Evaluating a Casual Procedural Generation Tool for Tabletop Role-Playing Game Maps

Tile maps are useful for a wide variety of games, particularly tabletop role-playing games. However, existing tools for creating them usually either require the map to be created entirely by hand, or procedurally generate the entire map with only a few parameters being controlled by the user. In previous work, we presented a mixed-initiative tool for generating tile maps that gives the user precise control over the generated map while still allowing them to take advantage of procedural generation. In this work, we empirically evaluate this tool by asking five users to complete three thinkaloud tasks and a post-task survey. We found that users found the tool fun to use and that it made map design easier. We discuss takeaways and how this tool and similar tools can be made better.