Fascinating to compare the take on storytelling/worldbuilding articulated at the end of the article to a game at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Dwarf Fortress which has the explicit aim of being a story-generating tool, but creates worlds sort of as an accidental byproduct. What would it take to be able to generate a puzzle game with the kind of depth seen in Riven using a generative tool like Dwarf Fortress? A deeper question might be, is there any generative process that would produce the complexity of Riven without an explicit desire or demand to create such complexity. The complaints by the author in a sense echo the utter impracticality of creating such complex puzzles. Most of the time the practical solution is just to have a key, but that leads to boring bog standard gameplay. Maybe a virtual civilization that only allows initiates that demonstrate a certain persistence and curiosity, but how do you weed out those that simply follow the instructions that others have given? Well, if you have the ability to generate a whole new set of equally challenging puzzles that can't be rote memorized and copied, maybe that is sufficient.
> What would it take to be able to generate a puzzle game with the kind of depth seen in Riven using a generative tool like Dwarf Fortress?
You'd need AGI.
Standard procedural generation, even the most advanced versions, aren't any good at consistently making interesting things. Procedural generation is only good for making things that probably haven't been seen before, and the vast majority of what gets spit out via procedural generation will be bland and uninteresting.
In other words, there's a reason that 99% of any given Dwarf Fortress world's legends mode will be mind-dullingly boring, and a reason why Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has an autoexplore key.
But if you're willing to tolerate somewhat-bland open-ended procedural murder mysteries in a highly simulated film-noir setting, check out Shadows Of Doubt.
Shadows of Doubt actually sounds quite interesting, seems like the sort of game where dipping in and solving one case, then putting it down for a few days/weeks, might keep it feeling at least somewhat fresh.
A game that fits between 'hard puzzles' and 'action' and will always have a new puzzle available to me might be really nice.
(I am not certain of this enough to buy it -yet- but I'm now definitely considering it)
