ARENA- Dynamic Run-time Map generation for Asynchronous

Multiplayer Shooter

Bhojan Anand (Presenter), Wong Hong Wei

ICEC 2014

Asynchronous Gameplay

Multiplayer Shooter+

Human Imitating Botsachieved with

David Bot John

Bot

YOU

Building an Asynchronous

Multiplayer Shooter with Procedurally Generated

Content

Procedurally generateMultiplayer Maps for Shooters

ARENAvideo demonstration

1) Motivation

2) Design & Implementation

3) Evaluation

• Procedural Generation of Map

“drastically reduce development time”“improved longevity from unlimited

maps”• Human Imitating Bots

[Extended Ver]“brings Asychronous Gameplay to

shooters”“play a multiplayer shooter when friends

are unavailable”

1) Motivation

1) Motivation

2) Design & Implementation

a) Procedural Generation of Map

b) Human Imitating Bots

3) Evaluation

2a) Procedural Generation of Map• Initialisation

PHASE IPopulating Game Tiles

PHASE IICleaning Up

PHASE IIIIdenitfying Regions

PHASE IVConnecting Regions

PHASE VPositioning of Strategic Points

JoinRule

2a) Procedural Generation of Map

PHASE IPopulating Game Tiles

PHASE IICleaning Up

PHASE IIIIdenitfying Regions

PHASE IVConnecting Regions

PHASE VPositioning of Strategic Points

• Initialisation

2a) Procedural Generation of Map

PHASE IPopulating Game Tiles

PHASE IICleaning Up

PHASE IIIIdenitfying Regions

PHASE IVConnecting Regions

PHASE VPositioning of Strategic Points

• Initialisation

2a) Procedural Generation of Map

PHASE IPopulating Game Tiles

PHASE IICleaning Up

PHASE IIIIdenitfying Regions

PHASE IVConnecting Regions

PHASE VPositioning of Strategic Points

• Initialisation

2a) Procedural Generation of Map

PHASE IPopulating Game Tiles

PHASE IICleaning Up

PHASE IIIIdenitfying Regions

PHASE IVConnecting Regions

PHASE VPositioning of Strategic Points

• Initialisation

2a) Procedural Generation of Map

PHASE IPopulating Game Tiles

PHASE IICleaning Up

PHASE IIIIdenitfying Regions

PHASE IVConnecting Regions

PHASE VPositioning of Strategic Points

• Initialisation

2a) Procedural Generation of Map

PHASE IPopulating Game Tiles

PHASE IICleaning Up

PHASE IIIIdenitfying Regions

PHASE IVConnecting Regions

PHASE VPositioning of Strategic Points

• Initialisation

Spawn (red)

Spawn (blue)

2a) Procedural Generation of Map

PHASE IPopulating Game Tiles

PHASE IICleaning Up

PHASE IIIIdenitfying Regions

PHASE IVConnecting Regions

PHASE VPositioning of Strategic Points

• Initialisation

TeamFlag (red)

TeamFlag (blue)

2a) Procedural Generation of Map

PHASE IPopulating Game Tiles

PHASE IICleaning Up

PHASE IIIIdenitfying Regions

PHASE IVConnecting Regions

PHASE VPositioning of Strategic Points

• Initialisation

Flag

Flag

2a) Procedural Generation of Map

PHASE IPopulating Game Tiles

PHASE IICleaning Up

PHASE IIIIdenitfying Regions

PHASE IVConnecting Regions

PHASE VPositioning of Strategic Points

• Initialisation

Collision Point

2a) Procedural Generation of Map

PHASE IPopulating Game Tiles

PHASE IICleaning Up

PHASE IIIIdenitfying Regions

PHASE IVConnecting Regions

PHASE VPositioning of Strategic Points

• Initialisation

Cover Cover

Cover

2a) Procedural Generation of Map

PHASE IPopulating Game Tiles

PHASE IICleaning Up

PHASE IIIIdenitfying Regions

PHASE IVConnecting Regions

PHASE VPositioning of Strategic Points

• Initialisation

CoverCover

Cover

CoverCover

2a) Procedural Generation of Map• Evolution

Map Fitness =Connectivity

Forced Collision Pointslimited to 1 or 2

Flag Fairnessdifference in distance to own team flag

Overall Flag Fairnessdifference in distance to all flags

+

+

+

In line with the DESIGN GOALS:-

- Fast generation- Collision Points - Flow - Navigability, Pacing- Fairness- Asthetics

2a) Procedural Generation of Map• Evolution

2a) Procedural Generation of Map• Mapping

Each tile ismapped

to produce

1) Motivation

2) Design & Implementation

a) Procedural Generation of Map

b) Human Imitating Bots

3) Evaluation

• Analytical Evaluationusing measurements / analysis of

generated map• Subjective Evaluation

using online user study- 53 respondents- no knowledge of project nature

3) Evaluation

Based on Design Goals

Analytical

Subjective

Fast Generation

• Generated 3 maps,in 10.1s, 9.9s, 11.5s

• Not very acceptable

• Can be improved with less populations

• Reached max fitness within 30 populations

• Much faster than previous works

Analytical

Subjective

Collision Points

• Defined well• Prone to meet in

middle

• Mean 3.60, StdDev 1.25

• Hypothesis that locations are sparsely located can be rejected at 0.05 significance

Analytical

Subjective

Flow – Navigability & Pacing

• Indoor/outdoor areas

• Unique items• Few deadends

• Good navigability

Analytical

Subjective

Flow – Navigability & Pacing

• Indoor/outdoor areas

• Unique items• Few deadends

• Mostly falls in middle

• May be due to difficulty in measuring pacing

Analytical

Subjective

Fairness

• Time to navigate to flags- 58.88s from red team- 60.21s from blue team

• Suggests high fairness at 0.05 significance

Demography

Thank

You!

Play the game @http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~hongjun/GD.html

Bhojan Anand (Presenter), Wong Hong Wei