Usage of PCG

The reasons we might consider using PCG include unique, robustness, adaptability, and size. We might strive for our player to experience the game in their own truly unique play-through. We could use PCG to take the content that we have designed and make truly robust games that would take many hours to explore every inch of. We can make our game adapt to the player in interesting ways such as scaling the difficulty to easier or harder based on the actions of the player.

Size, though, is an interesting benefit to PCG. Well before games played with amazing HD graphics at 60 frames a second, they were mostly text based. Early computer systems were very limited both in processing power and storage memory. One of the earliest occurrences of PCG was in games that procedurally generated levels using ASCII characters. We can see an example of this in the game Rogue developed in the 1980s. We discuss Rogue and the subsequent sub-genre of games Roguelike in later chapters.

PCG was thus a solution, of sorts, to the fact that early computers really had no means to present graphics to the player. Graphics comprise the bulk of a game in terms of size taking a lot of processing power and memory. The procedurally generated ASCII levels of Rogue were calculated instead of being loaded from the file. This meant early computer systems could use memory and processing power as needed instead of needing a lot of memory all at once when you start a predefined game level.

We can also consider size savings in terms of our team as well. A designer/artist typically will need to make every piece of game content by hand. As games get larger, it becomes more difficult to create enough unique content within one game. Games lose their reward factor and players become bored easily when they see continuous repetition of in-game content. We then need to produce more content, which means more designers, artists, and individual assets. PCG helps alleviate this need by taking on some of the burden of producing unique content.

PCG can thus be viewed as a tool for the designer. There is a very creative facet to the idea of PCG. We can design pieces or modules of a whole, like a level or item, and use PCG to put them together in unique and interesting ways. We could also make 3D models, but then, we would have to generate the textures for them. Otherwise, we could generate full levels from scratch and add in some designed props. There are plenty of possibilities to fit the situation or team's needs.

Some of Gearbox Software's Borderlands procedurally generated weapons, each generated from asset modules

You also have a unique opportunity to create games that can expand infinitely (or close to it). We will see this later in the book when we learn how PCG can be used to create a game level that never ends. Are you convinced that PCG is an amazing game development component?