Bachelor Thesis

Rapid prototyping for games was always a subject I was most interested in. Therefore, in my bachelor thesis, I investigated the use of procedurally generated content as a tool for rapid prototyping. To do that I iterated on a simple top-down action game by procedurally generating the levels and observingving testers play the game.

I concluded that this is a good tool to quickly test mechanics by creating surprising situations. Using seeds for the levels proved a good way to create reproducible situations. But a good toolbox for procedural content is needed, or the implementation of procedural content generation itself will take up too much time.

Project Specifics:
Year: 2016
Engine: Unity (C#)
Personal worktime: 4 months
My Responsibilities included:
- Implementation of various methods of procedural level generation
- Developing topdown action game
- Developing AI, based on statemachine and A* pathfinding
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First I used perlin noise to place water-areas
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Then I set the corridors
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Onto the corridors, I place rooms and check via floodfill if all are reachable

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via floodfill, i check per room where the doors should be located
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I set all walls further away as a few steps from floors as indestuctible
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Then I place a certain amount of enemies per corridor and room


Bombs where implemented to battle the problem of small corridors making the game too predictable
Bombs where implemented to battle the problem of small corridors making the game too predictable