Malmö University Publications
Change search
Link to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Publications (10 of 20) Show all publications
Alvarez, A., Font Fernandez, J. M., Dahlskog, S. & Togelius, J. (2022). Interactive Constrained MAP-Elites: Analysis and Evaluation of the Expressiveness of the Feature Dimensions. IEEE Transactions on Games, 14(2), 202-211
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Interactive Constrained MAP-Elites: Analysis and Evaluation of the Expressiveness of the Feature Dimensions
2022 (English)In: IEEE Transactions on Games, ISSN 2475-1502, Vol. 14, no 2, p. 202-211Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

We propose the Interactive Constrained MAP-Elites, a quality-diversity solution for game content generation, implemented as a new feature of the Evolutionary Dungeon Designer (EDD): a mixed-initiative co-creativity tool for designing dungeons. The feature uses the MAP-Elites algorithm, an illumination algorithm that segregates the population among several cells depending on their scores with respect to different behavioral dimensions. Users can flexibly and dynamically alternate between these dimensions anytime, thus guiding the evolutionary process in an intuitive way, and then incorporate suggestions produced by the algorithm in their room designs. At the same time, any modifications performed by the human user will feed back into MAP-Elites, closing a circular workflow of constant mutual inspiration. This paper presents the algorithm followed by an in-depth evaluation of the expressive range of all possible dimension combinations in several scenarios, and discusses their influence in the fitness landscape and in the overall performance of the procedural content generation in EDD.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IEEE, 2022
National Category
Computer Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-40278 (URN)10.1109/TG.2020.3046133 (DOI)000811581700012 ()2-s2.0-85098766850 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2021-02-01 Created: 2021-02-01 Last updated: 2024-02-05Bibliographically approved
Alvarez, A., Font, J., Dahlskog, S. & Togelius, J. (2021). Assessing the Effects of Interacting with MAP-Elites. In: Proceedings of the seventeenth {AAAI} Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment: . Paper presented at Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE), October 11–15, 2021, A Virtual Conference (pp. 124-131). Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, 17
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Assessing the Effects of Interacting with MAP-Elites
2021 (English)In: Proceedings of the seventeenth {AAAI} Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence , 2021, Vol. 17, p. 124-131Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

MAP-Elites has been successfully applied to the generation of game content and robot behaviors. However, its behavior and performance when interacted with in co-creative systems is underexplored. This paper analyzes the implications of synthetic interaction for the stability and adaptability of MAP-Elites in such scenarios. We use pre-recorded human-made level design sessions with the Interactive Constrained MAP-Elites (IC MAP-Elites). To analyze the effect of each edition step in the search space over time using different feature dimensions, we introduce Temporal Expressive Range Analysis (TERA). With TERAs, MAP-Elites is assessed in terms of its adaptability and stability to generate diverse and high-performing individuals. Our results show that interactivity, in the form of design edits and MAP-Elites adapting towards them, directs the search process to previously unexplored areas of the fitness landscape and points towards how this could improve and enrich the co-creative process with quality-diverse individuals.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, 2021
Series
Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment, ISSN 2326-909X, E-ISSN 2334-0924 ; 17:1
National Category
Computer Sciences Human Computer Interaction
Research subject
Interaktionsdesign
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-47273 (URN)978-1-57735-871-8 (ISBN)
Conference
Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE), October 11–15, 2021, A Virtual Conference
Available from: 2021-12-07 Created: 2021-12-07 Last updated: 2022-12-07Bibliographically approved
Alvarez, A., Dahlskog, S., Font, J. & Togelius, J. (2019). Empowering Quality Diversity in Dungeon Design with Interactive Constrained MAP-Elites (ed.). In: (Ed.), : . Paper presented at IEEE Conference on Games, London, United Kingdom (2019/08/20 - 2019/08/23). IEEE
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Empowering Quality Diversity in Dungeon Design with Interactive Constrained MAP-Elites
2019 (English)Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

