International Journal of Secondary Computing and Applications Research


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Using Model Counting for Game Development: Quantifying Difficulty of 2D Platformer Levels for Diverse Playable Characters

Aditya Patil, Mark Santolucito

Affiliation: MIT Vishwashanti Gurukul

IJSCAR Vol. 1, Issue 1 (2024)  ·  pp. 24–28

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14279496


Abstract

Game development is a field that benefits immensely from using Generative Artificial Intelligence. In particular level design is a labor-intensive task that can be assisted by AI. However one challenge in level design is ensuring the balance of the level. To further support level designers we propose a technique using model counting for the automatic analysis of a level for multiple different playable characters in order to quantify the difficulty of the level for each character. By using model counting we can analyze a level without the need for human play testing. We implement a prototype of our tool and show the viability of this approach for a 2D platformer.


Keywords: Game Design, Model Counting, Balance, Level Difficulty


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