More and more developers are learning to love procedural generation techniques and integrate them into their production pipelines, which often entails solving a whole new set of problems.

Thankfully, Tanya Short of Kitfox Games shared some advice on procedurally generating levels as part of her GDC 2015 Game Design Case Study on Kitfox's spacefaring survival roguelike Shattered Planet. 

As part of that talk she spoke at length about the trials and tribulations Kitfox faced in procedurally generating tile-based levels, offering some unique insight and advice for pulling it off without driving your team crazy.

Short also offered suggestions on how you might design a procedural level generation system that doesn't do frustrating things like place rooms with no doors, or keys with no matching locks, or design layouts that look more like M.C. Escher paintings than levels.

If you missed it in person, you can now watch her succinct, info-rich talk for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

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