Balance Trucks: Using Crowd-Sourced Data to Procedurally-Generate Gameplay within Mobile Games

Within the field of procedural content generation (PCG) research, the use of crowd-sensing data has, until now, primarily been used as a means of collecting information and generating feedback relating to player experience within games, and game aesthetics [1], [2]. However, crowd-sensing data can offer much more, supplying a seemingly untapped font of information which may be used within the creation of unique PCG game spaces or content, whilst providing a visible outlet for the dissemination of crowd-sensed material to users. This paper examines one such use of crowd-sensed data, the creation of a game which will reside within the CROWD4ROADS (C4RS) [3] application, SmartRoadSense (SRS) [4]. The authors will open with a brief discussion of PCG. Following this, an explanation of the features and aims of the SRS application will be provided. Finally, the paper will introduce 'Balance Trucks', the SRS game, discussing the concepts behind using crowd-sensed data within its design, its development and use of PCG.