We propose the use of quality-diversity algorithms for mixed-initiative game content generation. This idea is implemented as a new feature of the Evolutionary Dungeon Designer, a system for mixed-initiative design of the type of levels you typically find in computer role playing games. The feature uses the MAP-Elites algorithm, an illumination algorithm which divides the population into a number of cells depending on their values along several behavioral dimensions. Users can flexibly and dynamically choose relevant dimensions of variation, and incorporate suggestions produced by the algorithm in their map designs. At the same time, any modifications performed by the human feed back into MAP-Elites, and are used to generate further suggestions.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IEEE, 2019
Series
IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games, ISSN 2325-4270, E-ISSN 2325-4289
Keywords
Procedural Content Generation, Evolutionary Algorithms, MIxed-Initiative Co-Creativity, Computer Games
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-12640 (URN)10.1109/CIG.2019.8848022 (DOI)000843154300065 ()2-s2.0-85073116656 (Scopus ID)30472 (Local ID)30472 (Archive number)30472 (OAI)
Conference
IEEE Conference on Games, London, United Kingdom (2019/08/20 - 2019/08/23)
Available from: 2020-02-29 Created: 2020-02-29 Last updated: 2023-12-14Bibliographically approved
Alvarez, A., Dahlskog, S., Font, J., Holmberg, J. & Johansson, S. (2018). Assessing Aesthetic Criteria in the Evolutionary dungeon Designer (ed.). In: (Ed.), Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games: . Paper presented at International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, Malmö, Sweden (2018, August 7-10). ACM Digital Library, Article ID 44.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Assessing Aesthetic Criteria in the Evolutionary dungeon Designer
Show others...
2018 (English)In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, ACM Digital Library, 2018, article id 44Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

