I hate the way people are still saying "procedurally generated levels" as if it's a badge of honour, and not just indicative of a program that bolts together a bunch of L and T shapes into shit-tastic and repetitive Wolfenstein 3D levels. 

Astroneer is showing off the "vast amount of environments" you can explore, by showing little astro-man running through a series of the exact same environment over and over but with a different color fog each time:

https://twitter.com/astroneergame/status/678295654553161729

but the metaball hill generator probably has slightly different parameters every time too 

It depends on how its done though. Ideally the person who makes the segments should be the one to code the system as well, for best results.

How granular it is basically means how much level design is in the game. And if you don't have sub environments then just go home. Minecraft realised that early on with biomes.

The idea of many indies seems to be that by doing procedural you save yourself time on level design, when in fact, it takes a lot more effort.

Unless it's crap of course.

Really it depends on what game you're making and how dedicated you are to that, rather than the fuzzy concept of 'infinite levels!' which tends to result in a load of samey guff nobody wants to explore because they keep recognising the segments. 

Shamb yeah, its only any good if you like arcade action games and roguelikes a la Binding of Isaac...with the claustropobic FPS space hulk/alien shtick. (I'm not saying its anywhere near Binding of Isaac in action roguelike awesomeness...)

#8785 If anyone claims random generated levels like a badge they are fucktarded.
Maybe when someone works a good one out using deep learning that might be something interesting in itself.

They serve a purpose for certain type of games, roguelikes being one where it is the nature of most of them. 

the fuzzy concept of 'infinite levels!' which tends to result in a load of samey guff nobody wants to explore because they keep recognising the segments.

Spelunky HD was shit for this. Isaac has:

1) tons more variety in room designs
2) rare (1/1000) designs
3) entire batches of new designs added periodically 

I guess as a counterpoint to the procedural bitching, I could offer Minecraft? 

Really though, Minecraft is a level editor with a resource-gathering metagame and wandering monsters. The random environments are appropriate in this case because the game is all about the building and gathering.

Imagine if you couldn't modify the environment in Minecraft? 

Maybe it's the building block size that makes it work. Minecraft is working at a much more granular level than the previously mentioned L and T shaped areas being snapped together. 

"Infinite levels" yah, its marketing speak. You know in 95% of the cases its gonna be samey who cares stuff.

In a roguelike I couldnt give a crap.
The point is just to change things up to make sure you are not getting a predictable playthrough - the point being in getting good at a roguelike of this type is you are supposed to be getting good at dealing with any situation thrown up and not getting good at predicting what is coming. I think so at least.

A newb will win an occasional favorable random seed, a skilled player will win in 80% of the seeds thrown at him. 

I don't mind procedural level design as long as the gameplay is there. Many of my favourite games in the last few years have used some procedural systems.

Really curious to see how the random generation in Gibhard (http://www.gibhard.com/) will work, most of the screenshots he's posted look like proper levels, I guess it's probably pre-made rooms like Isaac or something. 

I guess it's probably pre-made rooms like Isaac or something.

Which at best will feel like those infinitely dreary sections in Halo 1 where you just kept finding yourself in the same prefabbed rooms and corridors with the only variation being the position of crates and other freely placeable props.

It might be ok for some, but I feel it's not quite my tempo. 

I honestly don't believe procedural levels will work with first person shooters, which is why I'm quite wary of projects like Strafe and Gibhard (Gibhard is kinda old too, was showcased on Mapcore a few years ago).

Random prefabs slapped together will probably never be as thorough and well thought out as a level with a proper layout. You end up knowing regular levels by heart after a while, but at least they stay consistent all the time (when they're well designed, that is). 

a hybrid - maybe for like a horror game of some kind. Central parts are designed by hand, but outdoor areas connecting the central parts are randomly generated so each time you play there's something different about it. If it worked, I could see it being applied to something like L4D or Vermintide to help keep the game from getting stale. 

Here's a couple screenshots of a new build engine game by 3d realms just as a palette cleanser.

http://quakeguy.tumblr.com/post/136978460682/did-you-know-that-3d-realms-are-working-on-another 

I'm more excited for that than I am for Bombshell. Which isn't really saying much, but it's unexpected!