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| 2 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please put examples in the correct order. Thanks! |
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| 7 | [[quoteright:350:[[TabletopGame/DungeonMorph https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1000007399.png]]]] |
| 8 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein God does not play dice]]--but the DungeonMaster certainly does.]] |
| 9 | %% |
| 10 | %% Caption selected per above thread. Please don't change or remove without approval from here: |
| 11 | %% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900 |
| 12 | %% |
| 13 | In {{Video Game}}s, one way to create level content is to use ProceduralGeneration -- a method of automatically generating designs or terrain using an algorithm. If a [[GameplayRandomization random element]] is incorporated into that algorithm, you end up with Randomly Generated Levels -- levels whose designs are randomized or unpredictable. {{Roguelike}}s, FourX games, and {{Endless Running Game}}s are the main users of this technique. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | The major benefit of this technique is that the player gets a different experience every time they play, rather than seeing the same level designs over and over. This can greatly improve a game's replayability. However, this comes at the cost of design innovation, since the level designs are limited by what the generation algorithm is capable of. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | There are two methods of level creation that are generally used: |
| 18 | |
| 19 | * '''Random assembly:''' The generation algorithm assembles a game level by picking randomly from a set of manually-created assets and stitching them together. This results in cleaner and more playable levels, since the assets will be tailored to fit together in a modular fashion, but at the cost of variability since players will become accustomed to seeing the same assets repeatedly. |
| 20 | * '''Random generation:''' All level content is created from scratch using a builder algorithm to place terrain. This allows for much more intricate levels, but writing an algorithm to do this is difficult for complex levels. It is generally used only for things like geometry and natural landscapes. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Many games also use a middle ground between the two methods: using random generation to create the level geometry, and randomly placing assets in the world where appropriate. If done right, the join between the two methods should appear seamless. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | In games that use Randomly Generated Levels, it's common for them to allow players to specify the "seed" used for generation. This is simply a large number which is used to initialize the random generator. The same seed will always produce the same map, so this is a way to "fix" the randomly-generated content, which is useful for practicing or to allow players to compete on the same level. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | There are also games that use a fixed seed on purpose, so the player always plays the same world every time. This technique was mostly used in older games to save disk space, as the algorithm to generate a level is generally smaller than the level itself. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | The principles of random level generation can also be applied to {{Tabletop Game}}s, by using dice rolls to decide which dungeon features to place. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | When this happens to items and equipment, see RandomlyGeneratedLoot. |
| 31 | ---- |
| 32 | !!Examples: |
| 33 | |
| 34 | !!VideoGames with changing seeds (The levels are randomly generated each time you play) |
| 35 | * ''VideoGame/TwentyXX'' has a random seed system, although you can enter a seed for a specific runthrough using one of the variant challenges. The pieces are selected from an established lineup of challenges, and then modified based on difficulty: for example, you'll likely see a couple of familiar platform arrangements in the Skytemple, but in later levels, they're covered in lasers and powerful Maceknights that shoot death rays when their shields are struck. |
| 36 | * ''VideoGame/AbsentedAgeSquarebound'': Numbered floors all have random layouts and loot, though important maps such as boss arenas and checkpoints are predetermined. |
| 37 | * ''VideoGame/AgainstTheStorm'': Each settlement map is randomly generated, and the world map randomizes after each storm season. |
| 38 | * ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' took it to the extreme by letting people script the terrain generation. |
| 39 | * ''VideoGame/AIDungeon2'' generates the game world and everything that exists and happens inside it using a state-of-the-art AI that runs on a supercomputer. Technically all it does is generate text, but the results can be surprisingly good. |
| 40 | * ''VideoGame/{{Angband}}'' and all of it's derivatives, though some will include pre-generated levels in addition. |
| 41 | * ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': The Mysterious Console DLC occurs in a randomized generating dungeon where the layout of each area is set in a variety of ways with enemy placement and pathways changing upon starting a new room. |
| 42 | * ''VideoGame/{{Arcuz}} II'': The dungeons are randomly generated each time you load your save. |
