A couple of months ago, my son Hugo (12) and I decided to learn to develop games with Unity. We would do that by actually making one. We thought up a puzzle game called Elemaze, were little guys representing the four elements have to collaborate to figure out a path to a chest in a maze. We learned a lot about coding, graphics, game mechanics, etc. Hugo went on to create his own game, “A.I. Will survive”, as a challenge to himself (see it on itch.io and on Google Play) and we participated in 2 game jams (we didn’t do great really, but it is all about the experience and the fun). What we really learned however is that, once the basics are in, it is not the coding or mechanics or music or graphics that take time, it is making the levels.

So, this is a story of how we created a genetic algorithm to design levels for Elemaze. It is also a story of how more traditional approaches to AI are still incredibly relevant, much easier to implement, and, especially in the case of genetic algorithms, can come up with completely new, creative and impressive solutions to problems that would have us scratch our heads endlessly.

#level-design #ai #coding-for-kids #game-development #genetic-algorithm