From mechanics to meaning

Adam Summerville, University of California, Santa Cruz
Chris Martens, NC State University
Sarah Harmon, University of California, Santa Cruz
Michael Mateas, University of California, Santa Cruz
Joseph Osborn, University of California, Santa Cruz
Noah Wardrip-Fruin, University of California, Santa Cruz
Arnav Jhala, NC State University

Abstract

—While generative approaches to game design offer great promise, systems can only reliably generate what they can “understand,” which is often represented in a limited, implicit form in hand-crafted evaluation functions or constructive rules. Proceduralist readings, a semiformal approach for interpreting the meaning of a game based on its underlying processes and interactions in conjunction with aesthetic and cultural cues, offer a novel, systematic approach to game understanding. We formalize proceduralist argumentation as a logic program that performs static reasoning over game specifications to derive higher level meanings, as part of Gemini, a bidirectional game analysis and generation system.