How Unexplored 2 Generates Entire Fantasy Worlds from Scratch | Artifacts #1

In the first episode of Artifacts, our new series on all things generative AI, we dive into Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer's Legacy - a roguelike adventure that procedurally generates entire game worlds from scratch.
Read this episode now via our website:
aiandgames.com/p/unexplored2
Tommy sits down with the creative director of Ludomotion ‪@Bezircle‬, Dr Joris Dormans, and how the team developed an entirely new approach known as 'radical content generation'.
[00:00] Intro
[01:29] Generative Grammars Explained
[06:39] Radical Content Generation
[10:11] Open World Generation
[14:44] The Theory of the Place
[21:17] The Passing of Time
[26:30] Closing
[27:50] Credits
Music in this episode is from the Unexplored 2 Original Soundtrack by Matthijs Dierckx.
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Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer's Legacy is out now on PC, PlayStation and Xbox platforms.
Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/10...
Epic Games:
store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/u...
Xbox:
www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/stor...
PlayStation:
store.playstation.com/en-gb/p...
Find out more about the game via the developer blogs at:
www.ludomotion.com/devblogs.html
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[@thesidneychan]

I hope you can cover Shadows of Doubt next. Generating an entire city where every NPC has their own lives and schedule.

[@bpansky]

Do they just follow a schedule though? Doesn't sound very dynamic...

[@thesidneychan]

@@bpansky they also have their own needs and personality. They will buy food and go to the toilet, hang out with their friend at a cafe, etc. In the case of a murder happening, it's in real time. The murderer will first go to the shop, purchase the weapon from a store, then find their way to the victim to kill them.

[@AIandGames]

Welcome to our second new series of 2023: Artifacts! A dedicated programme for all things generative AI. I'm pleased to return to the Unexplored franchise for this first new episode, and I'm grateful to Joris for taking time to chat with me. Let me know what topics you'd like to see in future episodes.

[@cartoonkeeper]

You might want to take a look at Minecraft specifically how it handles the generation of the villages and how the game ensures that it doesn't accidentally spawn you in an environment where you literally cannot Escape

[@Burnrate]

A devs famous last words "i don't think people will notice"

[@_mickmccarthy]

Awesome, spent so long reading up on Dormans' work on the first one. Been looking forward to this episode!

[@pingwingugu5]

I liked the first Unexplored. I never get too far because the enemies got quite difficult as you progress the levels, but it was simple fun. I adored the idea of procedural cyclic levels. So I got myself Unexplored 2, and boy did I got lost in that game. First, the game was quite difficult so it took few hours to get hang of it. Second, there was no clear path for progression. There was so many things to do, so many places. Yes there was the main objective but I found it very difficult so I figured out that I need to do some side quests to level up. That didn't end well either, I kept hitting brick walls or rather doors opened by different things that I could not find. I never could figure out, was it me being stupid, the game requiring from me to gain the "key" in a different area, or was it simply a bug or glitch. I just could not properly get into the game because at the back on my head I had this though "The key is in some inaccessible place due to a bug or something". I put in around 30 hours in the game. I didn't get too far, and the whole experience start feeling like a chore so I stopped playing. I probably just suck at this game. I think I would enjoy it way more if I was still kid with a lot of time to kill. But know when I have only few hours a week, planning to clear a wolf infested area on Wednesday so I can get some metal ore to city X on Thursday, so I can get something something from a scroll on Friday didn't feel like fun, especially that I would probably die while transporting the ore so a lot of my playthrough would be wasted. Again I love the concept, I am impressed with what the devs did, I want to love this game so much, but it was not fun after a while. The game is patched weekly, with bugfixes, balancing, new mechanics etc. so I might give it a second try soon.

[@MattGiuca]

I feel very similarly. I loved playing this game but I also have very limited time and each play session felt like I was making such a tiny amount of progress, in many sessions negative progress. I would often go into an encounter, play for an hour, come out down a couple of potions without really finding anything of value or to progress the game, and just be a bit bummed. Haven't played for a long time but I've been reading the weekly patch notes on Discord which are frankly very exciting, how much the game is evolving. I'm looking forward to starting a new world and getting back into it.

