Computer game design has always been driven by technology, from advances in graphics to new user interfaces such as the Wii and Kinect. The future of game design lies in the development of technologies that enable new player experiences and game genres. This talk describes two ways in which procedural content generation stands to influence the future of games: as a tool that supports players designing their own content for games, and as a means for allowing meaningful player choices that change the game environment.

Gillian Smith is a PhD candidate in the Center for Games and Playable Media (Augmented Design Lab and Expressive Intelligence
Studio) at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on procedural content generation and how it changes the game design process, in terms of both creating tools for novice designers and enabling entirely new kinds of games. Her latest project, Endless Web, is a game that uses procedural content generation to create an infinite world for the player to explore that adapts to the choices they've made. She is also interested in studying gender issue in games and methods for increasing women's participation in computer science and game design.