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I was musing the other day about programming (as you do), and was thinking along the lines of: How much time, man-hours, and money go into making a decent computer game?
Then I was thinking about ways of cutting down on these expenses, and the answer hit me like a bolt from the blue, so I picked myself up from the floor and put the fire out, and started typing here instead.
How about getting a COMPUTER to write games? The idea has been around for a while. But think of the possibilities. Driving along on Sega Rally, MSR or Toca Tourning Cars, and having the track randomly generated as you go, with scenery constantly changing; this would add a certain amount of lastability to the game.
On RPG's you could have randomly generated beasties to bash, on Tomb Raider you could have randomly generated levels to explore, on Zelda MM you could have whole new worlds to explore and randomly generated NPC's to interract with, all generated by your console in real time, so that the game was completely different each time you played it.
Programs are available for the PC where you just drag and drop game elements onto an easel from a pallette, and then click 'GO' to create the game, the elements being things like 'Platformer or Adventure or Shooter or Racer', 'No. of Players', 'Difficulty Rating' and so on.
So why not just develop these programs a bit further, and get the computer to randomly generate the games for you? With a PC or DC, and in the future the PS2 or the XBox, you could then download new modules for your program as they are developed, so that more options become available to you.
The idea just needs developing....by a human. :-(
Then I was thinking about ways of cutting down on these expenses, and the answer hit me like a bolt from the blue, so I picked myself up from the floor and put the fire out, and started typing here instead.
How about getting a COMPUTER to write games? The idea has been around for a while. But think of the possibilities. Driving along on Sega Rally, MSR or Toca Tourning Cars, and having the track randomly generated as you go, with scenery constantly changing; this would add a certain amount of lastability to the game.
On RPG's you could have randomly generated beasties to bash, on Tomb Raider you could have randomly generated levels to explore, on Zelda MM you could have whole new worlds to explore and randomly generated NPC's to interract with, all generated by your console in real time, so that the game was completely different each time you played it.
Programs are available for the PC where you just drag and drop game elements onto an easel from a pallette, and then click 'GO' to create the game, the elements being things like 'Platformer or Adventure or Shooter or Racer', 'No. of Players', 'Difficulty Rating' and so on.
So why not just develop these programs a bit further, and get the computer to randomly generate the games for you? With a PC or DC, and in the future the PS2 or the XBox, you could then download new modules for your program as they are developed, so that more options become available to you.
The idea just needs developing....by a human. :-(
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I was musing the other day about programming (as you do), and was thinking along the lines of: How much time, man-hours, and money go into making a decent computer game?
Then I was thinking about ways of cutting down on these expenses, and the answer hit me like a bolt from the blue, so I picked myself up from the floor and put the fire out, and started typing here instead.
How about getting a COMPUTER to write games? The idea has been around for a while. But think of the possibilities. Driving along on Sega Rally, MSR or Toca Tourning Cars, and having the track randomly generated as you go, with scenery constantly changing; this would add a certain amount of lastability to the game.
On RPG's you could have randomly generated beasties to bash, on Tomb Raider you could have randomly generated levels to explore, on Zelda MM you could have whole new worlds to explore and randomly generated NPC's to interract with, all generated by your console in real time, so that the game was completely different each time you played it.
Programs are available for the PC where you just drag and drop game elements onto an easel from a pallette, and then click 'GO' to create the game, the elements being things like 'Platformer or Adventure or Shooter or Racer', 'No. of Players', 'Difficulty Rating' and so on.
So why not just develop these programs a bit further, and get the computer to randomly generate the games for you? With a PC or DC, and in the future the PS2 or the XBox, you could then download new modules for your program as they are developed, so that more options become available to you.
The idea just needs developing....by a human. :-(
Then I was thinking about ways of cutting down on these expenses, and the answer hit me like a bolt from the blue, so I picked myself up from the floor and put the fire out, and started typing here instead.
How about getting a COMPUTER to write games? The idea has been around for a while. But think of the possibilities. Driving along on Sega Rally, MSR or Toca Tourning Cars, and having the track randomly generated as you go, with scenery constantly changing; this would add a certain amount of lastability to the game.
On RPG's you could have randomly generated beasties to bash, on Tomb Raider you could have randomly generated levels to explore, on Zelda MM you could have whole new worlds to explore and randomly generated NPC's to interract with, all generated by your console in real time, so that the game was completely different each time you played it.
Programs are available for the PC where you just drag and drop game elements onto an easel from a pallette, and then click 'GO' to create the game, the elements being things like 'Platformer or Adventure or Shooter or Racer', 'No. of Players', 'Difficulty Rating' and so on.
So why not just develop these programs a bit further, and get the computer to randomly generate the games for you? With a PC or DC, and in the future the PS2 or the XBox, you could then download new modules for your program as they are developed, so that more options become available to you.
The idea just needs developing....by a human. :-(
Random is very hard for a computer to truely produce though, as they like to work in set parameters.
Have you ever tried to write a short and simple program to generate a random number?
I haven't spent a great deal of time thinking about it, but I guess it would have to produce a random number based on rules, so it wouldn't truely be random, would it?
Or would it?
Maybe I should find some work to be getting on with.
