Sturgeon-MKIV: Constraint-Based Level and Playthrough Generation with Graph Label Rewrite Rules

Abstract

Procedurally generated game levels should be completable. The representation used for levels and game mechanics impacts the types of games for which different techniques can be applied. Previous work used a constraint solving approach to simultaneously generate levels with example playthroughs, showing they can be completed using the game's mechanics. However, that work used 2D grid-based rewrite rules. In this work, we extend previous approaches by representing levels as more general graphs, and game mechanics as rewrites on node and edge labels of subgraphs. Using this approach, graph-based levels with playthroughs are generated. We describe the approach and demonstrate its application in some games with graph-based levels.