The Evolutionary Dungeon Designer (EDD) [1] is as a mixed-initiative tool for creating dungeons for adventure games. Results from a user study with game developers positively evaluated EDD as a suitable framework for collaboration between human designers and PCG suggestions, highlighting these as time-saving and inspiring for creating dungeons [2]. Previous work on EDD identified the need of assessing aesthetic criteria as a key area for improvement in its PCG Engine. By upgrading the individual encoding system and the fitness evaluation in EDD's evolutionary algorithm, we present three techniques to preserve and account the designer's aesthetic criteria during the dungeon generation process: the capability of locking sections for preserving custom aesthetic structures, as well as the measurement of symmetry and similarity in the provided suggestions.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
ACM Digital Library, 2018
Series
International Conference Proceeding Series (ICPS)
Keywords
Procedural Content Generation, Evolutionary Algorithms, Mixed-Initiative Design
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-16819 (URN)10.1145/3235765.3235810 (DOI)2-s2.0-85055581467 (Scopus ID)27341 (Local ID)27341 (Archive number)27341 (OAI)
Conference
International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, Malmö, Sweden (2018, August 7-10)
Available from: 2020-03-30 Created: 2020-03-30 Last updated: 2024-02-05Bibliographically approved
Alvarez, A., Dahlskog, S., Holmberg, J., Nolasco, C., Österman, A. & Font, J. (2018). Fostering Creativity in the Mixed-Initiative Evolutionary Dungeon Designer (ed.). In: (Ed.), Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games: . Paper presented at International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, Malmö, Sweden (2018, August 7-10). ACM Digital Library, Article ID 50.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Fostering Creativity in the Mixed-Initiative Evolutionary Dungeon Designer
Show others...
2018 (English)In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, ACM Digital Library, 2018, article id 50Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Mixed-initiative systems highlight the collaboration between humans and computers in fostering the generation of more interesting content in game design. In light of the ever-increasing cost of game development, providing mixed-initiative tools can not only significantly reduce the cost but also encourage more creativity amongst game designers. The Evolutionary Dungeon Designer (EDD) [3] is a mixed-initiative tool with a focus on using evolutionary computation to procedurally generate content that adhere to game design patterns. As part of an ongoing project, feedback from a user study on EDD's capabilities as a mixed-initiative design tool pointed out the need for improvement on the tool's functionalities [4]. In this paper we present a review of the principles of the mixed-initiative model, as well as the existing approaches that implement it. The outcome of this analysis allows us to address the appointed needs for improvement by shaping a new version of EDD that we describe here. Finally, we also present the results from a user study carried out with professional game developers, in order to assess EDD's new functionalities. Results show an overall positive evaluation of the tool's intuitiveness and capabilities for empowering game developers' creative skills during the design process of dungeons for adventure games. They also allow us to identify upcoming challenges pattern-based mixed-initiative tools could benefit from.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
ACM Digital Library, 2018
Keywords
Mixed-Initiative Design, Procedural Content Generation, Game Design Patterns
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-16793 (URN)10.1145/3235765.3235815 (DOI)2-s2.0-85055514392 (Scopus ID)27339 (Local ID)27339 (Archive number)27339 (OAI)
Conference
International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, Malmö, Sweden (2018, August 7-10)
Available from: 2020-03-30 Created: 2020-03-30 Last updated: 2024-02-05Bibliographically approved
Baldwin, A., Dahlskog, S., Font, J. & Holmberg, J. (2017). Mixed-initiative procedural generation of dungeons using game design patterns (ed.). In: (Ed.), (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG): . Paper presented at 2017 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG), New York, USA (22-25 August, 2017) (pp. 25-32). : IEEE
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Mixed-initiative procedural generation of dungeons using game design patterns
2017 (English)In: Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG), IEEE, 2017, p. 25-32Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Abstract: Procedural Content Generation (PCG) can be a useful tool for aiding creativity in the process of designing game levels. Mixed-initiative level generation tools where a designer and an algorithm collaborate to iteratively generate game levels have been used for this purpose. However, it can be difficult for designers to work with tools that do not respond to the common language of games: game design patterns. We present the Evolutionary Dungeon Designer, the first step towards a mixed-initiative dungeon design tool which evolves dungeon rooms using game design patterns, as well as several metrics regarding the placement of treasures and enemies, in the fitness function of a genetic algorithm. Our results show that we are able to control the frequency, shape and type of design patterns, as well as properly place enemies and treasures in the generated rooms, using design pattern-related input parameters.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IEEE, 2017
Keywords
Games, Genetic algorithms, Algorithm design and analysis, Sociology, Statistics, Tools, Generators
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-16846 (URN)10.1109/CIG.2017.8080411 (DOI)2-s2.0-85030788443 (Scopus ID)24156 (Local ID)24156 (Archive number)24156 (OAI)
Conference
2017 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG), New York, USA (22-25 August, 2017)
Available from: 2020-03-30 Created: 2020-03-30 Last updated: 2024-02-05Bibliographically approved
Baldwin, A., Dahlskog, S., Font, J. & Holmberg, J. (2017). Towards Pattern-Based Mixed-Initiative Dungeon Generation (ed.). In: (Ed.), (Ed.), Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games;12: . Paper presented at The 8th Workshop on Procedural Content Generation, Hyannis, U.S.A. (14th of August). : ACM Digital Library, Article ID 74.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Towards Pattern-Based Mixed-Initiative Dungeon Generation
