AIBIRDS CIG 2016 Level Generation Competition
This year for the first time we will run an AIBIRDS level generation competition. The competition will be held at the CIG 2016 conference in Santorini, Greece, September 20-23, 2016. In the following we give a brief description of the competition and the competition rules. You can find brief instructions on how to install and use the provided software as well as a link to more detailed instructions here.
The goal of this competition is to build computer programs that can automatically create fun and challenging game levels. The difficulty of this competition compared to similar competitions is that the generated levels must be stable under gravity, robust in the sense that a single action should not destroy large parts of the generated structure, and most importantly, the levels should be fun to play and challenging, that is, difficult but solvable.
The competition consists of two tracks. In the first track, the "fun track", generated levels will be evaluated based on their fun and enjoyment factor, which will be done by a panel of judges. In the second track, the "hard track", the goal is to create levels that are hard, but solvable. This will be evaluated using both AI players and human players and will be measured based on how many players can solve it and how long it takes to solve. For both tracks we will place restrictions on what objects can be used in the generated levels (in order to prevent pre-generation of levels). We will also generate 100 levels for each submitted generator and randomly select a fraction of those for the competition. There will be a penalty if levels are too similar. More details on the two tracks can be found in the detailed competition rules.
The competition will be based on the physics game implementation "Weird Aliens" by Lucas Ferreira using Unity3D as well as a baseline level generator by Matthew Stephenson. Instructions on how to install and use the provided software can be found here. Questions regarding the respective parts should be emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . You can also use our discussion forum where we have a dedicated forum for the level generation competition. We have also prepared a basic AI agent that can play Weird Alien levels and which you can use for initial testing of your generated levels. It works similar to the Naive Agent developed for the main AI competition.
We wish all participants best of luck!
Jochen, Julian, Matthew, Gary, and Lucas
