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Games that did procedurally generated content best?

Minecraft, not because the procedural generation itself is anything interesting but it provided solid gameplay (gathering / crafting / building) on top of it.
 
The best versions are games that do procedural generation on a macro level but still have individual design on a micro level. Things such as Spelunky and Binding of Isaac. Then you get the best of both worlds.

Spelunky is great for sure, but games like Isaac and Rogue Legacy lost a lot of their charm once I started seeing the individual pieces instead of the bigger picture. I guess that's what I get for putting hundreds of hours into Isaac, but the game felt a lot smaller once I had seen every room multiple times over and over again.
 
ADOM - played it on and off for 10 years and never got old. Enough structure in the world to keep it from being pure chaos, but enough flexibility within the general framework to lead to never ending crazy emergent situations.

Nethack and dwarf fortress are in the same league, but ADOM's world spanning adventure sets it apart I think.
 
I still have a great time "playing" my songs on Space Invaders - Infinity Gene, and it's been like 6 years, so I'm going to vote for that. I tried similar games like Audiosurf but it just didn't work as well, I feel.
 
I still have a great time "playing" my songs on Space Invaders - Infinity Gene, and it's been like 6 years, so I'm going to vote for that. I tried similar games like Audiosurf but it just didn't work as well, I feel.
I was going to day something similar about Audioshield, but I'm not sure if it's cheating in a way.
 
My personal favorite is Minecraft. I can't tell you how many times I've been in awe while exploring that game.

The Chalice Dungeons can be completely disregarded, or can add tons of content/playtime if you want to get into them. They couldn't have been implemented better. They're fantastic additions to the "Soulsborne" series, and I missed them in DS3.

Sure they could have, but that's not to say they aren't fun or a good addition.

One big gripe of mine is that they were pretty predictable in their structure. Set of rooms you can skip if you want, go down main hall, another set of rooms, boss. Go down the elevator and do it all again. It's a far cry from an actual labyrinth.
 
how can it not be minecraft? It was like the king of proceduring for like... years?

Anyways, a recent example is starbound HOLY SHIT. Planets made of flesh are awesome lol! Shout outs to XCOM1 and 2.

Also, shout outs to ciV
 
What aesthetic
RzlIVtZ.jpg
 
XCOM 1& 2
Invisible Inc.
Spelunky
FTL
Rogue Legacy
Minecraft
Terraria
Starbound


All do this very well
 
Yeah, while Worms isn't particularly "amazing" with its randomness, it's solid, obvious, and not gimmicky. I guess it's similar in Minecraft in that regard, except I don't like Minecraft so who knows.

I don't like Minecraft too, but we have to admit that this game nailed procedurally generated stuff. You see and you can do procedural shit. It's impressive
 
Dwarf Fortress - possibilities are immense, I'm just not good enough to actually have "fun" ;)

Minecraft - this is specifically for the landscape and cave generation which I hope NMS will usurp just in visual fidelity alone.

Invisible Inc. - Game is always a joy to return to. Missions may be fairly linear, but the layouts always provide the right amount of harrowing challenge. I never feel cheated by the level design or NPC placement.


bonus:
Left 4 Dead - not really procedural, but the AI "director" for mixing up every game you play made that game.
 
For me, Spelunky's level generation is the ideal: varied, with "familiar-looking" elements that never become stale. After hundreds of hours, I can guess what a room is going to be like, and I'll likely be close-but-not-exactly-right.

The real genius is how every level is completable with the starting gear. You don't *need* any of the items to succeed. Given the complexity of the systems and their interactions, I'm always amazed by this - and it serves as a reassurance as you play: "nobody has ever seen this exact combination of dangers*, but it *can* be done, no matter what gear I have."

*except for the Dailies, of course.

does the HD version of Spelunky have more interesting stage layouts than the GameMaker one?

Pretty much everything is better/more refined in the HD version. I played a ton of the original, but Derek's book makes it pretty clear that the original had some limitations.
 
Is this fun for people?

After you play for a while, your brain starts subbing in embellished imagery for the ASCII symbols. Oh, shit, a D !

And yeah, it's very fun if you get into it, basically no game with animation and real graphics has the same depth, complexity, and possibility for procedural interaction and emergent hijinks.
 
There are still purist that prefer to play like that, but most people play with tilesets, so it looks a little more like this:



(I haven't followed DF in a few years so I don't know what tileset is the most popular now)

I find tilesets for ASCII games irritating -- they still don't look good, and they make it harder for imagination to fill in, so, paradoxically, I find them to make the games feel uglier.
 
Nethack, one of my favs ever. The interface may be ancient, but it's got so many surprises and so much intense action, because you never know what's next. I've been playing it for over ten years and haven't beaten it.

Based on my love of Nethack, I should really play Spelunky, recently got it in a Humble Bundle but haven't tried it yet.
 
It is like looking at the matrix after a while.

Sums it up better than I could. I want to post a wtf is this gif...lol

I like Terraria. Havent played Splelunky enough.

It is like looking at the matrix after a while.

There are still purist that prefer to play like that, but most people play with tilesets, so it looks a little more like this:

e8otq6g.jpg


(I haven't followed DF in a few years so I don't know what tileset is the most popular now)


What are mods?

26867.0.png



Oh, ok. This is more like it...lol
 
I'd argue it's an example of doing it poorly. The game is good overall but the dungeons were never very compelling.

Most story based RPGs that use random dungeons at best approach being passable.

Big fan of the game but I agree with this to a T.
 
age of empires and various follow-ups

it's not really content like roguelikes, but having random maps with exploration instead of build orders basically saved strategy gaming from the curse of starcraft
 
Dwarf Fortress is impressive for the step during world creation in which they procedurally generate the world hydrology to create map topography. That's some pretty cool detail.
 
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