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Software Engineering vocabulary · Architecture, Design Patterns and Graphics

Procedural generation

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounCommon term

In software engineering, procedural generation means: Creating game content such as maps, dungeons, terrain or loot automatically with algorithms and rules, instead of building every piece by hand.

In Turkish: prosedürel üretim, prosedürel içerik üretimi, yordamsal üretim

How it is used

Common in roguelikes and survival games, where every run is different; often shortened to procgen. A seed value lets the same world be generated again. Designers mix procedural generation with handmade pieces so the content does not feel random and empty.

Example sentences

  1. The dungeons use procedural generation, but every boss room is handmade.

  2. Because of procedural generation, QA needs the seed to reproduce a broken map.

Common collocations

  • procedurally generated
  • random seed
  • procgen
  • generate levels
  • open worldA large game world that players can explore freely and in almost any order, instead of moving through a fixed series of levels.
  • steps to reproduceThe exact list of actions someone must take to make a bug appear again, written in a bug report so a developer can see the problem for themselves.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Architecture, Design Patterns and Graphics

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