Have you ever tried to write a short and simple program to generate a random number?
I haven't spent a great deal of time thinking about it, but I guess it would have to produce a random number based on rules, so it wouldn't truely be random, would it?
Or would it?
Maybe I should find some work to be getting on with.
Well yes, I have used BASIC to produce simple 'random' numbers, (Using the RND and RAND commands) or example, and yes they are only pseudo-random because they are all generated from the initial 'seed' number that is stored in the computer's memory, but this is only a small point.
Algorithms as yet cannot produce true randomness, but having said that, it wouldn't really matter too much because they can still generate enough randomness to ensure a lifetime's worth of unique gaming for any player.
Algorithms as yet cannot produce true randomness, but having said that, it wouldn't really matter too much because they can still generate enough randomness to ensure a lifetime's worth of unique gaming for any player.
When I was a young lad, about 10 or 11 I used to try to write text based adventures on my Acorn Electron, in BASIC.
I was writing a football based text game, and tried to have a part of it in which whether you scored or not was completely random. After devising three possible outcomes, I tried to code the 'game' so that any one of these could happen, but for some reason, the keeper always saved it!
Mind you, I didn't think that I was that bad, considering that I had no knowledge of variables whatsoever, and I didn't know what half of my code meant, I'd copied it from somewhere else, but it didn't work without it!
I was writing a football based text game, and tried to have a part of it in which whether you scored or not was completely random. After devising three possible outcomes, I tried to code the 'game' so that any one of these could happen, but for some reason, the keeper always saved it!
Mind you, I didn't think that I was that bad, considering that I had no knowledge of variables whatsoever, and I didn't know what half of my code meant, I'd copied it from somewhere else, but it didn't work without it!
Although it is impossible for a computer to produce a truly random number....
The problem is defining the rules within which the computer develops the course.
Since the first Speccy games, there have been titles that generated the game map every time you played (Did they keep that in DIablo2?)...
And although this works fine for a lot of games, other games benefit greatly from level design, even though the application of the porduct is medocre, since the level design is so good, the game is playable...
Fantasy Meister wrote :
"Sega Rally, MSR or Toca Tourning Cars, and having the track randomly generated as you go"
Would be a good option... but you would still need to have pre-defnined tracks... other wise people would complina bout sudden turns, wtc... that you didnt expect, but the compute controlled cars didnt even shrug at... Pretty much all racing games stick you in last place for the first few games, until you get used to the handling of the car, and the layout of the track...
The problem is defining the rules within which the computer develops the course.
Since the first Speccy games, there have been titles that generated the game map every time you played (Did they keep that in DIablo2?)...
And although this works fine for a lot of games, other games benefit greatly from level design, even though the application of the porduct is medocre, since the level design is so good, the game is playable...
Fantasy Meister wrote :
"Sega Rally, MSR or Toca Tourning Cars, and having the track randomly generated as you go"
Would be a good option... but you would still need to have pre-defnined tracks... other wise people would complina bout sudden turns, wtc... that you didnt expect, but the compute controlled cars didnt even shrug at... Pretty much all racing games stick you in last place for the first few games, until you get used to the handling of the car, and the layout of the track...
Let A$ = "Man Utd"
Let B$ = "Newcastle Utd"
Let Score1 = 0
Let Score2 = 5
Print A$;" ";Score1;"-";Score2;" ";B$
See? Easy when you know how, I just mailed that code to Bobby Robson, I think he could do with it.
Let B$ = "Newcastle Utd"
Let Score1 = 0
Let Score2 = 5
Print A$;" ";Score1;"-";Score2;" ";B$
See? Easy when you know how, I just mailed that code to Bobby Robson, I think he could do with it.
I think you got your A$ and B$ in the wrong order...
Although randomness is good for somegames - ie random encounters in FFIIV etc these are still controlled by perimiters so that you don't come up against the hardest monster your first time out.
As for random tracks in games, you need to learn tracks to be good at them, so you know when and how hard to break.
Perhaps a randon track generator, which would save the track so you could play it and learn it. However these tracks probably wouldn't be as good as the tracks designed by the pragrammmers - Grand Valley (GT) anyone!
As for random tracks in games, you need to learn tracks to be good at them, so you know when and how hard to break.
Perhaps a randon track generator, which would save the track so you could play it and learn it. However these tracks probably wouldn't be as good as the tracks designed by the pragrammmers - Grand Valley (GT) anyone!
Utter folly.
In your efforts to cut down the price of gaming, you have likely doubled such costs, and added little of use to most games. Hence, if all software houses were to follow your advice one of two things would happen:
1) In order to cover the cost of making these random games, the price of games would skyrocket.
2) In attempts to keep selling games, the price remains stable, but the software houses make losses and eventually go out of business.
No-one will adopt the idea of in-game randomness because it is too costly and and offers little in return.
In your efforts to cut down the price of gaming, you have likely doubled such costs, and added little of use to most games. Hence, if all software houses were to follow your advice one of two things would happen:
1) In order to cover the cost of making these random games, the price of games would skyrocket.
2) In attempts to keep selling games, the price remains stable, but the software houses make losses and eventually go out of business.
No-one will adopt the idea of in-game randomness because it is too costly and and offers little in return.
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