{"author_name":"Mark Hildreth","cat":"LD #26","comments":[],"epoch":1367161260,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"44035","p_author":"Mark Hildreth","p_authorkey":"13982","p_urlkey":"79693","p_title":"Wrote an AI to play my game so I can see how hard the levels are","p_cat":"LD #26","p_event":"LD26","p_time":"1367161260","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"13982","us_name":"Mark Hildreth","us_username":"mark_hildreth_ld","event_start":"1366934400","event_key":"16","event_name":"LD26"},"text":"<p>This is quite possibly the WORST use of my time right now, but it was fun, so I did it.<\/p>\n <p>My LD entry is a puzzle game, and I overestimated how hard it was to design puzzle levels (read my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludumdare.com\/compo\/2013\/04\/27\/how-hard-is-it-to-make-a-puzzle-game-for-ld\/\">last post<\/a> for more info). So, I went ahead and wrote an AI to brute-force my levels, and give me the number of success and failure paths that the user could take, with &#8220;harder&#8221; levels probably having better ratio of failure\/success paths. It also means that I can put the level into the solver and actually see if the level I made really is solvable and I was just beaten by my own game <img src=\"http:\/\/ludumdare.com\/compo\/wp-includes\/images\/smilies\/simple-smile.png\" alt=\":)\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/><\/p>\n <p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/markhildreth\/ld26-solver\">solver is on github<\/a>. In the time I wrote this I could have gotten sound effects or just plain been making more levels (as easy as they would probably end up being), but I thought the idea of writing the AI was a fun challenge so I did it anyway. I might write a post about the AI after the contest.<\/p>\n <p>Though I&#8217;m not happy with the graphics\/sound\/music (bad, none, and none, respectively), I think I&#8217;m going to ignore those as casualties of my first LD experience.<\/p>\n <p>Plan today:<\/p>\n <p>* Eat more leftover pizza.<br \/>\n * Add the remaining device types to my solver (right now it only can &#8220;solve&#8221; levels with SOME device types from the game)<br \/>\n * Use the solver to help create the remaining levels<br \/>\n * Continue adding dialog. Maybe actually have a plot!<br \/>\n * Add a background texture to replace the dull &#8220;black&#8221; background.<br \/>\n * Add an intro screen.<br \/>\n * Add an intro screen for each level.<\/p>\n <p>Time permitting:<\/p>\n <p>* Eat more pizza<\/p>","time":"April 28th, 2013 10:01 am","title":"Wrote an AI to play my game so I can see how hard the levels are"}