A methodology for designing natural language interfaces for procedural content generation
Afshin Mobramaein, Jim Whitehead · 2019
Procedural Content Generation (PCG) uses algorithmic techniques to create a wide variety of content for games. These generators often have a large number of parameters, making it difficult for non-technical designers to explore the design space of generated artifacts. Natural language interfaces for generators can map natural language keywords to parameter space changes spanning multiple simultaneous parameters and afford use of expressive language. This way, designers can navigate to interesting points in the design space of a generator by describing desired properties of the artifact using a series of natural language descriptors. We present a design methodology that designers can use to develop natural language interfaces for procedural content generation systems. This design methodology begins by defining a design vocabulary that can describe the output of a generator, mapping the vocabulary to a series of parameters, and translating natural language queries to movements in the generator's design space. We further address issues around designer intent understanding, design space exploration and workflows using natural language interfaces in PCG. An example and implementation of our methodology is provided demonstrating its application to existing plug-ins for content creation in the Unity3D engine