Darrel Cusey (@Tulrath)

Lakehome Games, LLC

Deterministic Procedural Content Generation (PCG) in video games has been with us for some time now. Very early games like Elite and Rogue used these techniques almost exclusively for content generation. More recent examples like Diablo, Elder Scrolls Daggerfall, Borderlands, and Minecraft have refined these techniques to the point of a science. Unfortunately, many game developers don’t use these techniques generally because they are considered “too noisy,” “too slow,” or “too unpredictable.” This presentation will provide:

• A brief description of what PCG is (and what it is not)
• Examine some current methodologies
• Describe the current state of the art
• And demonstrate some new technique of my own design that are not yet in general use.

All of these methods will use algorithms that are fast enough to generate content real-time and use simple binary math that can be implemented in any programming language. As we go through this presentation, we’re going to “build-up” our algorithms from the ground up using a simple game developed in Unity 3D. Even though we will be implementing some higher-level math techniques, the presentation is designed to be accessible for your entire team – every member of your game development team will get something out of this presentation.

There will time for Q & A, so be prepared for lots of discussion. Darrel Cusey is a self-taught computer programmer and game designer recruit who has over 25 years of professional programming experience. Darrel is the founder of Lakehome Games, a three-person video game development studio that is combining rich characters and stories with novel gameplay mechanics to create games for the Web and Mobile platforms that are both highly engaging but also immediately accessible for busy people. Over the last 5 years, Darrel has been an active member in the Indie game development community, providing tutorials and instruction on topics like in-game terrain generation for the Toque Game Engine on the Garage Games forums, multiplayer game development and advanced network security implementations for the DarkGDK for The Game Creators forums (forum name “Omen”).

Member Project: From Nothing - GravBlocks

From Nothing will present their puzzle game GravBlocks which has gravity changing as a core mechanic. Details and video are on the GravBlocks Kickstarter page.

From Nothing Game Studios is Nick Behrens, Paul Metcalf, Josh Saville, Bob Andreae and Mee Thao.