Game AI Pro 2

Chapter 40

Procedural Content Generation

An Overview

Gillian Smith

40.1 Introduction

Procedural content generation (PCG) is the process of using an AI system to author aspects of a game that a human designer would typically be responsible for creating, from textures and natural effects to levels and quests, and even to the game rules themselves. Therefore, the creator of a PCG system is responsible for capturing some aspect of a designer’s expertise—a challenging task for an AI!

PCG has been used in many games for several different purposes. Two popular motivations are replayability and adaptability. PCG can provide large amounts of content, so that each time the player starts the game, they will have a different experience. In combination with ...