# Mech-Elites: Illuminating the Mechanic Space of GVGAI

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.04733 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.04733/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 11 Feb 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Generating and Blending Game Levels via Quality-Diversity in the Latent Space of a Variational Autoencoder](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.12463/) (2021)
- [Goals as Reward-Producing Programs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.13242/) (2024)
- [TropeTwist: Trope-based Narrative Structure Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.09672/) (2022)
- [Story Designer: Towards a Mixed-Initiative Tool to Create Narrative Structures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.09294/) (2022)
- [Measuring Diversity of Game Scenarios](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.15192/) (2024)
- [Exploring open-ended gameplay features with Micro RollerCoaster Tycoon](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.04342/) (2021)
- [Predicting Personas Using Mechanic Frequencies and Game State Traces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.13351/) (2022)
- [Game Mechanic Alignment Theory and Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.10247/) (2021)
- [Illuminating the Space of Dungeon Maps, Locked-door Missions and Enemy Placement Through MAP-Elites](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.09301/) (2022)
- [Persona-driven Dominant/Submissive Map (PDSM) Generation for Tutorials](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.05217/) (2022)
- [Tree-Based Reconstructive Partitioning: A Novel Low-Data Level Generation Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.13071/) (2023)
- [The Quest for Content: A Survey of Search-Based Procedural Content Generation for Video Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.04710/) (2023)
- [Procedural Generation of First Person Shooter Maps using Map-Elites](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.30570/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper introduces a fully automatic method of mechanic illumination for general video game level generation. Using the Constrained MAP-Elites algorithm and the GVG-AI framework, this system generates the simplest tile based levels that contain specific sets of game mechanics and also satisfy playability constraints. We apply this method to illuminate mechanic space for 4 different games in GVG-AI: Zelda, Solarfox, Plants, and RealPortals.