| 43 | * ''Aztec'', for the Platform/AppleII: Each time you would get a random arrangement of preset rooms and a random collection of beasties, tribesmen and chests. Problems with the layout were eased by using dynamite to blow holes in the walls between rooms. |
| 44 | %%* ''VideoGame/AquaRhapsody'' |
| 45 | * In ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge'', the secret areas are randomly generated combinations of rooms, possibly inspired by the "[[MinusWorld Hidden Worlds]]" in Franchise/{{Metroid}}''. The access points are also different in each playthrough, though selected from among a fixed set of candidate locations. |
| 46 | * ''VideoGame/AzureDreams'' for the Playstation randomly generates the floors of the monster tower everytime you go to one. |
| 47 | * ''VideoGame/BattleForWesnoth'' allows for randomly generated maps. Also, two of its campaigns have randomly generated maps (one in each). Random cave maps, however, tend to favor chaotic units far more than lawful units, as the cave generator doesn't make any lighted spaces yet. |
| 48 | * ''VideoGame/{{Bejeweled}}'': Every game/level begins with a random combination of different colors of gems. Except in most Classic/Normal modes (where you have to score as high as you can until there are no possible moves), an algorithm is applied to the board so that there is at least one legal move at any time. |
| 49 | * ''VideoGame/BurningRangers'' has only four levels, so SEGA used this trope as a way of boosting replay value. And how, because there are '''tons''' of variations. You can even unlock codes for each specific version of the levels that let you play that version as much as your heart desires when you use the codes. |
| 50 | %%* ''VideoGame/{{Canabalt}}'' |
| 51 | * The original ''VideoGame/CastleWolfenstein'' has pregenerated rooms whose layouts didn't change; however, the order and connection between rooms was randomized at the start of each game. |
| 52 | * The ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' series allows for randomly generated multiplayer maps. |
| 53 | * ''COMPUTE!'s Third Book of Creator/{{Atari}}'' includes the Atari BASIC source code of a game called ''Castle Quest'', in which each room has random placement of walls and enemies. |
| 54 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' series has this trope, though you also get the option to play on an Earth-like world. Even in the Earth-like worlds, you can choose to have both the resources and the nation starting positions randomized, leading to some very weird situations, such as being the Aztecs in Spain sailing off to conquer the Spanish in Mexico. |
| 55 | * ''VideoGame/DarkCloud'' and its sequel, ''Dark Cloud 2'', were quite fond of this. Could be infuriating when it came to speed runs and spheda. |
| 56 | * The defining feature of ''VideoGame/{{Daylight}}'' compared to other first-person horror exploration games (i.e. ''VideoGame/SlenderTheArrival'', ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'', ''VideoGame/{{Outlast}}'') is that the maze-like levels are randomly generated each playthrough, adding replay value. |
| 57 | * Every map in ''VideoGame/DeepRockGalactic'' has its terrain randomly generated based on the cave complexity modifier with a rating of 1 being small and the least complex and going all the way up to 3 which has the cave being huge and very complex. Materials, hazards, and other objects are also randomly generated. |
| 58 | * ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'': |
| 59 | ** The series features randomized dungeon layouts which include a handful of required rooms. ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' does the same, though single-player maps do not change unless the original is deleted, or if the player plays online. These levels were more random before the first few patches; later on, they changed the random generator to be less annoying. |
| 60 | ** ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'''s outdoor areas have a more regular but still randomized layout, with landmarks such as bridges, major dungeons, and paths to the next area always in the same place. Dungeons are totally random but built out of modular rooms instead of a crude assortment of walls like in ''Diablo I'' and ''II''. |
| 61 | * ''VideoGame/{{Diggles}}'' is an odd case. The map is generated not at the start of the game, but when you order to explore a part of a dark area. And only for the area you order to explore (or a slightly bigger area if you luck onto a plot-advancing large cave). Thus reverting to an older saved game may result in a radically different map. |
| 62 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Distance}}'', Trackmogrify mode has you type something, which is then used as a seed for a track generator. |
| 63 | * ''VideoGame/{{Dislyte}}'': |
| 64 | ** One of the gimmicks of the ''Cube Miracle'' game mode is that the map changes on each visit. As such, there's always different enemies, Esper Projections, and Rune Vertexes. |
| 65 | ** ''Temporal Tower'' resets once every 1st of the month, resulting in different enemy formations and rewards, while making you start all over at level 1. |
| 66 | * ''Videogame/{{Doom}}'' mods: |
| 67 | ** SLIGE is the first attempt of this as a command prompt based application. It invariably designed cathedral or tomb-like indoor levels. It was so [[https://doom.fandom.com/wiki/Top_10_Infamous_WADs infamous]] for the community due to people passing off its levels as their own, that the use of it in distributing levels may lead to a ban. |
