A progressive approach to content generation

Abstract

PCG approaches are commonly categorised as constructive, generate-and-test or search-based. Each of these approaches has its distinctive advantages and drawbacks. In this paper, we propose an approach to Content Generation (CG) – in particular level generation – that combines the advantages of constructive and search-based approaches thus providing a fast, flexible and reliable way of generating diverse content of high quality. In our framework, CG is seen from a new perspective which differentiates between two main aspects of the gameplay experience, namely the order of the in-game interactions and the associated level design. The framework first generates timelines following the searchbased paradigm. Timelines are game-independent and they reflect the rhythmic feel of the levels. A progressive, constructive-based approach is then implemented to evaluate timelines by mapping them into level designs. The framework is applied for the generation of puzzles for the Cut the Rope game and the results in terms of performance, expressivity and controllability are characterised and discussed.