[aschearer]

Programmers always want to automate content creation. I get it as I’m a coder and it’s a fun problem space. Plus creating content is super time and skill intensive. It’s really hard to get right in my experience. Kind of like trying to automate writing a novel…

OK I read the article. I'm very skeptical of this approach. I doubt we can actually uncover fitness functions that reliably maps to "fun", and I believe it would require huge engineering effort to keep the game "simulable." Their examples aren't convincing. What would be convincing is a full, complex, and _fun_ game using these techniques.

Also the article seems like an ad for their AI solution.

[delichon]

> Programmers always want to automate content creation

We have a god complex that brain surgeons can only envy. How many universes have they built?

[programd]

I suspect everyone on HN started out wanting to build COOL WORLDS as a kid!

[teamonkey]

I wouldn’t say it was an inspiration, no

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_World_(SNES_video_game)

[RaftPeople]

I still do :)

[SpaceManNabs]

> I doubt we can actually uncover fitness functions that reliably maps to "fun"

You don't have to. Get empirical data and form a proxy evaluator. Usable enough for most evolutionary algorithms. I've done this sort of stuff for very subjective metrics and actually sold something with it.

[cubefox]

> Kind of like trying to automate writing a novel…

So you are saying procedural level design could be solved with generative AI?

[itishappy]

In theory. It'll be more convincing once generative AI proves itself useful for writing novels.

[DennisP]

AI can already write short stories, just not very good ones. It'll be doing novels once the context windows are big enough.

[cubefox]

Note also that base models (foundation models) are much better at writing fiction than models tuned for chat. See https://nostalgebraist.tumblr.com/post/706441900479152128/no...

[itishappy]

Agreed, the technology looks promising but isn't ready yet.

[cubefox]

It's orders of magnitude better than procedural methods written by humans.

[itishappy]

At writing novels or creating games? I'm open to evidence of either...

[bongodongobob]

I've been able to write coherent stories a dozen pages long. You need to have it generate plot points and other auxiliary information about characters and whatnot and it does a pretty good job. Obviously it's not going to one shot all that yet.