| 68 | ** OBLIGE features GUI to set up parameters. It was later forked as Obhack, and in 2020 (8 years after OBLIGE was abandoned by the original developer), Obaddon (as of 2022, Obsidian), in which the last two features more prefab assembly that focuses on designing believable architecture and the addition of new textures and story generator. |
| 69 | * ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsters'': The first two games. In the sequel, there were predefined "main" worlds and the sub-worlds were randomly generated; in the original, all worlds were randomly generated. |
| 70 | * ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' randomly generates every starting world. This being ''Dwarf Fortress'', it also generates the history and legends of the land and tends towards realistic landscapes. Nothing like the taste of geology in the morning! It's possible to save and manually set the various random seeds to generate the same world on another computer, but significant changes in world generation prevent the same seed from being usable in different major versions. |
| 71 | * ''VideoGame/EagleIsland'''s core gameplay element is a level that randomly generates its map layout, monsters, treasure and terrain every time it is entered (whether by starting the game, resetting to the start of said level, or dying). |
| 72 | * ''VideoGame/EmpireEarth'''s skirmish mode featured random terrain, though it was possible to choose the type (Islands created an archipelago, Mediterranean had a huge landlocked body of water in the middle, etc.). |
| 73 | * ''Dungeon Hack'', an unusually forgiving roguelike with ''VideoGame/EyeOfTheBeholder'' look and feel (and also using [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons AD&D 2nd edition]] rules and published by SSI). Included an option to display and manually set the random seed. |
| 74 | * ''VideoGame/FarawayStory'': Whenever the player enters a dungeon, all maps except for special event maps or final maps are procedurally generated. However, most areas have map items that grant access to premade versions of the dungeons, usually for story purposes. |
| 75 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has the Palace of the Dead where each floor has a different layout every time you enter the palace. Each floor will always have a spot that advances you to the next floor and a spot that is used to revive fallen players, but traps and treasure coffers will always be randomized. Each set of 10 floors has its own set of enemies. |
| 76 | * ''VideoGame/FZeroX'' has a mode where you play in randomly generated tracks, sometimes with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhv2bHNn4A0 sadistic results]]. In a few cases, the X Cup will generate a track the AI cannot handle at all. Witness [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_q8fmr01Ms this track]], where the competition manages to completely wipe itself out in ten seconds. |
| 77 | * ''VideoGame/GetMedieval'' had a game mode that would randomly generate dungeons. |
| 78 | * ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'' has Niflheim, which is randomly generated each time you go in it. While a few seeds are always the same, such as the location of [[{{Superboss}} a Valkyrie]] and a room full of treasure that require Mist Echoes to unlock, the rest is random as to what chests and loot you can find. |
| 79 | * In ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'', the Arcarum expeditions (barring the 3rd, 6th, and 9th boss stages) are all randomly generated, and vary from the positioning of the nodes and their contents, such as objectives, enemies, and treasures. |
| 80 | * ''VideoGame/GrandPooWorld3'' has a memorable such example in the Tower of Fate, which requires beating anywhere between 8 to 20 one-screen areas from a pool of 81 potential rooms in a row without dying once. |
| 81 | * With the exception of your own base, ''VideoGame/XCOMUFODefense'''s levels are randomly generated based on pre-existing bulks of tiles (for instance, buildings). |
| 82 | * ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'' is primarily this, the idea being that it's meant to confuse and disorient any souls trying to escape Tartarus, especially Zagreus. |
| 83 | %%* ''VideoGame/HellgateLondon'' has this as one of its features -- not surprising, since many of the developers came from the team that made ''Diablo''. |
| 84 | * Maps in ''VideoGame/{{Hytale}}'''s Adventure mode are randomly-generated. ''Unlike'' its inspiration, however, these maps are split into zones, each with different rules for the world generation system to follow; zones have their own biomes, cave systems, blocks, creatures, races, dungeons, coastal features, etc. Sometimes, these zones will collide and create fun environmental quirks, which are what the dev team calls "happy little accidents". Even the deep ocean kind of counts as a zone, and the "infinite lands" can be found beyond it. Not counting the ocean, there are at least six zones on the game's main planet of Orbis alone, with two as of yet unannounced. |
