Procedural Content Generation via Machine Learning: An Overview

by Matthew Guzdial, Sam Snodgrass, Adam Summerville

Overview

This second edition updates and expands upon the first beginner-focused guide to Procedural Content Generation via Machine Learning (PCGML), which is the use of computers to generate new types of content for video games (game levels, quests, characters, etc.) by learning from existing content. The authors survey current and future approaches to generating video game content and illustrate the major impact that PCGML has had on video games industry. In order to provide the most up-to-date information, this new edition incorporates the last two years of research and advancements in this rapidly developing area. The book guides readers on how best to set up a PCGML project and identify open problems appropriate for a research project or thesis. The authors discuss the practical and ethical considerations for PCGML projects and demonstrate how to avoid the common pitfalls. This second edition also introduces a new chapter on Generative AI, which covers the benefits, risks, and methods for applying pre-trained transformers to PCG problems.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031847554
Publisher:	Springer Nature Switzerland
Publication date:	06/12/2025
Series:	Synthesis Lectures on Games and Computational Intelligence
Edition description:	Second Edition 2025
Pages:	295
Product dimensions:	6.61(w) x 9.45(h) x (d)

About the Author

Matthew Guzdial, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Computing Science department of the University of Alberta and a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii). His research focuses on the intersection of machine learning, creativity, and human-centered computing. He is a recipient of an Early Career Researcher Award from NSERC, a Unity Graduate Fellowship, and two best conference paper awards from the International Conference on Computational Creativity. His work has been featured in the BBC, WIRED, Popular Science, and Time.

Sam Snodgrass, Ph.D., is the Manager of the Applied AI team at modl.ai, a game AI company focused on bringing state of the art game AI research from academia to the games industry. His research focuses on making PCGML more accessible to non-ML experts. This work includes making PCGML systems more adaptable and self-reliant, reducing the authorial burden of creating training data through domain blending, and building tools that allow for easier interactions with the underlying PCGML systems and their outputs. Through his work at modl.ai he has deployed several mixed-initiative PCGML tools into game studios to assist with level design and creation.

Adam Summerville, Ph.D., is the lead AI engineer for Procedural Content Generation at The Molasses Flood, a CD Projekt studio. Prior to this, he was an assistant professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. His research focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence in games with a high-level goal of enabling experiences that would not be possible without artificial intelligence. This research ranges from procedural generation of levels, social simulation for games, and the use of natural language processing for gameplay. His work has been shown at the SF MoMA, SlamDance, and won the audience choice award at IndieCade.

Table of Contents

Introduction.- Classical PCG.- An Introduction of ML Through PCG.- PCGML Process Overview.- Constraint-based PCGML Approaches.- Probabilistic PCGML Approaches.- Neural Networks – Introduction.- Sequence-based DNN PCGML.- Grid-based DNN PCGML.- Reinforcement Learning PCG.- Generative AI.- Mixed-Initiative PCGML.- Open Problems.- Resources and Conclusions.