# Talakat: Bullet Hell Generation through Constrained Map-Elites

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.04718 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.04718/

## Key facts

- Cited by 26 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 12 Jun 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 26 of 26)

- [Deep Surrogate Assisted Generation of Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.04199/) (2022)
- [Generating and Blending Game Levels via Quality-Diversity in the Latent Space of a Variational Autoencoder](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.12463/) (2021)
- [Covariance Matrix Adaptation MAP-Annealing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.10752/) (2022)
- [Proximal Policy Gradient Arborescence for Quality Diversity Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.13795/) (2023)
- [Multi-Objective Quality Diversity Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.03057/) (2022)
- [Games for Artificial Intelligence Research: A Review and Perspectives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.13269/) (2023)
- [TropeTwist: Trope-based Narrative Structure Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.09672/) (2022)
- [Surrogate Assisted Generation of Human-Robot Interaction Scenarios](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.13787/) (2023)
- [Quality Diversity Evolutionary Learning of Decision Trees](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.12758/) (2022)
- [Generating Diverse and Competitive Play-Styles for Strategy Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.08641/) (2021)
- [Story Designer: Towards a Mixed-Initiative Tool to Create Narrative Structures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.09294/) (2022)
- [The Procedural Content Generation Benchmark: An Open-source Testbed for Generative Challenges in Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.21474/) (2025)
- [Multi-Objective Quality-Diversity for Crystal Structure Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17164/) (2024)
- [Measuring Diversity of Game Scenarios](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.15192/) (2024)
- [Augmentative Topology Agents For Open-Ended Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.11442/) (2022)
- [Exploring open-ended gameplay features with Micro RollerCoaster Tycoon](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.04342/) (2021)
- [Keiki: Towards Realistic Danmaku Generation via Sequential GANs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.02991/) (2021)
- [EvolvingBehavior: Towards Co-Creative Evolution of Behavior Trees for Game NPCs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.01020/) (2022)
- [Improving the Data Efficiency of Multi-Objective Quality-Diversity through Gradient Assistance and Crowding Exploration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.12668/) (2023)
- [Illuminating the Space of Enemies Through MAP-Elites](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.09615/) (2022)
- [Persona-driven Dominant/Submissive Map (PDSM) Generation for Tutorials](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.05217/) (2022)
- [Preference-Conditioned Gradient Variations for Multi-Objective Quality-Diversity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.12433/) (2024)
- [Rinascimento: searching the behaviour space of Splendor](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.08371/) (2021)
- [Automated Graph Genetic Algorithm based Puzzle Validation for Faster Game Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.09040/) (2023)
- [Procedural Generation of First Person Shooter Maps using Map-Elites](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.30570/) (2026)
- [Learning Hierarchical Skill Policies with Offline Quality-Diversity Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.19684/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We describe a search-based approach to generating new levels for bullet hell games, which are action games characterized by and requiring avoidance of a very large amount of projectiles. Levels are represented using a domain-specific description language, and search in the space defined by this language is performed by a novel variant of the Map-Elites algorithm which incorporates a feasible- infeasible approach to constraint satisfaction. Simulation-based evaluation is used to gauge the fitness of levels, using an agent based on best-first search. The performance of the agent can be tuned according to the two dimensions of strategy and dexterity, making it possible to search for level configurations that require a specific combination of both. As far as we know, this paper describes the first generator for this game genre, and includes several algorithmic innovations.