Interactive Design Exploration of Game StagesUsing Adjustable Synthetic Testers

Abstract

Game designers take into account the wide range of play-styles and skill levels of players to create enjoyable experiences. One important step in the game design process involves playtests with professional testers; this process is time-consuming and expensive. Hence, there exist several methods to create synthetic testers to test a game automatically. However, one shortcoming is the lack of realistic-playing with different play-styles and skill levels. In this paper, we propose a game level authoring tool that incorporates synthetic testers, which enable the control of play-styles and skill levels. Furthermore, we utilize visualization techniques to help assess the difficulty level of each part of the stage. Our user studies confirmed that our tool was effective for designing game stages appropriate for a particular type of player.