When it comes to level generation (that is creating levels based on algorithms as opposed to forming them in a map editor), one of the most admirable examples is Spelunky. You’ve surely played Spelunky by now (if not, here’s the free older version) and know that it creates a magical illusion that “the walls are shifting” every time you enter its caves, jungles and hellholes. It’s not magic, though; it’s procedural generation and it supplements Spelunky’s mechanics and creates a constant challenge even for veteran players.
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Example
The idea being that monitoring the way a kid reacts to challenges thrown up in a game is a lot more useful to understanding them than a traditional "right or wrong" test.
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Playing the Super Mario 64 video game causes increased size in brain regions responsible for spatial orientation, memory formation and strategic planning as well as fine motor skills, a new study conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Charité University Medicine St. Hedwig-Krankenhaus has found.
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A couple of weeks had passed since Markus started working at Jalbum and his thoughts were circling full speed around the game he’d promised himself he’d work on. Like when he was a child and would run home from school to his LEGOs, he now spent almost all his free time in front of his home computer. He combed the Internet in search of inspiration for his project; the heavy labor—the coding—could begin only after he figured out what kind of game he wanted to create. The idea for Minecraftbegan to take shape in his encounter with Dwarf Fortress.
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