Evolving Games

Abstract

The description of combinatorial games as hierarchical rule sets equivalent to symbolic expressions (S-expressions) makes them ideal for manipulation through genetic programming (GP) techniques. This chapter introduces the standard GP approach then goes on to describe how this method is adapted for the evolution of new rule sets in the Synthesis module of the Ludi general game system. The chapter concludes with an experiment designed to gauge the system’s success in producing games that human players find interesting.