2017 (English)In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games;12, ACM Digital Library, 2017, article id 74Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Mixed-initiative Procedural Content Generation uses algorithms to assist human designers in the collaborative creation of game content. Different mixed-initiative approaches use different methods to engage with the design material while supporting the designer’s intentions. However, the designer runs the risk of misunderstanding the system’s abilities and how to control them. In order to limit miscommunication during the design process, heuristics could be applied. In this paper we present a mixed-initiative tool for evolving dungeons with the aid of game design patterns as heuristics. The tool, the Evolutionary Dungeon Designer, uses a genetic algorithm that searches for levels containing game design patterns on two hierarchical levels of abstraction to express more complex gameplay in the game level. We evaluate the tool through a series of lab experiments and a user study conducted with professional game developers. Our results demonstrate that we are able to control the generation of the different patterns with the aid of design pattern-related input parameters, as well as identifying a number of features a design pattern-based mixed-initiative tool could benefit from.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
ACM Digital Library, 2017
Keywords
Procedural Content Generation, Evolutionary Algorithms, Game Design Patterns, Mixed-Initiative Design
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-16848 (URN)10.1145/3102071.3110572 (DOI)000426967500074 ()2-s2.0-85030753753 (Scopus ID)23805 (Local ID)23805 (Archive number)23805 (OAI)
Conference
The 8th Workshop on Procedural Content Generation, Hyannis, U.S.A. (14th of August)
Available from: 2020-03-30 Created: 2020-03-30 Last updated: 2024-02-05Bibliographically approved
Dahlskog, S. (2016). Patterns and procedural content generation in digital games: automatic level generation for digital games using game design patterns (ed.). (Doctoral dissertation). Malmö university, Faculty of Technology and Society
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Patterns and procedural content generation in digital games: automatic level generation for digital games using game design patterns
2016 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The development of content in digital games, such as game worlds, quests, levels, 3D-models, and textures, is costly and time consuming. To address this, different approaches to automate the process of creating game content, often referred to as procedural content generation (PCG), has been suggested. However, PCG is a complex task and include challenges such as creating content with variation, coherent style, speed, and correctness. The research in the thesis is concerned with generating game content with the aid of game design patterns, both by establishing models and exploring different methods to generate actual game content for different games. The methods include implementations of evolutionary computation, i.e. a set of search-based approaches that searches for instances of game design patterns on different abstraction levels that make up Super Mario Bros. (SMB) levels and a learning algorithm implementation based on a model (n-grams) of patterns from the original SMB-game. The different generators were evaluated with metrics concerned with the expressive range of the generators and with user tests.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Malmö university, Faculty of Technology and Society, 2016. p. 269
Series
Studies in Computer Science ; 2
Keywords
Procedural Content Generation, Search-based, Genetic Algorithms, Digital Games, Design Patterns
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-7775 (URN)20371 (Local ID)978-91-7104-684-0 (ISBN)978-91-7104-685-7 (ISBN)20371 (Archive number)20371 (OAI)
Public defence
2016-06-10, Niagara, NI:B0E15, Malmö, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Available from: 2020-02-28 Created: 2020-02-28 Last updated: 2022-06-27Bibliographically approved
Dahlskog, S., Togelius, J. & Davidsson, P. (2016). Player Experience Evaluation of Level Generators in the Mario AI Framework.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Player Experience Evaluation of Level Generators in the Mario AI Framework
2016 (English)Manuscript (preprint) (Other academic)
National Category
Computer Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-18164 (URN)
Available from: 2020-09-02 Created: 2020-09-02 Last updated: 2022-06-27Bibliographically approved
Dahlskog, S., Björk, S. & Togelius, J. (2015). Patterns, Dungeons and Generators (ed.). Paper presented at Foundations of Digital Games Conference, FDG, Pacific Grove, U.S.A. (2015). Paper presented at Foundations of Digital Games Conference, FDG, Pacific Grove, U.S.A. (2015). : Foundations of Digital Games, Article ID 30.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Patterns, Dungeons and Generators
2015 (English)Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

This paper analyses dungeons, of the varieties commonly found in role-playing games, into several sets of design patterns at different levels of abstraction. The analysis focuses on mechanical patterns that could be either straightforwardly instantiated or recognized by a well-defined process. At the most concrete level a set of fundamental components were identified, followed by a long list of micropatterns which can be directly instantiated. Shorter lists of meso- and macro-patterns, which can be identified mechanically, are also identified. The direct motivation for this analysis is to find building blocks and objectives for a search-based procedural dungeon generator, however we believe the analysis can be useful for understanding this class of game artifacts in general. In particular, the constraints on patterns being instantiable or recognizable leads to a stricter pattern analysis than many other attempts at analyzing game design.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Foundations of Digital Games, 2015
Keywords
design patterns, dungeons, Procedural content generation
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-16749 (URN)19162 (Local ID)19162 (Archive number)19162 (OAI)
Conference
Foundations of Digital Games Conference, FDG, Pacific Grove, U.S.A. (2015)
Available from: 2020-03-30 Created: 2020-03-30 Last updated: 2022-06-27Bibliographically approved
Projects
The Evolutionary World Designer; Malmö University
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0002-2644-2785

Search in DiVA

Show all publications