Shopping for Game levels: A Visual Analytics Approach to Exploring Procedurally Generated Content

Abstract

Procedural content generation techniques can be used during game design to aid in exploration and expedite the content creation process. But this comes with the challenge of exploring a large quantity of generated content. This challenge is exacerbated by the lack of proper supporting tools. We contend that such tools should encourage exploration, and respect the nature of design judgment. We present a visual analytics tool, DesignSense, developed as a response to a similar challenge in the architectural design domain. In a case study, we applied DesignSense to a dataset of generated levels for a puzzle game. The initial observations suggest a match between the task described and the features present in DesignSense with room for improvement concerning its integration with the game development process.