Procedural Level Design in Eldritch

In this 2015 GDC talk, Minor Key Games' David Pittman explains how and why he used procedural level generation while making Eldritch and provides general reasons why procedural algorithms might be embraced by level designers.

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[TheMemoman]

Great talk. I think the important thing to rescue is that procedural generation is not excluded from design. And while it's a different type of approach, the game design principles are the same and just as valid.

I also agree that procedural generation is very specific to the game and feel you want. A random number or seed, you can get that from the simplest base libraries of a programming language, the importance of design lies in the way you use that variable to power your own procedural machine and achieve your game's objectives.

[designatedreader]

Eldritch is a fantastic game, still playing in 2019 ⭐️👉

[JimGiant]

Thanks for awaring me on Prim's algorithm. It's so simple I don't know why I didn't think of it.

[ImperativeGames]

Good relatively simple indie algorithms for PCG, thanks!

[alexitosworld]

Using it to expand a handcrafted campaign is kind of what games like Diablo 3 or PoE do to some extend, with "missions" or "maps" to the end of the game. Kinda neat.

[forasago]

Guy barely in the frame is like a heckler from the silent movie era.

[chrislagos]

Ok explain what will drive the creation of a new region. The camera moves at a constant rate or the player moves the main character forward? How do you bring those voxel pieces into the code? Prima algorithm tells you where to lay them down? How do you reference a voxel wall in code? Where do you store the boxes? Json file? Or an actual jpg or PNG file or obj. 😊

[JimGiant]

I'd love to get my hands on the Unity project file for this.

[matrinoxtm]

6:40 there is a game that does that: bloodborne

[olucaspc]

I didnt search for it but, is there any way to see the recent gdc talks ? this one is from 2015

[StarContract]

"No Man's Sky was a bad game therefore procedural generation sucks" should be acknowledged as a formal religion in the United States at this point

[PsychofArt]

I suspect this game was influenced by Ken's Labyrinth

[Yui]

To me, level generation seems like a treat for the developers and not something other players generally care about. Of course that all depends on the game. As a game developer, creating level generation makes the game new for you whereas static maps are completely known to you, but other players don't know any better either way. Diablo III boasts level generation and its amazing from a programming perspective, but as a player a few set designed maps would be crafted better.
Level generation is my favorite things to make (since its for me), but it yields the most poorly designed areas since it can't compete with intentional design.