Swen E. Gaudl

Jonathan Morse, Azadeh Naderi, Swen Gaudl et al.

Text-to-audio models are a type of generative model that produces audio output in response to a given textual prompt. Although level generators and the properties of the functional content that they create (e.g., playability) dominate most discourse in procedurally generated content (PCG), games that emotionally resonate with players tend to weave together a range of creative and multimodal content (e.g., music, sounds, visuals, narrative tone), and multimodal models have begun seeing at least experimental use for this purpose. However, it remains unclear what exactly such models generate, and with what degree of variability and fidelity: audio is an extremely broad class of output for a generative system to target. Within the PCG community, expressive range analysis (ERA) has been used as a quantitative way to characterize generators' output space, especially for level generators. This paper adapts ERA to text-to-audio models, making the analysis tractable by looking at the expressive range of outputs for specific, fixed prompts. Experiments are conducted by prompting the models with several standardized prompts derived from the Environmental Sound Classification (ESC-50) dataset. The resulting audio is analyzed along key acoustic dimensions (e.g., pitch, loudness, and timbre). More broadly, this paper offers a framework for ERA-based exploratory evaluation of generative audio models.

Swen E. Gaudl

There currently exists a wide range of techniques to model and evolve artificial players for games. Existing techniques range from black box neural networks to entirely hand-designed solutions. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of a genetic programming framework using human controller input to derive meaningful artificial players which can, later on, be optimised by hand. The current state of the art in game character design relies heavily on human designers to manually create and edit scripts and rules for game characters. To address this manual editing bottleneck, current computational intelligence techniques approach the issue with fully autonomous character generators, replacing most of the design process using black box solutions such as neural networks or the like. Our GP approach to this problem creates character controllers which can be further authored and developed by a designer it also offers designers to included their play style without the need to use a programming language. This keeps the designer in the loop while reducing repetitive manual labour. Our system also provides insights into how players express themselves in games and into deriving appropriate models for representing those insights. We present our framework, supporting findings and open challenges.

Swen E. Gaudl

In this paper, a novel design methodology-Agile Behaviour Design-is presented that accommodates the requirements for developing complex game agents suitable for industrial environments. An essential part of the design approach is to support independent work of both designers and programmers by reducing bottleneck situations. The approach fosters the creation of more loose and fluid interactions between design and implementation, leaving more freedom for creative expression.

Swen E. Gaudl, Mark J. Nelson, Simon Colton et al.

With the growing integration of smartphones into our daily lives, and their increased ease of use, mobile games have become highly popular across all demographics. People listen to music, play games or read the news while in transit or bridging gap times. While mobile gaming is gaining popularity, mobile expression of creativity is still in its early stages. We present here a new type of mobile app -- fluidic games -- and illustrate our iterative approach to their design. This new type of app seamlessly integrates exploration of the design space into the actual user experience of playing the game, and aims to enrich the user experience. To better illustrate the game domain and our approach, we discuss one specific fluidic game, which is available as a commercial product. We also briefly discuss open challenges such as player support and how generative techniques can aid the exploration of the game space further.