I am looking forward to some crazy stuff.
Zeno

Hrm, it is my belief that anything generic can be created through procedural generation…

Anyone feel up to the task of making a procedurally generated jRPG?
Squidi

*Anyone feel up to the task of making a procedurally generated jRPG?*

Yes, absolutely… but I don’t think I can do it in four weeks.
Biggerfish

[i]Anyone feel up to the task of making a procedurally generated jRPG?[/i]

The point is to get a different game each time.
Pip

New *content*, not a new game. I suppose some ambitious entries will be in this vein, but we’re not magicians.

… are we?
Linley

There are so many other things I need to do with my time. But I feel strangely drawn to enter this competition…
Cutman3030

You’d better join Linley! The more games the more volume of awesome we end up with.
namuol

Promise me tigersauce, that you will hold a second procedural generation contest..
finals week is next week, which means i wont have enough time to play the entries let alone enter the contest.

Either way, GREAT idea!
cliff

Generally speaking, procedural generation does not mean that it must be different every time. It could mean that you create a game in an incredibly small amount of space (I’m sure most of you guys remember Farb-rausch’s 96k FPS). The demoscene has carried this trend a lot, and we’ve seen some pretty good results… 4k games, for example.