Background. Development time and costs of video games are constantly rising andtools using Procedural Content Generation exist with the purpose of making thedevelopment process smoother.Objectives. This thesis’ aim is to evaluate the usability of an interactive bridgegenerator that uses Procedural Content Generation. Additionally the tool evaluatedhas two different methods that are also being evaluated.Methods. In order to answer complete the objectives, a tool has been created inUnreal Engine 4, and then evaluated through a user study on Blekinge Institute of Technology’s campus. Each participant of the user study got to test both themethods of the tool and answer questions regarding usability. The questionnaire used is the System Usability Scale. Results. The results of this study showed that the tool received an excellent usabilitygrade, and one of the methods received a higher grade than the other. Conclusions. The main conclusion is that the tool is usable but also that the studycould be done again using a different method while conducting the study. The toolas a whole could use some work to increase the usability further

Game development involves both traditional software activities combined with creative work. As a result, game design practices are characterized by an extensive process of iterative development and evaluation, where prototyping is a major component to test and evaluate the player experience. Content creation for the virtual world the players inhabit is one of the most time-consuming aspects of production. This experimental research study focuses on analyzing and formulating challenges and desired properties in a prototyping tool based on Procedural Content Generation to assist game designers in their early ideation process. To investigate this, a proof of concept was iteratively developed based on information gathered from interviews and evaluations with world designers during a conceptual and design study. The final user study assessed the tool’s functionalities and indicated its potential utility in enhancing the designers’ content exploration and risk management during pre-production activities. Key guidelines for the tool’s architecture can be distilled into: (1) A modular design approach supports balance between content controllability and creativity. (2) Design levels and feature representation should combine and range between Micro (specific) to Macro (high-level, abstract). The result revealed challenges in combining exploration of the design space with optimization and refinement of content. However, the thesis specifically concentrated on one specific type of content - city generation, to represent world design content generation. To fully understand the generalizable aspects different types of game content would need to be covered in further research. / Spelutveckling består av både traditionell programutveckling i kombination med kreativt arbete. Detta resulterar i att speldesign kännetecknas av en omfattande process av iterativ utveckling, där prototyper är en viktig komponent för att kunna testa och utvärdera spelupplevelsen. En av de mest tidskrävande aspekterna i produktionen är skapandet av innehåll till spelets virtuella värld. Denna experimentella forskningsstudie har fokuserat på att analysera och identifiera utmaningar och användbara egenskaper i ett prototypverktyg baserat på Procedurell Generering. Verktyget syftar till att assistera spelvärlds designers i deras initiala kreativa process för att generera, utveckla och kommunicera idéer. För att undersöka detta utvecklades en proof of concept iterativt baserat på den information som samlats in från intervjuer och utvärderingar med speldesigners, under en konceptuell och design fokuserad fas. Den slutliga användarstudien utvärderade verktygets funktionaliteter och användbarhet. Resultatet indikerade att ett prototypverktyg baserat på Procedurell Generering potentiellt kan förbättra både utforskandet av spelinnehåll och riskhantering. De viktigaste riktlinjerna för verktygets arkitektur kan sammanfattas av: (1) Användandet av moduler i designen stöder balansen mellan kontroll och kreativitet vid skapandet av innehåll. (2) Funktioner i verktyget gynnas av att kombinera och variera mellan Mikro (specifik representation) till Makro (abstrakt, övergripande representation) designnivåer. Studien identifierade ett antal utmaningar med att både kunna utforska material och optimera det. Viktigt att uppmärksamma är att denna studie enbart koncentrerade sig på en specifik typ av innehåll – stadsgenerering, vars syfte var att fungera som en representation av innehållsgenerering i spelvärldsdesign. För att mer omfattande kunna identifiera de generaliserbara aspekterna skulle flera olika typer av spelinnehåll behöva testas i ytterligare forskning

Terrain is a key aspect of a game to help immerse the player in the virtual environment. Producing such content can however be quite challenging for a designer since landscapes need to satisfy the game’s visual and playable needs. This paper presents a way to generate different terrain features through the control of software agents to help aid the design process. An artifact was developed which enabled the terrain features to be evaluated in combination with each other. While the features themselves performed well in isolation there would be a few issues depending on how these were integrated.