| 85 | * The ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'' series has training centers. The course consists of a rectangular grid of rooms with doors between them. You start at a random room in the bottom row, one (possibly more, but you're locked in as soon as you find one) random top-row room is designated as the goal and is larger than usual, and the two are always connected by a path through a series of unlockable doors. Aside from the goal room, each room also contains either a free item or a battle at the center, and picking up the item or winning the battle opens all unlockable doors in the room (from the side you're on only; doors can be unlocked twice, once from each side). Losing a battle kicks you out, while reaching the goal room pits you in a full-fledged soccer match which gives everyone on your team a permanent stat boost if you win. Each time you play, the set of unlockable doors and each room's contents are randomized. As you progress in the main story, the grid gets bigger, the battles get harder, the item drops get better, and the stat boosts for clearing the whole course are also increased. Additionally, the layout tends to vary based on the course you pick (which determines which stat(s) get boosted if you win); the Stamina Course in particular tends to have the path snake around and go through nearly every room in the grid, with branches leading to dead ends being few and short, while some others tend to have maze-like layouts. |
| 86 | * ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndHisDesktopAdventures'' and ''VideoGame/YodaStories'' are unusual AdventureGame examples, where not only is the terrain created randomly each time, but the puzzles and items are drawn from a large pool. |
| 87 | %%* ''VideoGame/InfiniteDungeons'': The official module for ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights''. |
| 88 | * Every level and world of ''Infinite Mario Bros.'' is randomly generated. |
| 89 | * ''VideoGame/InvisibleInc'' has a few rooms that are mostly the same in each level, but most of the rooms -- and the level layout -- are completely random. |
| 90 | * All dungeons in ''VideoGame/LufiaTheLegendReturns'' are randomly generated. The Ancient Cave starting in [[VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals the second game]] consists entirely of randomized floors in each game. |
| 91 | * In Storm Impact's other game, the skiing game ''VideoGame/MacSki'', the default level "Algorithmia" is randomly generated every time. |
| 92 | * ''VideoGame/MarioParty8'': This is the main trait of King Boo's Haunted Hideaway. The paths and inner arrangement of the whole mansion shuffle every time a player purchases a Star from King Boo. As a result, all four players are sent back to the start to begin the search for the next Star from scratch. |
| 93 | * ''VideoGame/{{Meritous}}'': The map changes for each new game, but is static for every save. |
| 94 | * The Creator/{{Microprose}} game based off ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has a randomly generated map. Enemies are encountered randomly. Dungeons, where you get random cards, are generated randomly and appear in random locations. Enemies attack towns randomly; if you did something for that town to give you an extra hit point, you lose it if you don't stop them; if one wizard (There are five, one for each color of magic.) takes over three towns (four if you have a special item), game over. |
| 95 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', by the same developer as ''Infinite Mario Bros.'', this trope is taken to ridiculous levels: The random level generator is used to produce levels larger than the ''entire surface area of Earth''. |
| 96 | * ''VideoGame/{{Minesweeper}}'' randomly generates the board after the first click. This can create situations where [[LuckBasedMission guessing is the only viable move]] because there are no sentient level designers. |
| 97 | %%* ''VideoGame/NetHack'' |
| 98 | * The {{Bonus Dungeon}}s in ''Creator/NipponIchi'' games are like this.. |
| 99 | ** "The Dark World" (''{{Hell}}'') in ''VideoGame/LaPucelle''. |
| 100 | ** Item World in the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series. (and Class World in ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice''). |
| 101 | ** Dungeonman Dungeons in ''VideoGame/PhantomBrave''. |
| 102 | ** Some regular stages in ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom'' have randomly generated portions. Dungeons created through the Sacred Tome are always randomized. |
| 103 | ** ''[[VideoGame/ZettaiHeroProject Z.H.P. Undying Ranger vs Darkdeath Evilman]]'' is Nippon Ichi's attempt at a {{Roguelike}} and thus completely based on the trope. |
| 104 | * ''VideoGame/NovelAI'' not only generates the world in text, they can also generate artwork as well to further help the player immerse themselves in the work they created |
| 105 | * The castle in ''VideoGame/NosferatuTheWrathOfMalachi'' is semi-randomly generated each new game. The basic layout of the castle remains the same, but the interior rooms and the placement of enemies and [=NPC=]s differs each time. |
| 106 | * ''VideoGame/Oasis2005'' has randomly generated levels based on the difficulty, campaign and level. |
| 107 | * ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'': |
| 108 | ** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' randomly generates most of the non-boss floors of Tartarus, although it follows a few design rules. For instance, floors between a Tartarus Boss and a plot-determined barrier will invariably be smaller than the norm, and the party will usually appear extremely close to the stairs to the next floor (with the small inconvenience that [[TheGrimReaper The Reaper]] will spawn that much faster, too.) |
| 109 | ** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' does the same thing with the non-boss floors in its dungeons, though there are one or two premade floors without bosses on them in the game. |
