Automated Game Design via Conceptual Expansion
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Abstract (arXiv)
Automated game design has remained a key challenge within the field of Game AI. In this paper, we introduce a method for recombining existing games to create new games through a process called conceptual expansion. Prior automated game design approaches have relied on hand-authored or crowd-sourced knowledge, which limits the scope and applications of such systems. Our approach instead relies on machine learning to learn approximate representations of games. Our approach recombines knowledge from these learned representations to create new games via conceptual expansion. We evaluate this approach by demonstrating the ability for the system to recreate existing games. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first machine learning-based automated game design system.
Key facts. Cited by 15 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). First posted on arXiv 6 Sep 2018.
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Citing papers per year: 2021: 3; 2022: 3; 2023: 3; 2024: 3; 2025: 2; 2026: 1.
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- 2021Generating and Blending Game Levels via Quality-Diversity in the Latent Space of a Variational Autoencodercited by 27
- 2024GAVEL: Generating Games Via Evolution and Language Modelscited by 24
- 2021Creativity and Machine Learning: A Surveycited by 21
- 2024Unbounded: A Generative Infinite Game of Character Life Simulationcited by 14
- 2024DreamGarden: A Designer Assistant for Growing Games from a Single Promptcited by 10
- 2025AnimeGamer: Infinite Anime Life Simulation with Next Game State Predictioncited by 7
- 2022Generating Real-Time Strategy Game Units Using Search-Based Procedural Content Generation and Monte Carlo Tree Searchcited by 5
- 2023Mechanic Maker 2.0: Reinforcement Learning for Evaluating Generated Rulescited by 4
- 2022Diversity-based Deep Reinforcement Learning Towards Multidimensional Difficulty for Fighting Game AIcited by 3
- 2022tile2tile: Learning Game Filters for Platformer Style Transfercited by 2
- 2023Procedural Content Generation via Knowledge Transformation (PCG-KT)cited by 2
- 2021Ensemble Learning For Mega Man Level Generationcited by 1
3 more
- 2026Application of machine learning to monster level prediction in tabletop RPG game design10 Jul 2026
- 2025JSON-Bag: A generic game trajectory representation1 Aug 2025
- 2025AnimeGamer: Infinite Anime Life Simulation with Next Game State Prediction1 Apr 2025
- 2024Unbounded: A Generative Infinite Game of Character Life Simulation24 Oct 2024
- 2024DreamGarden: A Designer Assistant for Growing Games from a Single Prompt2 Oct 2024
- 2024GAVEL: Generating Games Via Evolution and Language Models12 Jul 2024
- 2023Mechanic Maker 2.0: Reinforcement Learning for Evaluating Generated Rules18 Sep 2023
- 2023Reconstructing Existing Levels through Level Inpainting18 Sep 2023
- 2023Procedural Content Generation via Knowledge Transformation (PCG-KT)1 May 2023
- 2022Generating Real-Time Strategy Game Units Using Search-Based Procedural Content Generation and Monte Carlo Tree Search7 Dec 2022
- 2022Diversity-based Deep Reinforcement Learning Towards Multidimensional Difficulty for Fighting Game AI4 Nov 2022
- 2022tile2tile: Learning Game Filters for Platformer Style Transfer15 Aug 2022
3 more
- 2021Generating and Blending Game Levels via Quality-Diversity in the Latent Space of a Variational Autoencodercited by 27
- 2024GAVEL: Generating Games Via Evolution and Language Modelscited by 24
- 2021Creativity and Machine Learning: A Surveycited by 21
- 2024DreamGarden: A Designer Assistant for Growing Games from a Single Promptcited by 10
- 2025AnimeGamer: Infinite Anime Life Simulation with Next Game State Predictioncited by 7
- 2022Generating Real-Time Strategy Game Units Using Search-Based Procedural Content Generation and Monte Carlo Tree Searchcited by 5
- 2023Mechanic Maker 2.0: Reinforcement Learning for Evaluating Generated Rulescited by 4
- 2022Diversity-based Deep Reinforcement Learning Towards Multidimensional Difficulty for Fighting Game AIcited by 3
- 2022tile2tile: Learning Game Filters for Platformer Style Transfercited by 2
- 2023Procedural Content Generation via Knowledge Transformation (PCG-KT)cited by 2
- 2021Ensemble Learning For Mega Man Level Generationcited by 1
- 2023Reconstructing Existing Levels through Level Inpaintingcited by 1
12 most cited of 14 All 14 (JSON)
- 2026Application of machine learning to monster level prediction in tabletop RPG game design10 Jul 2026
- 2025JSON-Bag: A generic game trajectory representation1 Aug 2025
- 2025AnimeGamer: Infinite Anime Life Simulation with Next Game State Prediction1 Apr 2025
- 2024DreamGarden: A Designer Assistant for Growing Games from a Single Prompt2 Oct 2024
- 2024GAVEL: Generating Games Via Evolution and Language Models12 Jul 2024
- 2023Mechanic Maker 2.0: Reinforcement Learning for Evaluating Generated Rules18 Sep 2023
- 2023Reconstructing Existing Levels through Level Inpainting18 Sep 2023
- 2023Procedural Content Generation via Knowledge Transformation (PCG-KT)1 May 2023
- 2022Generating Real-Time Strategy Game Units Using Search-Based Procedural Content Generation and Monte Carlo Tree Search7 Dec 2022
- 2022Diversity-based Deep Reinforcement Learning Towards Multidimensional Difficulty for Fighting Game AI4 Nov 2022
- 2022tile2tile: Learning Game Filters for Platformer Style Transfer15 Aug 2022
- 2021Ensemble Learning For Mega Man Level Generation27 Jul 2021
12 newest of 14 All 14 (JSON)