Abstract

In recent research, there are several approaches for formalizing games and gamespaces. One stream aims at providing knowledge about the current location and its related meaning within the game to its entities. This paper proposes a solution to said challenge of creating a spatial understanding of an object's semantic location in the gamespace. It presents an editor tool that allows level designers to place so-called anchor points in the gamespace. These then grow a volume as far as possible using the Voronoi algorithm as a baseline. Additionally, boundary elements can be inserted to influence the partition. Eventually, the gamespace is fully partitioned into anchor subspaces. The system also supports nesting anchors so that they only extend within another anchor's volume. The outcome of the partition is assessed by defining custom test setups for all required features and comparing them to the expected results. That revealed that the system produces the desired space partition, but it can be improved in both performance and cleanliness in future extensions. The tool assists the user in partitioning the gamespace automatically following rules set by placing anchor and boundary elements. The outcomes can be used for several purposes and specifically tailored towards the user's needs. The resulting volumes are stored in the scene, so they can be generated once and reused from that point on. Furthermore, they will not conflict with other game elements, as they are hidden in the game and can only collide with a custom object provided by the tool. This way, they are clearly separated from the game logic.

Results/Implementation/Project Description

Conclusion

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