#roguelikecel

Procedural Map Generation Techniques (Roguelike Celebration 2020)

This is a great survey of roguelike map generation techniques by Herbert Wolverson, covering a ton of different techniques. He uses animated illustrations to demonstrate how different algorithms work: random room placement, BSP subdivision (used by Nethack), cellular automata (good for caves), drunkard’s walk (aka random walk), diffusion limited aggregation (including adding attractors and symmetry for more control), Voronoi cells (plus using different distance algorithms), Perlin noise (commonly used for landscapes, but Ken Perlin’s invention is useful for a lot of stuff), and the use of prefabs (or “vaults”). He proposes the use of a Dijkstra map as a way of reading the map so you can do things like remove unreachable areas, or place the starting point in a reasonable spot, or figure out which parts of the map are on the golden path.

One important thing Herbert highlights is the importance of context and control in designing a level generator: the randomness is “fed into an algorithm that that approximates what you want to get but ensures that it is different every time.” 

He also talks about combining generators, which is something that can get lost when cataloging different techniques: there’s no one perfect algorithm for generating a roguelike map, and combining multiple techniques can result in something much more interesting than a single generative operation could make on its own.

His tutorial for making a roguelike in Rust has a lot of universally applicable algorithmic stuff, including even more map generation algorithms, so there’s also lots of material if you want to go beyond the already information-dense talk itself.

Why do I even like roguelikes?

Kind of a companion piece to last year’s Roguelike Celebration talk by Alexei Pepers about the different ways that practitioners approach procgen. Whereas Alexei’s talk was about the people who make roguelikes, Lisa Brown’s talk is about the motivations of the people who play roguelikes.

Inspired by the Quantic Foundary Gamer Motivation Model, Lisa describes roguelikes in terms of action, social, mastery, achievement, immersion, and creativity. She leverages her experience as a game designer to point out different parts of specific games and how they tie into the model.

Tracing the different gameplay elements from particular implementations to player motivations is valuable for understanding a how decisions that are made when constructing the mechanics of a game eventually resolve themselves in the aesthetic experience the players have. It’s also a useful reminder that different players have different preferences.

Roguelike Celebration 2018

Last weekend I was at the 2018 Roguelike celebration in San Fransisco. There were talks from developers and fans, including a close look at Ultimate ADOM, a preview of plans for Dwarf Fortress, and a dive into the Nethack source code.

There was also an arcade set up with a bunch of different roguelikes, including original-hardware VT100 terminals connected to a remote server running Rogue and Hack.