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.

Background. Virtual Reality is a growing sector that provide the most immersive gaming experiences, especially when the locomotion technique natural walking is used. However, it is always limited by the physical play space available for the user. Introducing Impossible Spaces, also called Overlapping Maps, which when combined with Procedural Content Generation based on the users play space could maximize the experience. Objectives. The aim of this thesis is to implement a potential solution for procedurally generated impossible spaces that are sized according to the VR users playspace. Ultimately testing how the Execution Time is affected when subjecting the implementation to different sized play areas and number of maps to overlap. In addition to this, the thesis will examine the play space setup of various experiencedVR users. Methods. The three core algorithms of the implementation - Grid and Maze generation, as well as Portal placement - are evaluated in terms of execution time. A questionnaire was created for gathering data on VR users and their play space setup. Results. Questionnaire gathered 45 results in total. A majority had access to a play space area of 2-5 square meters. The VR users’ experience affected the size ofthe play space. The execution time for the core algorithms showed promising resultsin terms of execution time. Conclusions. Since most VR users do not have a large play space and the proposed solution performed well, it could be used to enhance the VR experience.

If you want procedurally generated content in your games, you often have to rely on your own ability to develop the desired tools. This can be limiting for newer game developers, leading to certain types of gameplay not being considered when designing games. One instance of this problem regards procedurally generated planets, a rather uncommon type of game world, with a lack of tools online to create your own. To improve upon the issue, this paper sets out to explore how a tool can be developed to supply game developers with worlds in the form of planets. This resulted in Planet Designer, a Unity tool for quickly generating diverse planets with the potential to be used in a variety of game concepts. The tool utilizes layers of manipulated noise to generate wide ranges of terrain, which can be populated with trees, bushes, stones, etc. using a brush. By playing around with the terrain and ocean shaders, the user can give each planet a unique aesthetic through different colors, textures, and thresholds. The paper features an extensive description of how the tool’s features were implemented, and how the tool was evaluated, as well as a discussion about why the tool is considered a valid solution to the problem.

1 Maxim Gumin's Wave Function Collapse (WFC) algorithm is an example-driven image generation algorithm emerging from the craft of procedural content generation. The intended use of the algorithm is to generate new images in the style of given examples by ensuring local similarity. Our work aims to generalize the original work to make the algorithm applicable in other domains. Furthermore, we aim to apply it in a more difficult task of village generation in the 3D sandbox video game Minecraft. We will create a generic WFC library and a Minecraft mod, which will allow for structure generation using WFC. We hope that our WFC library will be beneficial to anyone exploring WFC and its applications in the Kotlin language and that our Minecraft showcase reveals some of the benefits and limits of the algorithm in complex problems.

This thesis describes the implementation and evaluation of a modular approach for generating 2D side-scroller game levels from a procedurally generated 3D world. Manually generating large amounts of game levels can take considerable amounts of time, and it maybe desirable to automate this process, using procedural content generation. The problem with using procedural content generation is that it is hard to generate coherent game levels. We implement a modular pipeline which, given a set of heightmaps, generates a 3Dworld. From this world, 2D game levels are generated by pathing and extracting terrain features which influence the content in the game levels. The resulting 2D game levels will, using our approach, have a coherent and logical look. The game levels themselves do not contain any interesting gameplay. Instead they rely on a game level designer to add gameplay elements. The resulting modular implementation is considered a success, it proves that it is possible to generate 2D game levels from a procedurally generated 3Dworld, using the features of that world.

<p dir="ltr">With the recent virtualization of our everyday lives and the development of intelligent AI technology, realistic virtual agents are becoming a useful tool for research, education, and entertainment. With virtual agents customized content can be created and individualized for specific users. However, virtual agents are only effective tools if they can form a connection with the individual. To form a connection the virtual agent must be believable.</p><p dir="ltr">The literature review evaluates topics of virtual agent believability, appeal, and naturalness and how they relate to asymmetry in facial expression animation. The literature suggests that asymmetries can affect the perception of virtual agents. Additionally, it suggests that emulating human behavior is beneficial to increasing perception of believability, appeal, and naturalness.</p><p dir="ltr">In this study we evaluated the effects of facial expression asymmetry on the believability, appeal, and naturalness of virtual agents. To do this we ran an online perception study with students at Purdue University. We found, in brief, that facial expression asymmetries do have significant effect on the believability, appeal, and naturalness of a virtual agent compared to animations that do not include facial expression asymmetries.</p>

This paper aims to investigate the effect of AI-generated content (AIGC) when it starts to be applied in game development. AIGC in games refers to the generation of game content through artificial intelligence, a concept that has recently recieved a high level of attention due to the latest rapid developments in artificial intelligence, and in traditional research, AIGC can be categorized as an advanced approach to Procedural Content Generation (PCG), i.e., Deep Learning Method. Procedural Content Generation is the creation of game content through algorithms with limited or indirect user input. Its traditional approach has been widely used in games. Recently, however, the AIGC method has also started to be used by a large number of game companies, and its impact has exceeded expectations. A questionnaire survey of 40 game developers revealed a general interest in AIGC but also concerns. Further interviews explored the use of AIGC in game development and some of the problems it has encountered and predicted future trends in its development. The result of this study provide guidance on whether and how AIGC needs to be used in future game development.