This study evaluates whether generative AI tools built on the language model GPT-3 can streamline the processes of digital marketing agencies. The method used for gathering qualitative data was two sets of semi-structured individual interviews with different digital marketing agencies. The agencies were interviewed regarding frequent processes, AI usage, and attitudes toward the technology. Two ChatGPT experiments were conducted to get the interviewees’ insights on its use and the results. The data was categorized with the help of qualitative content analysis. Previous research and journals were additionally used to discuss the potential and consequences of AI, GPT in general, and GPT-3. Information about the different tools that use GPT-3 was collected through websites, articles, and blogs. The study’s data shows that tools using GPT-3 can streamline repetitive or time-consuming processes within ideation, content production, data analysis, personalized customer interactions, and increase productivity within digital marketing agencies. The tools’ tendencies to produce discriminating, faulty, generic, or uncreative information nevertheless create the need for constant human monitoring, source criticism, post-processing, and complementing with creative inputs. Researchers recommend the method of post-processing generative AI results. Digital marketing agencies have already begun implementing this method. Agencies’ attitudes toward the technology’s future within the industry are generally positive. The technology might, according to the interviewed agencies, become a threat to digital marketing professions in the future. This threat may occur if AI develops the creative ability to produce material that evokes emotions in the same way humans currently can. The agencies also believe that the technological change within the industry will come with new copyright laws, regulations, and pricing structures emphasizing creativity and competence.

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För att underlätta skapandet av spelbanor i spel så används ofta Procedural Content Generation (PCG). Det finns dock en stor mängd PCG-algoritmer med olika tillämpningar. Detta arbete undersöker och jämför tre algoritmer vid skapandet av 2D grottsystem utifrån kriterierna; tidseffektivitet, tillgänglighet och variation. Algoritmerna som jämförs är cellular automata, Perlin noise och Voronoi. Syftet med jämförelsen är att ge en bättre förståelse förde tre algoritmernas för- och nackdelar, med förhoppning om att underlätta valet av PCGal-goritmer i framtiden. Arbetet implementerades i spelmotorn Unity (2022a) och skrevs i C#. Kriteriet tidseffektivitet testades med hjälp av en tidtagarursklass, tillgänglighet med hjälp av en flood fill algoritm och variation med hjälp av en algoritm från Alwidian, Abu-Mansour och Ali (2012). Resultaten visade att Voronoi presterade bäst vid kriteriet tillgänglighet och variation (4x4), (8x8). Cellular automata presterade bäst vid kriteriet tidseffektivitet och variation (16x16). Perlin noise presterade varken bra eller dåligt på något test. Sammanfattningsvis presterade Voronoi bäst, därefter Perlin noise och slutligen cellular automata. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.</p>

The potential of L-systems is explored byprocedurally generating patterns for use as video game content.By procedurally generating content for video games, thedevelopment costs of game development can be significantlyreduced. An artifact in the form of a tower defense game isdeveloped and tested to evaluate the generation algorithm. Thealgorithm was successful in generating a wide range of pattern anduser feedback indicates a high level of perceived variation. Thealgorithm is highly customizable and could have applications invarious game content such as particle systems or weapons

Att skapa digitala spel och anställa utvecklare är en kostsam process. Genom att använda procedurell generering av spelinnehåll kan spelföretag skära ner på produktionstid och kostnad. Denna uppsats utvärderar och jämför de olika styrkor och svagheter som finns när man genererar spelbanor för ett 2D pussel- och plattformsspel med en evolutionär generator och en regelbaserad generator. Den evolutionära generatorn använder sig av grammatisk evolution, medan den regelbaserade generatorn är ett strikt kontrollerat system som använder sig av generativ grammatik. Banorna som skapas av de båda metoderna utvärderas genom användarstudier, kombinerat med en analys av tiden och komplexiteten för att utveckla generatorerna. Datan från utvärderingarna visar att den regelbaserade metoden var något mer uppskattad av användare, samtidigt som den var mindre komplex att implementera. Den evolutionära generatorn är dock bättre lämpad för att expandera tillsammans med spelet, och har potentialen att prestera bättre på lång sikt. / Creating digital games and hiring developers is a costlyprocess. By utilizing procedural content generation, game companiescan reduce the time and cost of production. This thesis evaluates andcompares the different strengths and weaknesses of generating levelsfor a 2D puzzle platformer game using an evolutionary and a rule-basedgenerator. The evolutionary approach adopts the use of grammaticalevolution, whereas the rule-based generator is a strictly controlledsystem using generative grammars. The levels produced by eachmethod are evaluated by user studies and combined with an analysis ofthe time and complexity of developing each generator. The datapresented by the evaluations shows that the rule-based approach wasslightly more appreciated by users, and was also less complex toimplement. However, the evolutionary generator would scale better ifthe game would expand, and has the potential of performing better inthe long term