| 110 | ** In contrast, the only randomly generated dungeon in ''VideoGame/Persona5'' is Mementos, where all the sidequests take place. All of the other dungeons ("Palaces") are pre-made, [[spoiler:including [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Mementos' own bottommost floor]].]] |
| 111 | * ''VideoGame/Pikmin2'': The caves are created this way. The shape of the sublevels remains the same, but where the enemies, walls, treasures and other stuff are placed changes with each sublevel (with a few exceptions). |
| 112 | * ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondandPearl Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum]]'' has Turnback Cave, home of Giratina (though in ''Platinum'', you'll only have to go there for Giratina if you failed to obtain in the Distortion World). Each room has four exits, and there are 25 different room configurations (not including Giratina's room). One of these is the "pillar room"; you must find this 3 times before entering 30 total rooms, and then any exit from the third pillar room will lead to Giratina's room (or after Giratina's been captured, an item room). Other than the third pillar room leading to the end and the 30th room leading to exiting the cave if you haven't found three pillar rooms, it's completely random what exit will lead where. [[note]]The item in the item room is determined by how many rooms you had to go through to get there, and there is a reward specifically for doing it in just three, so presumably the pillar room is always one of the four options, giving you a 25% chance of finding it each time and thus a 1 in 64 chance of getting it in the minimum 3. |
| 113 | * In ''[[VideoGame/RagnarokRoguelike Ragnarok]]'', almost all the levels have a random layout, save for a few very specific locations. |
| 114 | * The dungeons in ''VideoGame/RecettearAnItemShopsTale'' are generated this way. |
| 115 | * ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'': The game bundles a program with the registered version called RANDROTT for generating random levels. Pick different parameters and a different seed value for a different set of levels. Quite a few user-made levels available online are actually modified RANDROTT levels. |
| 116 | %%* ''VideoGame/RobotUnicornAttack'' |
| 117 | %%* ''VideoGame/{{Rogue}}'', [[TropeMakers the very first]] roguelike and the inspiration for all subsequent roguelikes, including ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}''. |
| 118 | * ''VideoGame/{{rRootage}}'' normally has fixed stages, but the R stages have randomized patterns. |
| 119 | %%* ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'' has the dungeoneering skill, which is firmly based on this trope. |
| 120 | * ''VideoGame/SCPContainmentBreach'' features three zones, all of which have random layouts, most of which are filled with monsters that will [[TheManyDeathsOfYou kill you in a variety of ways.]] |
| 121 | * ''VideoGame/SCPSecretLaboratory'' does the same, choosing one of five layouts for the three main zones (Light Containment, Heavy Containment, Entrance) and randomly scattering workbenches, lockers, etcetera before the round begins. The Surface Zone is the sole exception -- its layout is static. |
| 122 | * ''VideoGame/ShadowsOfDoubt'' uses a seed to generate a city when a playthrough is started. The city is always square shaped with blocks spaced equally apart, but what occupies each block is randomly chosen to be a park or building based on the seed, and in the case of buildings, the height of it and the apartments and businesses within are generated by the seed. The seed is also used to generate the population of the city in deep detail, every person has a name, address, medical history, personal life, among many other things. Unless a seed is copied and pasted, it’s practically impossible any two players will live in the same city. |
| 123 | %%* ''VideoGame/SimCity'' |
| 124 | * This was a selling-point feature of ''Slayer'' on the Platform/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer, as the box proudly touts the ability of the game to create over 4 billion different dungeons. |
| 125 | * ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune II'''s Random Mission Generator generates maps from pseudo-random seeds that can be chosen by the player. |
| 126 | * In ''VideoGame/SpacePanic'', the ladders connecting the platforms were randomly placed. |
| 127 | * ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'': Initially, planets are generated and randomly populated with creatures, then an entire galaxy of planets and space civilizations. |
| 128 | %%* ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'' is a rare PlatformGame example. |
| 129 | * One of the main ideas underpinning ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'' is to take this as far as possible -- it's set in a universe where all planets are [[ProceduralGeneration procedurally generated]] and totally unique, from obvious things like the size, climate, biome, and number of moons, to even things like the day/night cycle and gravity level. And not only are the planets procedurally generated but the plants and animals as well. So much is generated that the possibility of any two players getting anything even close to the same planet is statistically impossible. Notes from the developer have suggested that between random starting locations and each player having their stars spawn randomly across the map, everyone's experience will be unique. However, the star's precise coordinates form its seed, so players can share their finds by giving each other these (long) numbers. |
