Procedural Level Generation for a 2D Platformer
Brian Michael Egana · DigitalCommons - CalPoly (California State Polytechnic University) · 2018
Procedural Content Generation (PCG), as defined in the book “Procedural Content Generation in Games”, is “the algorithmic creation of game content with limited or indirect user input”. Whether it creates the levels by itself, or together with game designers, PCG is a method used to reduce the cost of designing games, and to produce an endless amount of game content. One of the main challenges that come with PCG is the desire to use PCG algorithms to create entire levels that are feasible, unique, and fun. This is especially challenging for games of progression within the 2D platformer genre; insufficient consideration for developing the level generating algorithms for this genre can easily lead to boring, repetitive levels. Therefore, the goal of this project was to implement a game mode that procedurally generates levels to determine the effectiveness of PCG algorithms for producing 2D platformer levels that are playable and interesting. The game used to implement PCG is the 2D platformer, Darkour.