What is procedural generation?

Procedural generation is a method where a game creates its content with algorithms instead of building every piece by hand. Maps, levels, items, and enemies come from a set of rules and are usually reshuffled each time you play, so one game can produce near-endless variations.

How procedural generation works

A developer writes the rules and a starting seed, then the game assembles the world from those rules as you play. Feed it a different seed and the same code lays out a different map.

This lets a small studio ship far more content than it could place by hand. It also means no two runs look quite the same, so a game stays fresh long after a hand-built level would feel memorized.

Games built on procedural generation

• No Man's Sky builds its planets through procedural generation rather than hand-placing each one, which is how Hello Games fits a near-infinite universe onto one machine. It sits seventh in our best open world PC games guide, with 82% of its 187,206 English-language Steam reviews positive.
• Slay the Spire deals a fresh hand of cards and a new climb on every attempt, which is procedural generation applied to a deck-builder. It ranks second in our best offline mobile games guide at 4.3 on Google Play from 30,134 ratings.

Procedural generation and roguelikes

Every roguelike leans on procedural generation, since the genre rebuilds its levels, items, and enemy layouts for each run. That reshuffle is the reason a roguelike is worth restarting.

Returnal is one example, a roguelike shooter about breaking a cycle on a hostile planet. It ranks fourth in our best PS5 shooter games guide at 4.37 out of 5, though $69.99 is a real ask.