Week 18 - Auto Maze

One of my favourite game-making technique is 'procedural generation'. That is when the code generates parts of the game automatically using a set of algorithms. For example, if it's a racing game, the code would 'create' a different track each time the player races, instead of using a track that the game designer made. This is generally very difficult to do, because computers are very bad at creation. But the continued progress of AI and related algorithms bring us closer and closer.

Today's game has a (very) simple example of procedural generation. In this game you need to guide a dot through a maze. The neat thing is that the maze is generated by the computer, using a very simple algorithm that I wrote. I would say around 20% of the time it generates a reasonable-looking maze, while the other times ... not so much. If you have a better maze generation algorithm, I would love to know!

Note: This currently works only on computers, but it's designed to be easily converted to be played on tablets. I hope to soon find time to write the instructions for doing so.

Link to full project page, where you can check out the maze generation algorithm. You'll need to be logged in to Tynker to access.

Special thanks to my daughter who wrote this week's excerpt!