Procedural Generation

How to make generators whose output is perceptually rich, not just mathematically infinite — the central skill for a headless, AI-authored game.

When to use this

• Designing any generator (terrain, dungeons, quests, items, NPCs, lore, history)
• Diagnosing generated content that reads as samey / generic / soulless
• Deciding the handcrafted-vs-procedural ratio
• Setting up an AI authoring engine that needs one coherent voice

Scope

This is the how to generate knowledge skill. Its companion is procgen-review — the process skill that gates generated output against these principles (oatmeal test, fanfic test, sameness scan). Generate with this; review with that.

Related: open-world-design (generating space), worldbuilding-and-lore + ai-authored-content-coherence (generating lore coherently), systemic-emergent-design (multiplicative systems).

How the pieces fit

• GUIDE.md — the why: the oatmeal problem, perceptual uniqueness, the hybrid model, corpus voice, intentionality/local logic, multiplicative systems, curated randomness, apophenia. Cited.
• CHECKLIST.md — the what to do: Do/Don't + test-for criteria.

The one idea to anchor on

Perceptual uniqueness is the only metric that matters. You can generate 10,000 mathematically-unique bowls of oatmeal; the player still just sees oatmeal (Kate Compton). Intentionality — constraints, handcrafted anchors, local meaning, and a single voice — is what separates great procedural content from infinite filler.

Start with GUIDE.md; gate everything you generate with procgen-review.