Using Genetic Algorithms for the Generation of Increasingly Challenging Terrain for Players to Navigate

This research focuses on the development of a system that employs genetic algorithms (GA) that generate increasingly challenging terrain for a player to navigate. Our system is developed within a video game, where a player is required to get from a start point to an endpoint, with gameplay mechanisms based on the terrain acting as obstacles for the player. The results from a game experience survey for the ingame section show that players rated gameplay more negatively when the terrain was randomly generated than when it was generated by the GA. While players did not feel more challenged using the GA-generated terrain, they gave an overall more positive gameplay experience. A quantitative data analysis of data collected during gameplay indicates an increase as the rounds progressed, in the number of deaths, the time taken, and levels skipped when using the GA. In contrast, the randomly generated terrain shows no significant difference.