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On Randomly Generated Content In Games
Thanks to Skotos.net for their article discussing randomly-generated content in videogames, in which the author discusses pioneering games with random elements, suggesting: "One of the reasons [classic RPG] Rogue was so popular (and spawned so many children) is due to its generation of random content." But he goes on to point out: "Computers don't have the imagination to make good puzzles... asking a computer to create an interesting puzzle is very similar to asking it to tell a story, make up a joke, or create a riddle." The suggested answer is game elements "placed randomly within the [linear] structure", but with recent random level-generating games such as Toe Jam & Earl III striking out, how far should randomness be taken in games?
Gee, and it's not like they didn't ACTUALLY MENTION these in the article or anything... Dare I Quote: In fact, it would be pretty easy to argue that modern games such as Diablo2 were extended variants of the Rogue family.
We played rogue because it was the only "game" in town. Now some games just make you "do" the dungeons to advance the plot and such - you wouldn't play these without a plot (remember a DC/GC release called "Evolution"? thought not).
Now some games (I guess like Diablo) are good enough so you're having fun as you're playing, rather than suffering for the sake of a later payoff. These are the kinds of games that can pull off random dungeon generation.
But talk to almost any serious RPG gamer and you'll hear randomly generated stuff sux. It's OK in the 50-floor-tower-of-leveling-up, but not in the main game.
Geometry was the same for the SAME CHARACTER, but when you switch characters (or games), it re-generates the level. There are several locations in the games that are hard-coded, but often how to get to those places are dynamic.
Toejam and Earl III's random level isn't a new feature, because the first Toejam and Earl was doing it way back near the beginning of the megadrive. Sure it's got slightly more advanced, but having played the original the "feel" of the way it makes maps is very similar. Interestingly (or not) Toejam and Earl II didn't have randomly generated maps, possibly because it was side-scrolling and I imagine making interesting maps would have been harder (because you are much more restricted on what it is possible for a valid map to look like)
Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
The way that the Linear Modeling Kit works is that it randomizes each element of the story independently. The user puts in the basic structure - all of the elements as defined by Propp, and then for each element creates a number of entries that could fit there. Then the program shuffles the entries for each element, and strings them together to form a story.
There are some complicating elements - the ability to skip steps, which is crucial to Propp, and the ability to make flags that have the effect of not giving the protagonist a sex change, but that's the basic idea - so it does work, insofar as Propp works.
Philip Sandifer's academic website