this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2026
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Both the Steam Indie and the Itch.io games are valid ways! Also, procedural generation does NOT have to be bland. Dead Cells - my preferred Metroidvania (will stay that way probably until the day i die), and Hades I/II are the best examples how random generation can generate completely acceptable and enjoyable gameplay experiences. Give the generator enough pieces to work with and make sure they fit together regardless of how you mix&match them, and you got a pretty good thing going. Add tight controls and clear visuals for anything gameplay-relevant, make sure random bullshit doesn't punish too harshly, and give the player control about how hard the game gets, and you probably have something that will pay the bills.
The Steamworld Heist games (and the Dig ones) also do great procedural generation
I love the Steamworld games - they are such a nice, chill experience, every single one of them :-)
Or even go back to one of the OGs of procedural generation: Diablo. The franchise might not be as popular these days (though could be more popular than ever in absolute terms) but it never really suffered from the procedural generation and Diablo 2 kicked it into an even higher gear with its mix of handcrafted and random aspects, plus spanning a bunch of very different looking locales that behaved a bit differently, too. From the open plains of Act I separated by rivers or fences, down into the caves and catacombs, then to a dessert with sewers, sandy areas, bug burrows, a mage's tower, dessert tombs reminiscent of Egyptian tombs (in contrast to the more Gothic tombs of act I or the east tropical island tombs of act III). All (well, most) of it procedurally generated and not boring (though that was probably because it turned every single kill into a spin of a wheel on a slot machine and you had to find the next progression points to move on).
Eh, Hades level generation isn't anything special, just a few hand-crafted pieces stitched together with random enemy and hazard spawns. It works well for the type of game that it is, but in general the "room-lite" approach to procedural generation (where it's largely a bunch of completely separate combat encounters in standalone rooms is not super interesting to me.
This is why Dead Cells and Spelunky's procedural generation is much more interesting. Yes, there are hand-crafted pieces, but the way that they sometimes come together create very unique and cool situations that room-lites never achieve.
I love Noita for this reason. Every pixel is simulated and interacts/reacts to each other so as well so as well as the map being procedurally generated each run, you can interact and change it all as you progress. You can do some really wacky results with your wands if you build up your spells with good combinations, and there's a somewhat hidden deep depth of alchemy to the game so mixing different liquids make different things/effects. Or get so high eating stuff you probably shouldn't and somehow end up altering reality, changing one random liquid type to another for the rest of the run. You really needed water? Good luck, all water is now honey
Can easily have a run where you're just exploding everything, and setting fire to every pixel that's flammable, go a full acid build and dissolve everything, or just bathe and heal yourself in the blood of every enemy that you kill and go wild
Sorry, I realise I was talking about just the procedural generation of the game but ended up rambling into fanning over the game instead lol
I bought this game, I didn't know it was this deep. I'm gonna play it again!
Noita is a game of scarcity and making the most of what you have to eek out a victory.
Noita is a game about exploration and discovery with every new discovery likely finding the New Game button for you.
Noita is a game about adventure and quest completion.
Noita is a game about abundance and becoming god.
It takes on average 60+ hours and 100+ attempts to finish the game for the first time and the community refers to this as "beating the tutorial". The game is insanely deep and in defiance of modern game design refuses to sign post any information aside from the basic controls.
Noita is a game where every time you ask yourself "i wonder what happens if I do this" the result is finding something cool.
It is brutally unforgiving and will kill you in a lot of dumb ways but it's also just really good.
The answer to "i wonder what happens if I do this" is pretty much allways "death".
The sacrifice of one's self in the pursuit of knowledge is the highest offering to the gods.
But when you find that one thing that is slightly more likely to kill the enemies than you...
Very fun game! There's a lot of interesting secrets in the game that isn't apparent straight away. A lot of puzzles that could reward better stuff during the run, that requires items from previous areas, or putting specific liquid or gases in specific places etc
Mind you, all the stuff I mentioned in my previous comment, was with the intention of not revealing how to do it (though it could be googled), to give people the chance to find it out themselves with the vague point in that direction. Like, the "reality bending high" is from eating a lot of one specific thing etc Also, south isn't necessarily the only direction you could travel :3
I haven't played the game in a good while but I feel like I've talked myself into redownloading it just from reminiscing lol
The focus of Dead Cells and Hades is in different directions: while Dead Cells lives from generating well designed combat areas, Hades lives from using procedural generation to combine story elements. Both are an example of how you can fit pieces together without making stuff linear.
Definitely agree! It works well for the game type, I just really enjoy procedural generation for more than just generating a room for combat. Not saying that those games are worse, just less interesting in terms of procedural generation.
Dead Cells gang 4 lyfe
I spent thousands of hours on that game, and i know i haven't seen everything yet (mostly because my reaction times suck nowadays - if it had come out a decade sooner, i would have 100%ed it, but that's not the fault of the game). I still come back to it every few months.
I'm sure there's some way for you to 100% this game. Have you tried peptides, stemcel therapy, human growth hormone, blood doping, F1 cognitive reflex exercises or whatever else modern science can provide?
Lol no, but i am sure the right amount of stimulants might do it.
I had enough fun with it tho and can accept my cruel fate haha
Same!
That's pretty basic procgen, idk if I would describe it as particularly good. It's fine, but it doesn't usually go beyond fine-- high floor, low ceiling.