Towards procedural strategy game generation: Evolving complementary unit types

Abstract

The Strategy Game Description Game Language (SGDL) is intended to become a complete description of all aspects of strategy games, including rules, parameters, scenarios, maps, and unit types. One of the main envisioned uses of SGDL, in combination with an evolutionary algorithm and appropriate fitness functions, is to allow the generation of complete new strategy games or variations of old ones. This paper presents a first version of SGDL, capable of describing unit types and their properties, together with plans for how it will be extended to other sub-domains of strategy games. As a proof of the viability of the idea and implementation, an experiment is presented where unit types are evolved so as to generate complementary properties. A fitness function based on Monte Carlo simulation of gameplay is devised to test complementarity. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.