| 130 | * The [[BonusDungeon Skull Cavern]] in ''VideoGame/StardewValley''. In the regular mines, while there is still a sense of randomness in the enemies and items that spawn as well as when the ladders show up, each floor has a set layout, and it ends at level 120. In the Skull Cavern, however, the level layouts are ''completely'' randomized, and you can go down well past level 120. |
| 131 | * ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRogue'' randomly generates small city districts for each of its floors, along with the option to set a seed for each run. Notably it also includes a level editor that allows players to create new buildings or other terrain features then load up packs of them that will be added to the generation options, meaning the amount of variety is only limited by the effort the player base puts into continually expanding the game. |
| 132 | %%* ''VideoGame/SuperHexagon'' |
| 133 | * ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU'' has the DLC "Super Mario Maker" stage based on [[VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker the game of the same name]], where the layout is random and continually changing (not only asset-wise but also graphics-wise, alternating between different 2D ''Mario'' games). It returns later in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' as part of the base content. |
| 134 | * In ''VideoGame/SWAT4'', the layout is always the same while the people in the buildings are placed differently every time. |
| 135 | * ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' has Niflheim, while [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld its sequel]] has Gladsheim. Both consist of nodes on a rectangular grid with connections between them. Niflheim is a timed 15-level dungeon with [[CheckPointStarvation no save points]], and each level requires you to either defeat all enemies on it or find the exit. Gladsheim is an untimed 10-level dungeon with a save point on the third and sixth levels next to the entrance, and the 10th level has a boss fight and nothing else. Apart from the 10th level, each level is an 8-by-8 grid; you start on a random non-edge square and have to go to all 4 corners and defeat the enemy at each corner. |
| 136 | * Storm Impact's ''VideoGame/TaskMaker'' franchise has multiple examples: |
| 137 | ** In the original ''[=TaskMaker=]'', players who die are sent to Hell, a randomly-generated fire maze from which the player must escape to return to the game. The only condition is that the maze will always have four exits, but only one is actually accessible. |
| 138 | ** In ''VideoGame/TheTombOfTheTaskMaker'', three villages (Trading Post, Isles of Muck, and Eyearrass) all have subterranean levels (Subterra, Undertow Cove, and Papyruswork) which are randomly generated. The dungeon of Grayclay and its sub-level Tubors are also randomly generated. However, in all of these examples, the exits are in the same spot every time. |
| 139 | %%* ''VideoGame/TempleRun'' |
| 140 | * ''VideoGame/TenMinuteSpaceStrategy'' generates a new map for each campaign, with size and planet density decided by the player. |
| 141 | * ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'' can randomly generate maps several times larger than the application itself. |
| 142 | * ''VideoGame/ToejamAndEarl'', when playing on the Random World setting, as opposed to Fixed World which uses a fixed seed. |
| 143 | * ''VideoGame/{{Torchlight}}'' has a library of human-designed set-piece puzzles and mook gauntlets, which it randomly arranges on each level, and fills in the gaps with procedurally generated corridors and rooms. |
| 144 | * ''VideoGame/{{Unloved}}'', in stark contrast to the tightly-designed ''VideoGame/{{Doom}} II'' WAD it was supposedly based on. |
| 145 | * ''VideoGame/UphillRush'': The track designs for each level are random. Though it is actually made from several pre-made setpieces which the game decides when and where to use, so you may start with a loop-de-loop and proceed to a fairly tall hill or the other way around, or start with some other track part entirely. |
| 146 | %%* ''VideoGame/TheVisionOfTheAnt'' |
| 147 | * ''VideoGame/WaterWarfare'' randomly generates all its maps, though in each of the four map themes (Playground, Beach, Plaza, and Nature Park), certain features will always be consistent. Certain templates will also show up with reasonable consistency based on map size (small or large), game type (Battle Royale, Deathmatch, Treasure Chest, Checkpoint, Point Rally, Defender), and number of players (two to eight). For example, a 1-on-1 Battle Royale on the Playground will always have two hills and no underground tunnel, but adding just one more player allows a tunnel to appear. But no matter how many players are added to a Treasure Chest battle, if it's on the Playground, there will never be a tunnel. (In Mission Mode, however, the maps are always the same for each mission, and not random at all). |
| 148 | * ''Warlords'' turn-based strategies[[note]]predecessors of ''VideoGame/WarlordsBattlecry'', not to be confused with [[VideoGame/{{Warlords}} the 1980 arcade]][[/note]] starting from II have the "Random Map" option.[[/note]] |
| 149 | * ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' assembles the layout of missions from an assortment of tiles created by the developers; the mission chosen affects which tileset and which specialty rooms (e.g. Spy vaults), if any, are used. There are a few exceptions, such as quest missions and raids, which use predetermined layouts instead, but regular missions always have a random layout. |
| 150 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Worms}}'' series allows players to battle on randomly generated maps. |