Procedural content generation (PCG) can be a useful tool for aiding creativityand efficiency in the process of designing game levels. Mixed-initiative level genera-tion tools where a designer and an algorithm collaborate to iteratively generate gamelevels have been used for this purpose – taking advantage of the combination of com-putational efficiency and human intuition and creativity. However, it can be difficultfor designers to work with tools that do not respond to the common language of games:game design patterns.It has been demonstrated that game design patterns can be integrated into PCGalgorithms, but formally-defined and hierarchically-arranged game design patternshave not yet been used as a means of increasing gameplay-based control in mixed-initiative dungeon generators. We present a method for evolving dungeon rooms usingmulti-level game design patterns in the objective function of a genetic algorithm, aswell as an instantiation of this method in a mixed-initiative dungeon design tool. Ourresults show that we are able to control the frequency and type of design patterns ingenerated rooms using pattern-related input parameters, enabling us to create dungeonrooms containing a wide variety of patterns on different levels of abstraction.Results from a small-scale user study of professional game developers suggest thatthe use of game design patterns in mixed-initiative level design tools can be a promisingway of providing a good starting point when designing a level, as well as offeringmeaningful gameplay related feedback throughout the design process. We also identifychallenges that will need to be faced if game design pattern-based mixed-initiative leveldesign tools are to become a part of the game designer’s toolkit.

Ambientes e sistemas de apoio ao ensino e aprendizado estão sendo adotados como mecanismos facilitadores no processo de ensino e aprendizado. No entanto, uma limitação comum à maioria desses ambientes está relacionada ao fato de concentrarem-se apenas na criação da estrutura, armazenamento e controle de acesso ao material didático, sem oferecer qualquer tipo de suporte à atividade de modelagem do conteúdo. Nesse contexto, em trabalhos anteriores foi proposta a abordagem AIM-CID - uma abordagem integrada para modelagem de conteúdos educacionais. Dando continuidade às pesquisas já realizadas, este trabalho aborda o estudo de mecanismos de apoio à modelagem de conteúdos educacionais, propondo extensões às etapas de modelagem conceitual e instrucional da abordagem AIM-CID. A ideia é incorporar à abordagem aspectos relacionados ao reuso e compartilhamento de conteúdos educacionais. Além disso, também foi considerado no escopo deste trabalho o projeto e o desenvolvimento da AIM-Tool - uma ferramenta Web, de apoio à modelagem e geração automática de conteúdos educacionais, com ênfase na construção distribuída dos modelos estendidos da abordagem AIM-CID. A ferramenta fornece mecanismos para a geração automática dos conteúdos modelados em diferentes formatos, além de tratar aspectos relacionados ao compartilhamento do material gerado, por meio da adoção do padrão LOM / Learning environments and systems has been investigated in order to facilitate the learning processes in general. However, one common limitation of most of these environments is related to the fact that they focus only on the creation of the structure, storage and learning material access control, with no support to the content modeling activity in the educational process. In this regard, in a previous work we proposed the IMA-CID - an integrated approach for modeling educational content. Motivated by this scenario, in this work we investigate supporting mechanisms for educational content modeling, proposing extensions to the conceptual model and instructional model of the IMA-CID approach. The idea is to incorporate aspects of sharing and reuse for educational content creation. Moreover, we have also considered the development of IMA-Tool - aWeb tool that supports the modeling and automatic generation of educational content, emphasizing the distributed construction of the extended models of the IMA-CID approach. This tool provides mechanisms for the automatic generation in various formats, besides considering aspects related to content sharing through the adoption of the LOM pattern