Compressing and Comparing the Generative Spaces of Procedural Content Generators

TL;DR

This paper investigates using data compression algorithms to compare the generative spaces of procedural content generators in 2D tile-based games, aiming to aid designers in understanding and optimizing their systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach of applying data compression to analyze and compare the generative spaces of PCG systems, providing a potential qualitative tool for designers.

Findings

Compression correlates with level behavioral characteristics

Multiple Correspondence Analysis performs best among tested algorithms

Approach shows promise despite domain-specific inconsistencies

Abstract

The past decade has seen a rapid increase in the level of research interest in procedural content generation (PCG) for digital games, and there are now numerous research avenues focused on new approaches for driving and applying PCG systems. An area in which progress has been comparatively slow is the development of generalisable approaches for comparing alternative PCG systems, especially in terms of their generative spaces. It is to this area that this paper aims to make a contribution, by exploring the utility of data compression algorithms in compressing the generative spaces of PCG systems. We hope that this approach could be the basis for developing useful qualitative tools for comparing PCG systems to help designers better understand and optimize their generators. In this work we assess the efficacy of a selection of algorithms across sets of levels for 2D tile-based games by investigating how much their respective generative space compressions correlate with level behavioral characteristics. We conclude that the approach looks to be a promising one despite some inconsistency in efficacy in alternative domains, and that of the algorithms tested Multiple Correspondence Analysis appears to perform the most effectively.