While the video game development industry has had big success and increases in the amount of competition, using new tools which accelerate and improve the process is inevitable. Especially, domain-specific tools prevent game developers from performing unnecessary effort by providing reusable com- ponents. Partial automatization of the games that fall under the same game genre significantly decreases the development time. In this thesis, we propose an exten- sible framework architecture for roguelike video games development with a visual node-based user interface which is also artist and designer-friendly. The archi- tecture aims to provide a faster game development process by wrapping common patterns in the roguelike games into simple node representations.

Genom detta kandidatarbetet vill jag utmana och ifrågasätta autonomins roll inom speldesign, som ofta tolkas som att ge frihet eller självständighet åt spelaren. Jag har redogjort för autonomi utifrån en psykologisk utgångspunkt och en yttrad frihetsvillfarelse. Denna undersökning syftar till att utforska begreppet autonomi utifrån personlig investering och kunna applicera dessa kunskaper inom speldesign. En praktisk undersökning exemplifierar sedan tillämpningar genom en designprocess, bestående av spelanalyser och en spelgestaltning som prövar personlig investering genom olika designperspektiv, riskinnefattande val och roguelike element. Spelgestaltningen skapar en pågående interaktion mellan vänner och familj genom en webbplattform och involverar personliga värderingar, strategier och risker. Denna praktiska undersökning syftar även till att utvinna insikter och lärdomar som kan stå till grund för vidare forskning och förståelse för autonomi inom speldesign. / Through this bachelor thesis I wish to challenge and question the role of autonomy in game design, which is often interpreted as providing freedom or independence for the player. I’ve presented autonomy from a psychological standpoint and a described freedom fallacy. This study aims to explore the concept of autonomy from the view of personal investment and apply this knowledge within game design. A practical study then exemplifies applications through a design process, consisting of game analysis and a game design which tests personal investment through varying design perspectives, choices comprised of risks and roguelike elements. The game design establishes an ongoing interaction between friends and family through a web platform and involves personal values, strategies and risks. This practical study aims to extract insight and learnings which can be used as the basis for further studies and the understanding for autonomy through game design.

Procedural Content Generation innebär att spelinnehåll automatiskt genereras för att dels både öka variationen i spel dels och minska arbetsbelastningen hos designers. Ett användningsområde för detta är rumbaserad bangenerering. Målet med detta  här arbetet är var att jämföra två algoritmer som gör just detta:; Binary Space Partitioning och Delaunay Triangulation. De kriterier som algoritmerna utvärderades på var tidseffektivitet, variation, likhet och möjligheten att nå alla rum. Resultatet visade att Binary Space Partitioning hade snabbare genereringstid samtidigt som Delaunay Triangulation gav utvecklaren mer valmöjligheter. Vilken algoritm som var att föredra ifall tidsaspekten inte bar mest tyngd blev helt en en mestadels subjektiv fråga där varje enskild utvecklares önskemål kommer påverka svaret. Ifall arbetet skulle fortsättas i framtiden skulle det vara intressant att utföra fler tester med flera olika mätvärden samt använda algoritmerna i ett spel och sedan påta låta spelare testare bedöma kvalitén hos banorna som genereras.

This dissertation presents a study that explores the idea of implementing PCG in game bits. Procedural Content Generation (PCG) refers to content in games that is created by an algorithm rather than a human. Game bits is the part of game content that relates to graphics, audio and other elements that don’t directly affect gameplay. The goal was to find out what a PCG implementation in game bits needs to affect player behaviour. Qualitative play sessions with interviews were performed to examine potential ways this could occur. Results show that no noticeable behavioural differences appeared due to PCG in game bits, but three properties are set up detailing how implementations would increase the odds of affecting player behaviour. These properties are: PCG implementation changing visuals drastically, different visual elements matching and game space generation matching game bits repeatedly.

Dream Quest(2014) introduced the Roguelike deckbuilder as a game genre. The genre later became popular with the help of Slay the Spire in 2017. As the genre is still fairly new, there are not a lot of tools for designing games of said genre. Taking inspiration from games of the same genre could be a solution to such a problem, one way to do so is via modding. Slay the Spire offers an extensive modding API to users which lets users create new cards, items, events, and even characters. By utilizing these features, it is possible to create a concept for a new game. To use the API, however, would require users to be familiar with programming, which could take a long time to learn for a beginner. Thus, a UI, The Creator was created to let users without experience create mods for Slay the Spire. The UI lets users create cards with different actions and properties without the need to interact with the source code.

Procedural Content Generation means the algorithmic creation of game content with limited or indirect user input. This technique is currently widespread in the game industry. However, its effects when applied to elements that do not engage directly with the player, also known as Game Bits, require more research. This paper focuses on how players experience a game when these Game Bits are procedurally generated, and how this alters their will to continue playing the game. By developing and using a 2DRogue like game to perform a qualitative study with eight participants, this dissertation shows an indication that procedurally generating Game Bits does not alter how the players experience a game or their desire to replay it.