Urthman

Crossy Road and random level generation

Recommended Posts

I never would have believed that a Frogger re-make could be one of my favorite games of the year just by adding randomly-generated levels.  Well, I guess the utterly charming graphics and the clever and humorous character collection are probably also big factors.  But I definitely wouldn't be enjoying it (or still playing it) if I were just trying to navigate the same level layout over and over.

 

Are there other classic game designs that are similarly transfigured by random level design (and maybe especially good graphic redesign)?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

To elaborate, classic platformers emphasise learning about their specific design as a technique to beat them. In Spelunky you get one shot to beat it while simultaneously exploring the level for first time.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It feels like only recently that we've managed to get good random level design, mostly because it's procedural instead of random. I'm laying most of this at the feet of either Minecraft or Realm of the Mad God, because while we had random level design before then, when it was good, it wasn't random.

 

It seems like the key breakthrough was in the insight that the procedural generation could run on multiple levels of detail. Most earlier random level generation felt arbitrary - it was clear there was no underlying logic to the level, that rooms had been created and joined together. Realm of the Mad God was an application of an island generator that took noise, applied order to it on a high level, then zoomed in and continued. Minecraft took it further, using different algorithms to generate the landscape based on the environment, which itself was generated.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I frequently forget that we have good procedural/random level generation now and my brain instead defaults to the time I got a Persona 4 dungeon floor that was just one giant curved hallway.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

To be fair, Persona 4's random dungeon generation was pretty shit even for the time.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Spelunky is the most immediate example that comes to mind. 

 

Right.  In my mind, Spelunky was so obvious that I forgot to write, "Besides Spelunky, of course."

 

Diablo used randomly-generated dungeons, but I don't feel like that fundamentally changed the game the way it does for Spleunky (or even Crossy Road).  Titan Quest feels like essentially the same kind of game even though the level structure is static.

 

Minecraft is different from games that proceeded it in so many ways it's hard to say specifically how much of a role the randomness plays.  An Elder-Scrolls-type game with all of Minecraft's other innovations (buildings, landscapes, and dungeons all completely solid and destructible; free-form mining, crafting, and building; the dark/light danger/safety mechanic with ability to light dungeons with torches; no plot constraints besides survival, exploration, and building; creepers; co-op multiplayer) would have been revolutionary even if the initial environment had been fixed and authored instead of randomly generated.

 

I guess the random endless runner games like Canabalt or Robot Unicorn Attack are more like what Crossy Road does.

 

Oh, and Super Hexagon is a really good example.

 

Random generation is essential to Rogue and Roguelike games, but those kinds of dungeon crawlers were random from the beginning so I wouldn't think of Rogue as a transformatively random version of an existing type of video game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now