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  • Textbook
  • © 2016

Procedural Content Generation in Games

  • Procedural Content Generation (PCG) in games is the automatic or computer-assisted generation of content such as levels, landscapes, items, rules, and quests
  • Content class- and industry-tested by leading game developers
  • Hot topic in game development and development and academic game research
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Computational Synthesis and Creative Systems (CSACS)

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvi
  2. Introduction

    • Julian Togelius, Noor Shaker, Mark J. Nelson
    Pages 1-15
  3. The search-based approach

    • Julian Togelius, Noor Shaker
    Pages 17-30
  4. Constructive generation methods for dungeons and levels

    • Noor Shaker, Antonios Liapis, Julian Togelius, Ricardo Lopes, Rafael Bidarra
    Pages 31-55
  5. Fractals, noise and agents with applications to landscapes

    • Noor Shaker, Julian Togelius, Mark J. Nelson
    Pages 57-72
  6. Grammars and L-systems with applications to vegetation and levels

    • Julian Togelius, Noor Shaker, Joris Dormans
    Pages 73-98
  7. Rules and Mechanics

    • Mark J. Nelson, Julian Togelius, Cameron Browne, Michael Cook
    Pages 99-121
  8. Planning with applications to quests and story

    • Yun-Gyung Cheong, Mark O. Riedl, Byung-Chull Bae, Mark J. Nelson
    Pages 123-141
  9. ASP with Applications to Mazes and Levels

    • Mark J. Nelson, Adam M. Smith
    Pages 143-157
  10. Representations for search-based methods

    • Dan Ashlock, Sebastian Risi, Julian Togelius
    Pages 159-179
  11. The experience-driven perspective

    • Noor Shaker, Julian Togelius, Georgios N. Yannakakis
    Pages 181-194
  12. Mixed-initiative content creation

    • Antonios Liapis, Gillian Smith, Noor Shaker
    Pages 195-214
  13. Evaluating content generators

    • Noor Shaker, Gillian Smith, Georgios N. Yannakakis
    Pages 215-224
  14. Back Matter

    Pages 225-237

About this book

This book presents the most up-to-date coverage of procedural content generation (PCG) for games, specifically the procedural generation of levels, landscapes, items, rules, quests, or other types of content. Each chapter explains an algorithm type or domain, including fractal methods, grammar-based methods, search-based and evolutionary methods, constraint-based methods, and narrative, terrain, and dungeon generation. 

The authors are active academic researchers and game developers, and the book is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students of courses on games and creativity; game developers who want to learn new methods for content generation; and researchers in related areas of artificial intelligence and computational intelligence.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Dept. of Architecture, Design & Media Technology, Aalborg University Copenhagen (AAU CPH), Copenhagen, Denmark

    Noor Shaker

  • Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering, New York University, Brooklyn, USA

    Julian Togelius

  • The MetaMakers Institute, Falmouth University, Penryn, United Kingdom

    Mark J. Nelson

About the authors

Noor Shaker is a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Applied Game Research in the Dept. of Architecture, Design and Media Technology of Aalborg University Copenhagen (AAU CPH). She was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Computer Games Research, IT University of Copenhagen. She is the chair of the IEEE CIS Task Force on Player Modeling. Her research interests include player modeling, procedural content generation, computational creativity, affective computing, and player behavior imitation.

Julian Togelius is an associate professor in the Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering of New York University, and a codirector of the NYU Game Innovation Lab. He was previously an Associate Professor at the Center for Computer Games Research, IT University of Copenhagen. He works on all aspects of computational intelligence and games and on selected topics in evolutionary computation and evolutionary reinforcement learning. His current main research directions involve search-based procedural content generation, game adaptation through player modelling, automatic game design, and fair and relevant benchmarking of game AI through competitions. He is a past chair of the IEEE CIS Technical Committee on Games, and an associate editor of the IEEE Trans. on Computational Intelligence and Games.

Mark J. Nelson is a senior research fellow at the MetaMakers Institute of Falmouth University, an institute dedicated to computational creativity and generative interactive entertainment. He was previously an Assistant Professor at the Center for Computer Games Research, IT University of Copenhagen. He works on AI-based design support for videogames (and other creative design domains), focusing on formalization of things such as game mechanics to enable automated analysis and generation. A long-time vision is an interactive, semiautomated CAD-style system for game prototyping. Prior to the IT University of Copenhagen,he was affiliated with the Expressive Intelligence Studio at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access