Computer games have always become more and more advanced. One of the biggest reasons to its rapid evolution is the use of procedural content generation (PCG), which is used to generate game content automatically. However, there is one type of games that is more unexplored when it comes to PCG, namely motion games. Motion games are games where the player interacts with the game by moving his own body rather than using a gamepad, mouse or keyboard. Thanks to that, motion games are a healthier alternative to regular games, and this thesis therefore explores the possibilities to use PCG to develop more exciting motion games. The focus lies on achieving variation and progression since both of those are important concepts closely related to PCG. An exploratory case study is also conducted to examine how the derived guidelines work in a real game. The result concluded is that the guidelines seem to work well, but that all of them are not easily adapted to every game. Different game genres therefore call for different guidelines to be used.

Risk adjustment models are used to predict health care costs of insurees and represent an important part of mechanisms for redistribution of funds among insurance companies. In the Czech Republic, pharmacy-based cost groups (PCGs) were introduced into the risk adjustment model in 2018, reflecting the costs of chronic diseases in addition to age and gender. The thesis reviews the model for the most expensive chronic disease - renal failure. Using the sample of General Health Insurance fund (GHI) insurees reported with typical health care consumption for kidney disease in years 2015-2018, we tested the current model and subsequently modified the classification criteria for PCG "renal failure". The classification based on the number of dialysis procedures proved to be much better indicator of costs than the currently used consumption of typical drugs. The incorporation of dialysis-based approach into the PCG model improved the explained variation from 26 % to 49 %, and the predictive power increased substantially. The study suggests improvements of the Czech risk adjustment model and proposes a fairer fund redistribution among insurance companies, while no additional data collection is needed.

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.

Procedurellt genererat innehåll, PCG,förekommer väldigt ofta i spel nu för tiden, mycket för att öka återspelbarheten i ett spel. Några populära exempel på spel som utnyttjar PCG är Terraria(2011) och Minecraft(2011). I takt med att hårdvara blir mer och mer kraftfull så ökar även kraven på spelen som utnyttjar teknikerna eftersom att det går att generera innehåll i realtid. Men finns det outnyttjat potential i grafikkortet? Trenden av ökningen av klockfrekvensen på processorer har reducerats på senare tid, för att istället ersättas av ett större antal kärnor. Här så kan parallellisering av programkod utnyttjas för att utvinna mer ur datorns hårdvara. Ett teknologi-orienterat experiment att utfördes på först en seriell CPUlösning, och sedan en parallell GPUlösning för att undersöka hur lång tid varje metod tog. Detta skedde på varierande stora kartor för att kunna fastställa om det fanns ett samband mellan storlek och tid. Genomförandet använde sig av SFML biblioteket för att implementera GPU varianten där en fragment shader användes för att utföra alla parallella uträkningar för kartgenreringen. CPU metoden använde samma tekniker som GPU metoden, fast utan någon parallellisering. Båda teknikerna validerades genom att använda SFML för att rita ut kartorna som de genererar med enkelgrafik.

Manual design of levels can be an expensive and time consuming process. Procedural content generation (PCG) entails methods to algorithmically generate game content such as levels. One such way is by using cellular automata (CA), and in particular evolved cellular automata. Existing research primarily considers specifically determined starting states, as opposed to randomly initialized ones. In this paper we investigate the current state of the art regarding using CA’s that have been evolved with a genetic algorithm (GA) for level generation purposes. Additionally, we create a level generator that uses a GA in order to evolve CA rules for the creation of maze-like 2d levels which can be used in video games. Specifically, we investigate if it is possible to evolve CA rules that, when applied to a set of random starting states, could transform these into game levels with long solution paths and a large number of dead ends. We generate 60 levels over 6 experiments, rendering 58 playable levels. Our analysis of the levels show some flaws in certain levels, such as large numbers of unreachable cells. Additionally, the results indicate that the designed GA can be further improved upon. Finally, we conclude that it is possible to evolve CA rules that can transform a set of random starting states into game levels.

Detta examensarbete utforskar möjligheterna att påverka spelupplevelsen med hjälp av komplexitet inom ljud och musik. En artefakt i form av ett endless runner spel har skapats där olika metoder för procedurgenererat innehåll (PCG) används för att skapa delar av spelupplevelsen. Artefakten har ökande komplexitet av ljudbilden i fokus. Artefakten spelades av 21 testdeltagare som efteråt fick svara på frågor i ett formulär relaterade till spelupplevelsen. Slutsatsen av arbetet är att det verkar finnas möjligheter att påverka spelupplevelsen med ökad komplexitet av ljud och musik där nyfikenhet är det som visade på bäst resultat. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.</p>

Immersive environments are a big part of videogames. With hardware being more capable thanever of displaying millions of triangles at once boththe capability and demand of more content in anenvironment increases. This puts more strain onlevel designers who have to spend more time perscene to make everything meet the constantly increasingvisual standards. Being able to procedurallydecorate any environment in such a fashionthat it follows the hand-made hero scenes of thegame becomes an important way to save time andmoney better spent elsewhere in the project.This thesis investigates a hierarchical method ofprocedurally generating objects inside an environment.This was accomplished by creating an artifactto analyze the feasibility of efficiently hierarchicallydecorating environments at run-time ofa video game. Though focusing on furniture anddecorative objects of rooms the system can also beused to procedurally place game related content.

This paper explores graph grammar and constructive solutions for settlement generation in Minecraft. It uses graph grammar to flatten parts of the surface in order to increase the space for the buildings. Buildings are then generated with a constructive solution that follows a step-by-step model where different parts of the building are created in a certain order. Different parts include the shape of the foundation itself, the walls, the roof and the furniture. The algorithm picks which blocks to use on different parts of the house through an object called district palette. The buildings are divided up into areas called districts, where all the houses within the district follow a similar aesthetic style. The goal is to compare our solution with existing solutions from the Generative Design in Minecraft (GDMC) competition to see how it holds up against the other submissions. To evaluate, a user study was performed where each jury has to score four criteria: adaptivity, functionality, evocative narrative, and aesthetics. The results show that the solution had a strong aesthetics but fell behind in adaptivity, functionality, and evocative narrative. Most of it was due to not being able to generate different structures, and not cleaning up the trees around the buildings and the roads.

In this paper we have compared and evaluated two different representations used in search based procedural content generation (PCG). The comparison was based on the differences in performance, quality of the generated content and the complexity of the final artifacts. This was accomplished by creating two artifacts, each of which used one of the representations in combination with a genetic algorithm. This was followed up with individual testing sessions in which 21 test subjects participated. The evaluated results were then presented in a manner of relevance for both search based PCG as a whole, and for further exploration within the area of representations used in this field.

Occupancy Regulated Extension (ORE) är en algoritm som används för att procedurellt generera banor till spel. Detta arbete undersökte användning av ORE för att skapa byggnader med tätt packade rum, specifikt från ett prestandaperspektiv. Detta genomfördes med treimplementationer av olika varianter av ORE. Dessa varianter är rutnät, svepande linje, och AABB. För små rum var rutnät snabbast, med svepande linje därefter och AABB den långsammaste. Med större rum var svepande linje i stort sett oförändrad och därmed snabbast, medans de andra två visade en ökning i genereringstiden. Rutnätsgeneratorn påverkades mest av rumstorlek, men inte tillräckligt för att vara långsammare än AABB. Resultatet var inte betydligt nog för att definitivt utse en implementation som bäst, eftersom skillnaderna var för små för att utesluta problem med implementationerna. Ytterligare arbete krävs för att uppnå ett mer exakt resultat. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.</p>