GDC 2018 Flash Forward: Procedurally Generating History in 'Caves of Qud'

hey there my name is Jason grim Blatt and I'm co-creator of a game called Ches of cut that's currently in early access caves have cut is an open world science fantasy roguelike epic where you chisel for a layer cake of thousand-year-old civilizations last year at GDC I talked about procedurally generating in-game books this year I'll be talking about generating whole in-game histories when you start a new game of caves of cod a new history is generated as part of the world creation process important places and artifacts that come out of the history are instantiated in the game world and placed on the world map then as you explore the world you learn about the history bit by bit by visiting historic sites by talking to NPCs and by examining cultural artifacts like shrines paintings and engraved items such as this dagger I plan to talk about how we took something as dauntingly complexes history and procedure lies it in a way that jives with our design principles and the handwritten lore we'd

already developed for the game I'll use examples from two other games that generate history Dwarf Fortress and epitaph to define some patterns I see emerging in this blossoming subfield of procedural generation finally I'll point to some resources that will help you procedurally generated histories in your own games I hope to see you there