| 151 | * In ''Wilderness: A Survival Adventure'', the UrExample of the SurvivalSandbox genre, the player can either play on a "starting map", or procedurally generate a map. |
| 152 | %% * ''Yoda Stories''. |
| 153 | * ''[[Videogame/{{X}} X3: Terran Conflict]]'' and the expansion pack allow players to earn a unique upgrade for their ship which allows it to activate a BlindJump and jump off of the PortalNetwork. Unlike normal sectors which are designed by hand, unfocused jump sectors are completely randomly generated. The Unfocused drive typically dumps the player into intergalactic space with occasional Xenon or Kha'ak enemies, and the sectors are the only way to "[[BoardingParty acquire]]" the unique Goner Aran mothership. |
| 154 | |
| 155 | !!VideoGames with fixed seeds (The developers randomly generate a level, and put that level on all copies of the game) |
| 156 | * The ''Franchise/DotHack'' games have dungeons created by selecting a group of keywords, which are generated from those keywords, except for a few plot-critical dungeons. |
| 157 | * Several games by Creator/{{cactus}}' feature levels (or rather {{boss|Game}}es) generated with a fixed seed. These include ''Protoganda'', its sequel and ''VideoGame/BurnTheTrash''. |
| 158 | * ''VideoGame/DeepRockGalactic'' has Deep Dives and Elite Deep Dives, which are a series of three missions players have to play from start to finish. While the maps used in the dives are randomly generated, the seed used to generate the maps are fixed and don't change until the following week in real time. There were occasions where a seed generated for a Deep Dive caused some backlash from the players, which had the developers manually change the seed themselves. |
| 159 | * When you start a new character in the 1975 ''VideoGame/{{dnd}}'', the dungeon, its treasures, and the geography of its levels are randomly generated. When you die, the dungeon resets again, so you can't going through the same dungeon twice with different characters. |
| 160 | %%* The grottoes in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' |
| 161 | * ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' |
| 162 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena Arena]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' have, with a few hand-crafted exceptions, thousands of [[ProceduralGeneration procedurally generated]] towns, cities, villages and dungeons. ''Arena'' does this on the fly, while in ''Daggerfall'', they were generated on the developer's computers, then placed on the disk. |
| 163 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' downplays it, as the entire world is hand-built, but some of the dungeon architecture still gives the impression that they may have been randomly generated during development. The extremely limited LevelScaling of enemies and loot further reduces the randomness. |
| 164 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' do this with parts of the landscape, and have the same dungeon architecture feel of ''Morrowind'', but play it straighter in that the enemies and loot within are determined via LevelScaling. |
| 165 | * ''VideoGame/{{Elite}}'': |
| 166 | ** The game has eight galaxies with 256 procedurally generated planets each (2,048 in total). The seed for generating a galaxy is 48-bit, and the game was initially going to include a galaxy for every possible seed value (282 trillion galaxies with 72058 trillion planets in total), but they thought that would be overkill. The developers had problems with the mere 2000 they chose. First they had to rewrite the seed several times when it generated planets with obscene names and second there are a few systems that, if you arrive at (Via the hugely expensive, one use, intergalactic hyperdrive), you can never leave because they are too far from other systems. |
| 167 | ** ''Frontier: Elite II'' fits a galaxy of 100 billion star systems on a 3.5" DD floppy. All of this is procedurally generated apart from a small scripted islet which contains the planetary systems of Sol and many other familiar stars. |
| 168 | ** ''Elite Dangerous'' likewise has a full galaxy of over 100 billion stars, each with its own planetary and ring systems and sometimes [[BinarySuns extra suns]]. A few hand-designed and hand-modified systems exist, such as Sol, and some systems have unique descriptions, but otherwise everything is procedural. |
| 169 | * ''The Explorer'', an obscure 8-bit computer game, is the extreme example in the 8-bit world with its 4 billion unique locations. |
| 170 | * ''VideoGame/InfinityTheQuestForEarth'' was set to use procedural generation to create billions (literally) of different star systems (including stars, planets, moons, and so on). Since this seed was going to be always identical, however, every player would see the same universe. |
| 171 | * Several games created by [[Creator/LucasArts Lucasfilm]] in the early 1980s used fractal technology to generate maps of then-unprecedented complexity: |
| 172 | ** ''Behind Jaggi Lines!'' was a beta version of air combat simulator[[note]]search and rescue missions under enemy fire, if you want the details[[/note]] over ragged mountains. |
| 173 | ** ''VideoGame/RescueOnFractalus'' was a polished version of the former. |
| 174 | ** ''The Eidolon'' simply turned the mountains upside down making them the insides of a cave. |
| 175 | ** ''Koronis Rift'' was about piloting a surface rover over a jagged terrain. It had somewhat better graphics. |
