PROCJAM 2023

PROCJAM is back! The game jam, that is about making something that makes something, started its 2023 edition on itch.io. I am afraid I won’t have time to submit anything although the rules are very relaxed: You can even submit after the end date of December 10.

Be that as it may, I at least want to get on top of some resources on procedurally generated levels, that have been in my bookmarks for ages:

• Becky Lavender’s talk Applying Generated Content to an Existing Game from PROCJAM 2016
  • This talk is a high-level rundown of Becky’s Bachelor thesis The Zelda Dungeon Generator: Adopting Generative Grammars to Create Levels for Action-Adventure Games that deals with the procedural generation of dungeons in 2D-Zelda-likes
  • Becky and her thesis advisor Tommy Thompson also submitted this to the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) conference: Extended abstract of Adventures in Hyrule: Generating Missions & Maps for Action Adventure Games
  • Solarus, the open-source game engine they used in their research
• Jamis Buck’s book Mazes for Programmers
• Mapping adventure games with Trizbort.io

If you have the slightest interest in procedural generation or generative art, I can highly recommend checking out PROCJAM’s resources, talks, and zines—it is a magical rabbit hole to go down. Have fun if you decide to enter the jam!

I will report back if I manage to hack something together.

2023-12-13: I Did Not Manage to Hack Something Together

I expected as much. But I managed to get on top of the resources mentioned above. So here is a maze I procedurally generated for you to enjoy:

Try to get from the southwest to the northeast corner.

Also: Make sure to check out Rob Dawson’s online Maze Generator that he created after reading Jamis Buck’s book. I recommend both.