So this is where the fun stuff really starts to begin, we're going to start talking about procedural level generation. What is procedural level generation? procedural level generation is basically randomization but within certain rule sets. So we can create a level and we want that level to be created but not a complete randomness, we want to set the certain rules that that level is created in. So for example, no man sky builds planets under certain rule sets, or Minecraft builds worlds under certain rule sets or games like Spelunky builds that builds their 2d levels under certain rule sets. But how do they actually accomplish this?
Well, to understand procedural level generation, let's look at a very, very simple example. Tetris in Tetris, everyone understands how to play Tetris, I hope you're gonna line up the lines horizontally and then you get a point or whatever the thing goes down. But the the basically, the way the procedural level generation works in Tetris is you given random shapes and you've got to get them to fit together. It isn't programmed, what shapes will come out at what times it's actually chosen at random. But the shapes aren't random, the shapes are actually selected from a group of different shapes that the Creator is deciding, okay, we're going to have this pointy shape, we're going to have this T shape, we're going to have this straight, you know, full on line shape. And we're gonna have a bunch of different shapes.
And we're going to choose all of these different shapes. And we're just going to procedurally generate them at random, as the game is actually playing. So what this means is that the creator can play his own game and be surprised with the results. So this is actually a really fun way to make games. It can also be very frustrating because you can't predict what is going to happen. not perfectly anyway.
But how does this relate to our game? Well, our game has a level that goes on forever and ever and ever. We'll deal with this in a later episode. But we also have triangles that need to spawn not at random, but kind of at random. They need to spawn at preset locations based on certain rules that we give the program but they need to feel random. They need to feel like they've chosen at random that the computer is making the choice in which it actually is making that choice.
So when our play goes along, he may run into a prefab with two triangles on the left. And then he may run to a prefab with a gap in the middle and then you might run into a prefab with another gap in the middle. And this is totally random, but it's within certain rulesets. The reason why procedural level generation could be so fun to play with is because you can adjust the smallest variables or the smallest things, or the smallest component. And it can totally give you totally crazy different results, and different game feel and your game will feel different. And if you're confident enough in programming, you can take this in the next episode, and add to it and your game will feel completely different to everybody else's.
That's what's awesome about procedural level generation. So now that you understand a little bit about what procedural level generation is, let's implement that into our game.