Digital painting is the field of software designed to provide artists a virtual medium to emulate the experience and results of physical drawing. Several hardware and software components come together to form a whole workflow, ranging from the physical input devices, to the stroking process, to the texture content authorship. This thesis explores an artist-friendly approach to synthesize the textures that give life to digital brush strokes. Most painting software provides a limited library of predefined brush textures. They aim to offer styles approximating physical media like paintbrushes, pencils, markers, and airbrushes. Often these are static bitmap textures that are stamped onto the canvas at repeating intervals, causing discernible repetition artifacts. When more variety is desired, artists often download commercially available brush packs that expand the library of styles. However, included and supplemental brush packs are not easily artist-customizable. In recent years, a separate field of digital art tooling has seen the popular growth of node-based procedural content generation. 3D models, shaders, and materials are commonly authored by artists using functions that can be linked together in a visual programming environment called a node graph. In this work, the feasibility is tested of using a node graph to procedurally generate highly customizable brush textures. The system synthesizes textures that adapt to parameters like pen pressure and stretch along the full length of each brush stroke instead of stamping repetitively. The result is a more flexible and artist-friendly way to define, share, and tweak brush textures used in digital painting.

I denna uppsats kommer vi att presentera en modell vars syfte är att generera beteende-mönster för rollfigurer i digitala spel. Spelgenren rollspel (eng. Role-playing games) placerarspelaren i en värld fylld av fantastiska monster och modiga hjältar. I ett sådant spel ärde goda karaktärerna minst lika viktiga som de ondskefulla varelser som spelaren kämparmot. Hur ser livet ut för en spelkaraktär när den inte hjälper spelaren på dess äventyr? Dekanske lever som fiskare på havet eller som bönder ute på fältet. Mer troligt är att de bori en by tillsammans med en massa andra spännande karaktärer. Vi undersöker hur sådanakaraktärers vardag ser ut och tittar på en teknik som används för att skapa deras beteen-demönster, Cyclic Scheduling. Tekniken innebär att utvecklare skapar scheman som styrrollfigurernas beteende. Dessa scheman måste skapas i förväg under spelets utveckling ochkräver i stora spel många arbetstimmar för att utvecklas. Modellen vi presenterar i dennauppsats använder tekniken Smart Terrain för att automatiskt generera beteendemönsteroch kan användas för att minska utvecklingstid. Vi diskuterar hur modellen kan användas iföränderliga spelvärldar där utvecklare inte i förhand vet hur spelens omgivningar kommeratt se ut. / In this thesis we present a model for the generation of behaviour patterns for charactersin digital games. In the genre Role-playing games the player is placed in a world filledwith fantastic monsters and brave heroes. In this kind of game the good characters areas important as the evil creatures the player must fight against. What kind of life doesa game character have when not helping the player on adventures? Maybe they live asfishermen on the sea or as farmers in the fields. More likely they live in villages amongstother exciting game characters. We examine what these characters’ daily routines looks likeand look at a technique used for creating their behaviour patterns, Cyclic Scheduling. Thetechnique is used by developers to create schedules that control the behaviour of charactersin games. These schedules have to be created during the game development process andfor bigger games this consumes a lot of time. The model we presents in this thesis uses thetechnique Smart Terrain to automatically generate behaviour patterns thereby reducingthe development time. We discuss how the model can be used in dynamic game worldswhere the developers are unaware of potential changes in the game world.

I denna uppsats presenteras ett verktyg för att assistera skapandet av spelbanor i dungeon-miljö. Skapandet av sådana banor är ofta resurskrävande under produktionen och har fokus på design. För att behålla designaspekten men underlätta arbetet är verktyget framtaget för att med tillgängliga parametrar producera grottgångar för sådana banor. Vi undersöker med användartester hur verktyget kan användas för att effektivisera en känd metod för att skapa spelbanor, men samtidigt skapa den kvalité som eftertraktas. Med detta avser vi inte bara att ta fram ett effektivt verktyg, utan även att demonstrera en metod för att använda procedurell generering av spelinnehåll för ett nytt ändamål inom speldesign. / In this article a tool for assisting the creation of game levels in a dungeon environment is presented. Creating such game levels often requires a large amount of resources during a game production and has focus on design. To keep the aspect of design but ease work, the tool is created to produce caverns for such game levels with accessible parameters. We examine with user tests how the tool can be used to make an existing method for creation of game levels more effective. But at the same time producing the quality that is coveted. With this we do not only hope to produce an effective tool, but also to demonstrate a method for using procedural generation for a new purpose in game design.