Are games best when they are experenced together? Or how I learned to limit procedural generation.

Started by Legend, Jan 29, 2020, 08:16 AM

previous topic - next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Legend

Every Minecraft world is unique but feels the same. Players can share their experiences online and talk about the game without issue. Same creatures, same biomes, and the same gameplay.

Same goes for Spelunky and other procedural games like that. The world is unique every time but still has lots of common parts. Players can set up wikis about the games and enjoy the meta together.


Dreams is not a procedurally generated game but it's a pretty good example imo of a game that can't be experienced together. Every user generated level is super unique and without playing the exact same levels, it's impossible for fans to share their common experiences online.

Dreams embraces this and is built around this. Players are supposed to promote cool levels so others can experience them.


This pretty much applies to all games with generated content nowadays. Either the generated content keeps things structured or the generated content is shared between players.

If you can think of games that don't follow this trend, please share!

I stumbled into this solution with The Forged Kingdoms. It is all procedurally generated but I decided to select 1 seed as the official campaign. Everyone can play with the same kingdoms and npcs. There are millions of swords but everyone can start out with the same basic ones. Then every two months or so a community seed could be promoted to function like a book club. Dreams like sharing doesn't work well since games are long.

the-pi-guy

I think it depends on how you look at it.  

I would break down dreams and minecraft as being locally consistent vs universally consistent.   Dreams  is locally consistent. Every level has some set of rules but those rules don't carry over so it's not universal.   Whereas minecraft is universally consistent. Every world has the same set of rules.  

I don't think a game would make sense if it wasn't locally consistent.   So those two categories are really the only ones that make sense.  

At least if thats how you make the distinction.  

Legend

I think it depends on how you look at it.  

I would break down dreams and minecraft as being locally consistent vs universally consistent.   Dreams  is locally consistent. Every level has some set of rules but those rules don't carry over so it's not universal.   Whereas minecraft is universally consistent. Every world has the same set of rules.  

I don't think a game would make sense if it wasn't locally consistent.   So those two categories are really the only ones that make sense.  

At least if thats how you make the distinction.  
I'm not sure if this mod was every made, but there was a Minecraft concept where block types would be procedurally generated. Every world would have different building blocks and different crafting recipes. One world could have glowing green sand that makes you sick if you are near it, while another could have red grass that can be crafted into anti gravity weapons. Would such a mod push Minecraft more into a none universally consistent game? Every world still follows the same general flow of Minecraft where you mine, farm, and explore but there is a lot more variation.

the-pi-guy

Would such a mod push Minecraft more into a none universally consistent game? Every world still follows the same general flow of Minecraft where you mine, farm, and explore but there is a lot more variation.
Yeah.  I think universally consistency would be kind of a scale.  
Where no universally consistency would be something like dreams, where there aren't really any rules whatsoever (barring controller types, and console hardware.)  And on the other end, Minecraft would be closer to the other end of the spectrum.  Where there's a definite set of rules that could be put together.  
The mod would push it closer to being a non-universally consistent game.  More consistent that LittleBigPlanet and Dreams, but less than original Minecraft I would say.