Gaming has reached its golden age. From punchy graphics to fascinating narratives and reality-bending level design, the game experience feels more immersive and engaging than ever.
Many significant changes involve behind-the-scenes elements, but the most instantly noticeable advancements relate to the appearance of these games. An industry that began with oscilloscopes and tiny pixels has blossomed into a creative environment that allows games to look just as incredible as the big-budget summer blockbuster movies from which they draw inspiration.
However, with this technological boom comes several challenges, including the game asset creation process. With game budgets skyrocketing, few developers and artists have either the time or resources needed to create every character or environmental detail on their own.
Thankfully, a viable solution is within reach. These days, many artists look to procedural content generation to assist with creating art for video games. Still in its relative infancy, procedural game design has become an industry staple and it’s rapidly accelerating as the technology improves that powers it.
Understanding Procedural Generation in Games
Procedural generation may sound like a gaming buzzword, but it’s far from new. In fact, many of the most popular games of the last decade (including the likes of Minecraft and 20XX) have used procedural generation to great effect.
Think of procedural generation as an invaluable tool that maximizes the efficiency of the game art pipeline. Of course, no technology is perfect — and while the advantages of procedural generation are numerous, a few pitfalls must be avoided when opting for procedurally generated content and art assets.
What Is Procedural Generation?
Procedural generation refers to any in-game assets created by software programs with specific guidelines, parameters and algorithms. One familiar example could be a dungeon with dozens of different levels. Each level will have a minimum number of specific elements dictated by the guidelines, while the rest of the design can be left up to the software.
Benefits and Drawbacks of Procedural Systems
Many compelling advantages encourage creatives to leverage procedural generation systems in-game environment design. Perhaps most notable in today’s fast-paced industry: the potential to save time. Without procedural generation, it becomes necessary to design and create every level manually. Though this manual approach can deliver richer and more textured designs, tight deadlines make this strategy difficult to maintain.
Designers appreciate that they now enjoy the option to produce dozens of levels, especially given the content-hungry nature of this demanding field. The caveat? If the core guidelines and parameters that serve to instruct the software aren’t up to par, the results can be lackluster, and worst of all, no fun to play.
Every artist and developer strives to find the sweet spot in which game content can be procedurally generated while still looking and feeling as though it was meticulously crafted by creative visionaries.
Popular Games Using Procedural Generation
Procedural generation entered the gaming industry decades ago. One of the most notable examples involves the 1980 title Rogue — a dungeon crawler in which no two play-throughs looked exactly the same. While the game was never a major financial success, its influence lives on to this day, as it has spawned entire genres of imitators known as “Roguelikes” and “Roguelites.”
Since then, the indie world has continued in Rogue’s footsteps. Games such as Spelunky and Minecraft demonstrate how procedurally generated content can form the basis for memorable gaming experiences.
Challenges of Creating Art for Procedural Environments
Game artists and developers face certain obstacles within the game asset creation workflow when designing for procedural generation. Numerous constraints are placed upon the size, shape and complexity of various objects and assets, which must fit into every procedurally generated game world without looking out of place.
As mentioned previously, artists also need to design assets that can be procedurally generated in a repetitive manner, all while looking like natural pieces of the environment — suggesting that these elements were placed by hand. Meanwhile, they must also navigate accessibility challenges, which can sometimes be exacerbated by procedurally generated elements.
Designing Modular and Reusable Assets
Modular game assets allow for maximum flexibility and increased productivity. A good example of modular assets at work is a medieval village in which every house and castle looks unique. The artists design and create the individual pieces for each building, and the software generates structures that use the same assets differently. Designing these assets can be a challenge, as artists must craft pieces that look familiar without giving off a copy-and-paste feel.
Balancing Variety and Style Consistency
Creating enough visual variety is one of the major hurdles that artists face when working with procedurally generated content. Procedural generation is great for creating bulk assets and levels, but those creations tend to blend together as the players spend more time interacting with them. Artists can avoid this feeling by creating a variety of locations and settings. While these will have their own new sets of guidelines and algorithms, they go a long way toward keeping things fresh and interesting.
Limitations of Predictability
A key aspect of dynamic world-building is throwing new settings, scenarios and experiences at the player on a regular basis. This is crucial given the core drawback of procedural generation: Eagle-eyed players quickly become aware of the world around them and how it was created. As such, it is important to deliver new worlds and environments to keep them on their toes.
Key Principles for Art in Procedural Games
Several principles guide art design in procedural games, ensuring that — no matter how many hours players spend inside a particular game world — they’ll never feel as if the game is merely placing randomly generated content in front of them.
Creating a Flexible Visual Language
Every game has its own distinct visual style, which must fit perfectly with the tone and themes. This style also serves an essential function in the gameplay: orienting the player within the gaming world. Environments should allow players to reach their destinations without feeling lost or confused. It’s up to the artists and designers to find the best routing techniques to usher players through each game world without creating the perception of a linear, on-rails experience.
