Combination: automated generation of puzzles with constraints

Christopher Jefferson; Wendy Moncur; Karen E. Petrie

doi:10.1145/1982185.1982383

Combination: automated generation of puzzles with constraints

Christopher Jefferson, Wendy Moncur, Karen E. Petrie

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Other chapter contribution

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Constraint Programming offers a powerful means of solving a wide variety of combinatorial problems. We have used this powerful paradigm to create a successful computer game called Combination. Combination is an application for the iPhone and iPod touch. It has been on sale internationally through the iTunes store since December, 2008 and received a number of positive reviews. In this paper we explain how all the levels of Combination were generated, checked for correctness and rated for difficulty completely automatically through the use of constraints. We go on to evaluate this method of creation with the use of a human evaluation. This showed that fun, immersing computer games can be created with constraint programming.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	SAC '11
Subtitle of host publication	proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing
Place of Publication	NewYork
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	907-912
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Print)	9781450301138
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/1982185.1982383
Publication status	Published - 2011

Keywords

Automated generation
Combinatorial problem
Computer games
Constraint programming
Human evaluation
Human computer interaction

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10.1145/1982185.1982383

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KW - Human evaluation

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Combination: automated generation of puzzles with constraints

Abstract

Keywords

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