# Friend, Collaborator, Student, Manager: How Design of an AI-Driven Game Level Editor Affects Creators

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.06417 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.06417/

## Key facts

- Cited by 31 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 18 Jan 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 31)

- [Homogenization Effects of Large Language Models on Human Creative Ideation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01536/) (2024)
- [CoQuest: Exploring Research Question Co-Creation with an LLM-based Agent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.06155/) (2023)
- [Toward General Design Principles for Generative AI Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.05578/) (2023)
- [Designing Participatory AI: Creative Professionals' Worries and Expectations about Generative AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08931/) (2023)
- [Games for Artificial Intelligence Research: A Review and Perspectives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.13269/) (2023)
- [The Ink Splotch Effect: A Case Study on ChatGPT as a Co-Creative Game Designer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.02454/) (2024)
- [Mimetic Models: Ethical Implications of AI that Acts Like You](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.09394/) (2022)
- [VRCopilot: Authoring 3D Layouts with Generative AI Models in VR](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.09382/) (2024)
- [Mutation Models: Learning to Generate Levels by Imitating Evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.05497/) (2022)
- [Player-AI Interaction: What Neural Network Games Reveal About AI as Play](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.06220/) (2021)
- [Generative Personas That Behave and Experience Like Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.00459/) (2022)
- [SuSketch: Surrogate Models of Gameplay as a Design Assistant](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.11726/) (2021)
- [Investigating Positive and Negative Qualities of Human-in-the-Loop Optimization for Designing Interaction Techniques](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.07641/) (2022)
- [Lode Encoder: AI-constrained co-creativity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.01312/) (2023)
- [TutoAI: A Cross-domain Framework for AI-assisted Mixed-media Tutorial Creation on Physical Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.08049/) (2024)
- [On Two XAI Cultures: A Case Study of Non-technical Explanations in Deployed AI System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.01016/) (2021)
- [A Human-Computer Collaborative Tool for Training a Single Large Language Model Agent into a Network through Few Examples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.15974/) (2024)
- [LLMs May Not Be Human-Level Players, But They Can Be Testers: Measuring Game Difficulty with LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02829/) (2024)
- [Evaluating Human-AI Interaction via Usability, User Experience and Acceptance Measures for MMM-C: A Creative AI System for Music Composition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14071/) (2025)
- [Design-Driven Requirements for Computationally Co-Creative Game AI Design Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.13738/) (2021)
- [Exploring the Needs of Practising Musicians in Co-Creative AI Through Co-Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.09055/) (2025)
- [Procedural Content Generation via Knowledge Transformation (PCG-KT)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.00644/) (2023)
- [Level generation and style enhancement -- deep learning for game development overview](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.07397/) (2021)
- [Toward Co-creative Dungeon Generation via Transfer Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.12533/) (2021)
- [The Impact of Visualizing Design Gradients for Human Designers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.04147/) (2021)
- [Threshold Designer Adaptation: Improved Adaptation for Designers in Co-creative Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.09269/) (2022)
- [Lode Enhancer: Level Co-creation Through Scaling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.01543/) (2023)
- [Video Game Level Design as a Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Problem](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.04862/) (2025)
- [Spiders Based on Anxiety: How Reinforcement Learning Can Deliver Desired User Experience in Virtual Reality Personalized Arachnophobia Treatment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.17406/) (2024)
- [Actionable AI: Enabling Non Experts to Understand and Configure AI Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06803/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Machine learning advances have afforded an increase in algorithms capable of creating art, music, stories, games, and more. However, it is not yet well-understood how machine learning algorithms might best collaborate with people to support creative expression. To investigate how practicing designers perceive the role of AI in the creative process, we developed a game level design tool for Super Mario Bros.-style games with a built-in AI level designer. In this paper we discuss our design of the Morai Maker intelligent tool through two mixed-methods studies with a total of over one-hundred participants. Our findings are as follows: (1) level designers vary in their desired interactions with, and role of, the AI, (2) the AI prompted the level designers to alter their design practices, and (3) the level designers perceived the AI as having potential value in their design practice, varying based on their desired role for the AI.