Working With Technical Teams and Tools
Procedural generation represents a highly technical endeavor, entailing complex mathematical models that can determine nearly every aspect of the gameplay experience. The designers involved in procedural generation may work with diverse teams of gaming professionals such as system planners, level designers and scenario writers. Regardless of whether procedural generation is part of the picture, modern game design is a collaborative endeavor.
Embracing Randomness as a Creative Tool
Many games strategically employ random number generators to inject unpredictability through unique elements. This keeps gameplay feeling fresh and surprising. Randomness can also serve as the ultimate creative tool, prompting novel scenarios or challenges with unanticipated outcomes.
Randomness may even spark creative ideas among designers, who can draw from these concepts in the pursuit of new content. After all, as the book Procedural Storytelling in Game Design explains, through exploring procedural opportunities, developers can “gain some insights about [developers] non-procedural systems.”
Opportunities for Innovation and Artistic Expression
While procedural generation has sometimes been described in contrast to human-powered artistry, these actually go hand in hand. Offering a more efficient approach to dynamic world-building, procedural content generation makes it possible for ambitious designers to breathe life into their loftiest concepts or ideas.
Expanding Visual Storytelling
Visual storytelling relies on impactful graphic elements to instantly convey narrative developments or other details to the player. This is the gaming world’s version of “showing, not telling.” With procedural generation, the breadth of visual storytelling can expand, encouraging players to discover the narrative through exploration and through personal reflection.
A prime example of visual storytelling can be found in the remarkable No Man’s Sky, in which every planet delivers a unique feeling. As a result, players feel that they are truly blazing a trail across an undiscovered landscape. The distinctive animals, plants and scenery on display allow players to fill in the backstory of each planet on their own.
Efficient Asset Creation Pipelines
Most games contain hundreds or even thousands of different art assets, but that doesn’t mean every single chair, desk, lamp or tree needs to be created from scratch. Procedural generation can greatly reduce the time these assets spend in the creation pipeline, thus allowing artists to focus on the elements that require a more intricate touch. By freeing up creative energy, professionals using procedural content can home in on the most impactful elements of the game in question.
Blending Handcrafted and Procedural Elements
Even the most efficient, well-tuned procedurally generated content will quickly look out of place and awkward if situated alongside handcrafted assets that lack a similar visual theme and flavor. Ideally, players will struggle to tell what’s generated and what’s placed by the designers themselves.
It takes several periods of design and iteration before this lofty goal becomes a reality. Even then, developers need to be prepared to realize that those who view procedural content may never “understand what is happening behind the scenes.”
Case Studies and Artist Insights
Procedural content generation may seem like an abstract concept, but case studies can help bring this process to life. Below, we outline several examples of talented artists and developers who have harnessed the power of procedural generation to turn small ideas into big games.
No Man’s Sky
Developer Hello Games faced many obstacles on the path to unleashing the epic space exploration game No Man’s Sky. Promises of a nearly infinite number of galaxies and planets made it one of the most eagerly anticipated releases of its generation. The initial reactions were quite negative — due, in part, to the feeling of repetition players encountered while navigating the core gameplay experience.
This served as a stark warning for developers: While procedural generation can create unlimited environments and assets, the gameplay loop must feel rewarding. This calls for new challenges on occasion. Remarkably, Hello Games managed to right the ship and turn No Man’s Sky into a massive success with help from several major updates that refined and added to the experience.
Dead Cells and Spelunky
Although No Man’s Sky has shown what procedural generation can accomplish with big, open worlds, a few notable examples highlight the value of this method within smaller environments. Derek Yu’s Spelunky took the roguelike formula and turned it into one of the biggest indie gaming success stories of all time. The procedurally generated caves contain a multitude of challenging enemies and obstacles, delivering an addictive gameplay loop that had players hooked from the beginning.
Perhaps the finest example of handcrafted art assets combined with procedurally generated levels is Dead Cells — the 2018 action game that combines unpredictable elements with the popular Metroidvania style of exploration gameplay. From humble beginnings inside a French apartment, the developers at Motion Twin found the perfect blend of environmental storytelling combined with tight, fast-paced action, all while using random number generators to great effect.
Powerful Insights from Real-World Game Artists
Steve Filby (who worked on Dead Cells at Motion Twin) describes a true formula for success: “Basically, we use about 50 percent procedurally generated and 50 percent hand-crafted content in the game. We keep a short leash on the RNG so that you don’t find yourself in undesirable situations (not enough/missing loot, boring or useless rewards, impossible levels). Having said that, we’ve still got a lot of work to do on the generator until we’ll be 100 percent satisfied with the result.”
Discover New Opportunities in Game Art With RMCAD
Ready to fulfill your creative potential as a visionary in game art? As you explore opportunities such as procedural content generation, be mindful of the technical and artistic elements that support today’s immersive gaming experiences.
Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design can introduce you to these concepts through our Game Art degree program. Peruse options for learning on campus or elevating your game art abilities through online coursework. To take the next step today, don’t hesitate to get in touch and request more information.