| 176 | * ''VideoGame/{{Noctis}}'' is a space-simulation game which generates a galaxy with a radius of 90 thousand light-years. The entire purpose of the game is explore it and upload findings into an online guide so that others might find them. |
| 177 | * ''The Sentinel'' has 10,000 unique levels (or "landscapes") and still fits in the 48K RAM of ZX Spectrum. The original version of The Sentinel was written for ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro BBC Micro]]''. Depending on the model the amount of RAM could be 16, 32, 64 or 128 kilobytes. So, if the BBC version ran also on Model B (which had 32 kilobytes), it could mean that the versions for C64 (done by the creator of the original BBC version himself) and ZX Spectrum (done by [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/zxspecticle/interviews3.htm Mike Follin]]) don't even come that close to using the entire RAM of their respective platforms. |
| 178 | * ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'', much like ''VideoGame/{{Noctis}}'', creates an entire explorable universe this way with about 18 quintillion planets, where ''everything'' is procedurally generated. |
| 179 | * ''VideoGame/{{Starflight}}'' may have a scripted overworld (although the star systems feel quite random-generated), but at least the planetary maps are generated. |
| 180 | * ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog3'' and ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'' have bonus levels that have you running around touching all the blue spheres (which then turn red) and avoiding red ones. Lock-on ''Sonic & Knuckles'' with ''any'' non-main-Sonic game made before it, and you'll get a ''Sonic 3'' style bonus level unique to that game, and other copies of the same game will play the same stage. The idea is that gamers will want to check out their whole library of games for bonus stages, but this was an unadvertised feature, possibly because it didn't work with games made after ''Sonic & Knuckles''. There are a lot of different bonus levels to find, but there's even more if you connect ''S & K'' to the original ''Sonic The Hedgehog'', which has more than 134 million levels (don't get too excited though, repeat levels start appearing after a mere [[http://info.sonicretro.org/Blue_Sphere 120 million]]), and lets you revisit ones you've already played through passwords. |
| 181 | |
| 182 | ---- |
| 183 | !!Non-Video Game examples |
| 184 | |
| 185 | [[AC:{{Pinball}}]] |
| 186 | * Each case in ''Pinball/WhoDunnit1995'' tasks the player with finding a killer that's randomly selected from a pool of five suspects. |
| 187 | |
| 188 | [[AC:{{Literature}}]] |
| 189 | * The Dungeon Factory in ''Literature/TheFallenWorld'' has a sub-section called the Thousand Steps meant to cater to adventurers of different ranks. One of the levels is called the Labyrinth and is made up of a 10 by 10 grid of rooms that are picked up and moved around every night. The assault guild must map it on a daily basis, giving them regular work. |
| 190 | |
| 191 | [[AC: WebAnimation]] |
| 192 | * Each fight during [[TournamentArc Vytal Festival Tournament]] in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' takes place in a randomly generated arena, combining several terrain types like forests, mountains, hills or ice. The amount of terrain types depends on the round -- team battles have two "zones", while doubles have four. [[spoiler:The villains end up manipulating the "randomness" to their own benefit.]] |
| 193 | |
| 194 | [[AC:{{Webcomics}}]] |
| 195 | * In ''Webcomic/AModestDestiny'', Fluffy built [[http://www.squidi.net/comic/amd/view.php?series=amd&ep=2&id=12 such a dungeon]]. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope It just crushes whoever goes inside.]]]] |
| 196 | |
| 197 | [[AC: TabletopGames]] |
| 198 | * Many tabletop [=RPGs=] include systems of randomly generating dungeons. Likewise, there are many third-party programs designed to generate random dungeons for tabletops. (One for D&D 3.5, for example: http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/ ) |
| 199 | * ''TabletopGame/BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'' features randomly generated layouts, chosen randomly by the players as they are playing the game. Also, the same could be said of the Betrayal itself as it's based entirely on what the players find by exploring the House. |
| 200 | * ''TabletopGame/BurgleBros'' features building floor plans with randomly distributed tiles, which the players reveal as they explore the map. It is also possible to play with randomly distributed walls, in addition to randomly distributed tiles. |
| 201 | * One of the two realities in the game ''TabletopGame/TheSplinter'' is an infinite, randomly generated fantasy dungeon. The rulebook contains plenty of random dice tables to generate a tiny fraction of this infinite dungeon for the players to explore. |
| 202 | * ''[[Franchise/{{Warhammer}} Warhammer Quest]]'' uses a deck of cards and matching tiles to build a dungeon as the players explore it. Whenever you reach a doorway, you flip a card to tell you what tile comes next, with certain tiles like T-junctions splitting the deck. |
| 203 | |
| 204 | [[AC:WesternAnimation]] |
| 205 | * Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'': The back room of Gar's Bodega is basically a video game dungeon, and its layout isn't just randomized every time you go back there, every ''individual room'' changes every time you leave it. |
| 206 | -->'''Enid:''' The rooms are ''randomly generated?!'' |
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