Automated Graph Genetic Algorithm based Puzzle Validation for Faster Game Design

TL;DR

This paper introduces an evolutionary algorithm enhanced with expert heuristics to efficiently validate and generate puzzles in video games, significantly aiding game designers in creating diverse, solvable, and engaging puzzles faster.

Contribution

It presents a novel hybrid genetic algorithm approach for solving complex puzzle validation problems, improving efficiency and diversity of solutions in game design.

Findings

Efficiently finds diverse near-optimal puzzle solutions

Reduces time for puzzle validation and creation

Applicable to various puzzle types in game design

Abstract

Many games are reliant on creating new and engaging content constantly to maintain the interest of their player-base. One such example are puzzle games, in such it is common to have a recurrent need to create new puzzles. Creating new puzzles requires guaranteeing that they are solvable and interesting to players, both of which require significant time from the designers. Automatic validation of puzzles provides designers with a significant time saving and potential boost in quality. Automation allows puzzle designers to estimate different properties, increase the variety of constraints, and even personalize puzzles to specific players. Puzzles often have a large design space, which renders exhaustive search approaches infeasible, if they require significant time. Specifically, those puzzles can be formulated as quadratic combinatorial optimization problems. This paper presents an evolutionary algorithm, empowered by expert-knowledge informed heuristics, for solving logical puzzles in video games efficiently, leading to a more efficient design process. We discuss multiple variations of hybrid genetic approaches for constraint satisfaction problems that allow us to find a diverse set of near-optimal solutions for puzzles. We demonstrate our approach on a fantasy Party Building Puzzle game, and discuss how it can be applied more broadly to other puzzles to guide designers in their creative process.