Difficulty is one of the key drivers of player engagement and it is often one of the aspects that designers tweak most to optimise the player experience; operationalising it is, therefore, a crucial task for game development studios. A common practice consists of creating metrics out of data collected by player interactions with the content; however, this allows for estimation only after the content is released and does not consider the characteristics of potential future players. In this article, we present a number of potential solutions for the estimation of difficulty under such conditions, and we showcase the results of a comparative study intended to understand which method and which types of data perform better in different scenarios. The results reveal that models trained on a combination of cohort statistics and simulated data produce the most accurate estimations of difficulty in all scenarios. Furthermore, among these models, artificial neural networks show the most consistent results.

The technical skills of programmer John Carmack helped create the 3D world of Doom, the first-person shooter that took over the world 25 years ago. But it was level designers like John Romero and American McGee that made the game fun to play. Level designers that, today, might find their jobs threatened by the ever-growing capabilities of artificial intelligence. One of the many reasons Doom became so incredibly popular was that id Software made tools available that let anyone create their own levels for the game, resulting in thousands of free ways to add to its replay value. First-person 3D games and their level design have advanced by leaps and bounds since the original Doom's release, but the sheer volume of user-created content made it the ideal game for training an AI to create its own levels.

You wake up, it's dark and you're lying in a pool. You don't remember how you got here. You stand up, stretch your aching limbs, walk towards the exit and out into the brilliant sunshine. As your eyes adjust to the light, the world comes slowly into focus – and it is beautiful. The greens of the open plains contrast with the dark black of Death Mountain, which is streaked with orange lava on the distant horizon.

He graciously consented to devote a good deal of his time to this four-part interview about the video game writer's job and the special challenges and opportunities of writing Torment. The interview took place through email and has been edited for comprehension. Ziets received a Masters degree in Cognitive Psychology with an emphasis on Human-Computer Interaction in 1999. I was a member of his thesis committee.) In 2001 he took a job writing dialog for the MMO Earth & Beyond.

He graciously consented to devote a good deal of his time to this four-part interview about the video game writer's job and the special challenges and opportunities of writing Torment. The interview took place through email and has been edited for comprehension. Ziets received a Masters degree in Cognitive Psychology with an emphasis on Human-Computer Interaction in 1999. I was a member of his thesis committee.) In 2001 he took a job writing dialog for the MMO Earth & Beyond. Since then he has held various positions as a writer, designer or creative lead on games such as Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Neverwinter Nights 2, Elder Scrolls Online, Dungeon Siege 3, Fallout: New Vegas and Torment among others.