Shape Grammars for Level Design of Action Role-playing Games

Third-person 3D action role-playing games inspired by Dark Souls (souls-likes) have recently gained a lot of popularity, but are difficult to develop due to the amount of gameplay and content required. In this paper, we describe a level-generation framework that aids with prototyping souls-likes. We use shape grammars combined with a grid-based procedural modeler to create the environment. Additional script execution can be intertwined with the grammar, to allow for additional mechanics, such as adding enemies, items and locking parts of the levels. The framework is best fit for generating level sequences and allows designers to create a large amount of varied content and game mechanics with ease.