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[InVogue]

Hello folks, I'm new!

I'm looking to create a project that involves procedural generation plus genetic algorithms. I'd like the project to be an engine of some kind, something someone else can take away and use themselves or develop further.

An example might be a program that procedurally generates a level or environment.

Where I'm coming stuck is I really can't think of how to combine this type of idea with genetic algorithms. I can't think of genes or traits to select for during the procedural generation process. So I'd like to ask if anyone here has some ideas? Anything you think you yourselves might find useful to use? What kind of things would you like procedurally generated?

I'm kind of looking for ideas in general and maybe see if I can find a way to apply genetic algorithms to them.

[David Pittman]

I'd like to see a project that uses GA to generate rooms for a Roguelike that present a fair and interesting challenge to the player. The genes could be the kinds of things a player encounters in a room (different kinds of monsters, traps, treasure, etc.) and each room could be evaluated on how much health the player lost in it versus the amount of wealth and experience he acquired or something. Ideally, the fitness function would be designed such that rooms that are either too hard or too easy are culled. Then each time you move down a story in the dungeon, evolve the population of rooms to present a new floor with challenges specifically targeted to that player.

[Ivan]

Yeah I was going to write a similar thing about terrain generation. I think anything that takes an environment generated with procedural noise and adapts it to more specific elements that make up games would always be interesting.

[InVogue]

I quite like the sound of the roguelike generator. I was thinking more along the lines of a 3D generator, but I think 2D might be okay.

The beginning might be a fairly simple level with pre-determined genes or probabilities - randomly generated, but largely similar each time.

The levels are evolved more and more against the players style and skill as they move down levels.

I'll take a look at maybe applying the same type of concepts to a 3D scenario - maybe a basic isometric scenario that might appear in, say, XCOM (but 3D) and procedurally generate a level with the genes being enemy numbers, items, interactive objects etc.

I'm probably thinking too high right now, but generating ideas is priority number 1, and it would be a bonus to find out what would be actually useful to someone who might use it.