[@jorisdormans3088]

@@MattGiuca That definitely is one of the problems with the game as it currently is: the impact you have during your adventures is often too limited. It is actually the highest priority problem we are currently working on: making the encounters more meaning dramatic, dynamic and impactful. The most recent updates already are steps towards making progression more clear and more meaningful. However, it is still not where we really want it to be, but hopefully we'll be making strides over the next couple of weeks.

[@thagomizer8485]

The best advice I got for Unexplored 2 was to go into it thinking like the characters from Lord of the Rings. They didn't go into dangerous places unless they absolutely had to. They didn't get in fights if it could be avoided. They were on a journey. They weren't carrying 1,000lbs of random loot or trying to level up.

[@pingwingugu5]

@@thagomizer8485 thanks, I will give it another try soon. I hope the game flows a bit better now. Without a sense of constant progression it is hard to justify playing it when you have only few hours a week for gaming. It's a shame I'm not a kid with ton of time anymore.

[@thisnameistaken]

I play the deam for an hour or 2 a couple years ago and also didn't know what to do or where to go. Meanwhile I still play Unexplored 1 to this day. It's one of my favorite games. I wish 2 was a very similar updated version of that.

[@libiroli]

Incredible reporting, production, editing. Top notch content. Thank you!

[@Ianoc]

Excellent work as always! All this talk of generating dungeons reminded me of GMTK's Boss Keys... It would be a dream to see some sort of collab between you two. I'm definitely going to take some pages out of Unexplored 2 when I get around to more PCG tinkering again. 🤩

[@WitherBossEntity]

Great episode! Read that paper a while back but couldn't find it again because I forgot what game it was for.

[@crybirb]

This video sold me in the game really hard, just purchased it, can't wait to try in the weekend.

[@krux02]

How was it? I bought it on day one but did not warum up with it. I played a lot of the first game though. Much uglier but I did warm up with it better.

[@jacobroden2279]

Great stuff, really interesting

[@NickGeo25]

Super cool how they used procedural generation at several scales.

[@bpansky]

.... this is the poverty of the current video game industry? it's so...sad...

[@solidreactor]

Super interesting game and PCG concepts, curious about how it all will feel when playing it. Both Unexplored 1 and 2 are added to my list, Now I just need to find some time to play them :)

[@13thravenpurple94]

great video thank you

[@djbeema]

This game looks so cool, was happy to see it's actually available on PS as well. I will check it out soon! Something I always think of when procgen comes up is, with the technological advances since 2015, I can't help but wonder if Bloodborne's chalice dungeons could have actually been, well, much better than they were. I've always felt like the idea had so much untapped potential which due to development & tech constraints didn't amount to much. The main issue for me being that one of Fromsoft's hallmarks is highly intricate and thoughtful map design, which makes the repetitive, boxy, and somewhat barren assortment of 10 or so room combinations in the chalice dungeons especially glaring. I'm not sure this would be enough to dedicate an entire episode to, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on it, Tommy

[@jorisdormans3088]

I recommend buying the game on any PC platform if that is an option for you. The PC has been receiving weekly updates for a year now. Unfortunately since we split with our publisher we haven't been able to roll out updates for the console versions.

[@andydataguy]

One of my fav games! 💜🙏🏾🔥🤗

[@ncascini01]

This is the beginning- can't wait till mmorpgs and open world rpgs start to adopt ai in similar ways.

[@dustythompson5382]

Can this be used to create 3d worlds for game creation like dungeon architect ?

[@theebulll]

You mentioned wanting to do a deep dive into the AI of the Sims Utility and bucket systems. Do you still have plans of doing that? I would be so interested in that.

