Theory: Computerized Brainstorming

There’s something to RoboRosewater. It’s fair to say that this isn’t a great card:

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Or that this one isn’t even coherent:

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However, this automatically-generated creature is a cute idea:

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This one might even have a valid role in some conceivable metagames:

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While one clearly has to take the good with the bad, I think the interesting aspect of RoboRosewater is that it’s at least capable of putting together cards that are interesting. Its cards suggest weird possibilities that might be worth following up on. For example, I wouldn’t have thought of representing your creatures’ negative effects on opponents’ creatures with bonuses rather than penalties if RoboRosewater hadn’t tried it, with very thematically satisfying results.

I can imagine this sort of tool being useful for many games that use exception-based design. We humans can have trouble getting out of our own heads in order to find new and interesting exceptions. Computers, though, can do it easily. For a game that’s going to be around a while, it might be worth designing a script that can toss out new player powers and the like.

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