TactiCon 2024 - Sh*t Happens: Procedural generation in simulation games

Check out TactiCon on Steam: store.steampow...
Procedural generation in simulation and management games offers players unique and unpredictable experiences each time they play. This panel will delve into how games like Dwarf Fortress and Rimworld utilize procedural generation to create dynamic, emergent gameplay that keeps players engaged. What are the technical challenges, and design philosophies that unleash some many possibilities in management games? How much randomness and unpredictability is required to find the perfect balance between chaos and control to fit the expectations of the players?
Dwarf Fortress: store.steampow...
Timberborn: store.steampow...
Caves of Qud: store.steampow...
Tarn Adams - Bay 12 Games
Tarn Adams is the co-creator of Dwarf Fortress, which he's been working on with his brother for 22 years and counting. Dwarf Fortress has been a massively influential game, inspiring Minecraft, Rimworld, and others, and also is currently on display in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Marta Fijak - Mechanistry
Making games since 2013. With a master's in experimental biology and an engineering degree in computer science, she decided to dedicate her life to games instead. Tried every form of game development, from basement indie with 20 players to a BAFTA-nominated game with ~2 million players, to F2P with ~10 million players. Has been a gameplay programmer, system and technical designer, and eventually a lead designer and a creative director. Recently, and not under NDA, she worked (a lot) on Frostpunk and (a little) on Rimworld. Teaches game design at the Warsaw Film School, consults on games, and just in general, can not shut up about them.
Jason Grinblat - Freehold Games
Jason Grinblat is co-director at Freehold Games and co-creator of Caves of Qud and Sproggiwood. He's written extensively about procedural generation, emergent narrative, worldbuilding and design, with chapters in the Procedural Generation and Storytelling series edited by Tanya X. Short and Tarn Adams.