[@chrisprice8112]

Game Maker's Toolkit just did exactly that! watch?v=9gf2MT-IOsg

[@Maverick_8720]

I will admit the game is great. I bought it day one of release for the PS4. That was a year ago. A few months later I finally obtained a PS5. I still enjoy the game to this day but it struggles due to it still being the 1.01 version of its initial release. I’ve encountered numerous bugs and a few crashes here and there. But I just keep on keepin on. I don’t normally reach out to devs and I get it’s a small studio. But seeing all the news on the update features for PC seems highly unfair for me and others who play on PlayStation. I’ve reached out via email and I even decided to make a twitter account just to further my reach. I don’t ever ask for much. But I like this game. I love rogue-likes and the concepts this game has. All I ask is for the same updates that other platforms have.

[@Burnrate]

Stuff like that isn't always the devs fault, Sony can be very difficult to work with

[@didaibr1]

Really cool game, adding to my whishlist right now, whats the name of that third person shooter at the and of the video?

[@AIandGames]

That's Returnal. Was a PS5 exclusive, it came to Steam not that long ago.

[@unvergebeneid]

Interesting. I have yet to come across a procedurally generated game that didn't disappoint me on some level (except for 4X games but that's a completely different thing in my book). So I'm skeptical but also intrigued!

[@jorisdormans3088]

Out of curiosity: in what ways did generative games let you down in the past?

[@jaydenshepard7928]

@@jorisdormans3088 I cant speak for him, but in my case a lot of the issue Ive had is that while everything generated is technically different and unique…it all still felt very samey. There wasnt much depth or quality of the maps, and they were very meh compared to handcrafted maps. I found I got bored due to the blandness of the maps just as quickly if not more quickly than I would of replaying the same handcrafted maps. As what he said, when it comes to 4X games this isnt an issue though.

[@jorisdormans3088]

@@jaydenshepard7928 Right, I can relate to that issue. In academic PCG circles it is often referred to as the '1000 bowls of oatmeal' problem. I think it is more prevalent when the PCG pipeline is dominated by the technology and the underlying algorithms. I always try use PCG to mimic 'top-down' design philosophies. I like to think that reduces the problem, but obviously I am biased.

[@DarthBiomech]

@@jorisdormans3088 I'd also chimmed in, the generated games often feel samey and empty in a different plane, narratively. sure there may be sufficiently detailed and variable environments, but there's no _content_ in them. Places, characters, dungeons, items, ETC do not form a cohesive mesh of relationships and story, and in worse cases feel just tacked on superficially in a "spray and pray" manner.

[@jorisdormans3088]

@@DarthBiomech We have been thinking about narrative a great deal lately, and I can verify it is extremely hard to pull off. Content generation like the one in Unexplored 2 is pretty sophisticated in terms of generating space, but story typically is an arrangement in time and/or causality. Even handcrafted games that offer fairly open gameplay often struggle with this; sophisticated narrative expression structured in space is mostly uncharted territory (ha!). Most roguelike/lites rely on player creating their own stories, within the limited narrative ambition of Unexplored 1, this worked reasonably well, and there are some fantastic narrative recollections of individual play-throughs. For Unexplored 2 we are more ambitious, the update I released today actually incorporates under the hood mechanics that track an individual episodes dramatic arch. Is it as successful as I would hope it to be? I doubt it, but at least it offers potential. So I sure hope it one day will be!

[@anteshell]

I hated this game when I tried it briefly a long time ago. It has almost every element I like about games, but something just didn't make it click with me. However, this video made me want to give it another try.

[@jorisdormans3088]

Ow that must have been frustrating, a game that ticks almost all the boxes but just doesn't click. For what its worth, if you do give it another go, and it still doesn't click, I for one would be very interested in hearing about your experience. As you have the game, I am easy to find on discord, should you be so inclined.

[@anteshell]

@@jorisdormans3088 Yeah, it is frustrating and that is the reason I hated it. I don't use Discord, but I'll try to remember to update here. Might take some time, though, as my time is limited.

[@johnjay370]

Did not care for the dead cell game. The potential was there but thay missed it.

[@ThomasAndersonPhD]

This was awesome and described some great ideas. It is so cool to see ideas flow from TTRPGs into video-games (and hopefully back again). For procedural generation projects for AI & Games to look at, maybe the stuff @RujiKtheComatose is working on; search "Designing (Procedural) Monsters" and "Monster Breeding". Easy B-roll, too :)