Hello Citizens,
Today, we are back with another very interesting topic, and one that will be entirely new to Frostpunk 1886: Procedurally Generated Content. Frostpunk has always been about details and creating the feeling that every playthrough is personal and shaped by your own decisions. Piotr Boczkowski - Junior Game Designer will now shed more light on how PGC will make Frostpunk 1886 feel even more personal than ever before:
What exactly is PGC?
It is a technique to generate any content by given rules. Imagine it as if you had a big 500x500 units chessboard and you wanted to place a pawn on each black square. With proc gen, you don't have to do it manually. You just insert a rule that loops through all squares and checks if that's a black one. If it is, place a pawn here. And then you could also make a short rule to spawn smaller pieces around each of those pawns. Maybe even offset them each time left or right a bit by a random amount.
So, how exactly is it implemented in Frostpunk 1886?
In Frostpunk, there isn’t much that can be procedurally generated like in a huge open world. But that doesn’t mean PCG can’t improve smaller details. It also doesn’t have to mean “big.” Even around tents or bunkhouses, there are many ways to create interesting level design with props.
Unlike FP1, where buildings often looked repetitive, randomness can make certain buildings feel unique and naturally tell a story through object placement. In the base game, props were attached to buildings as one object. With the procedural approach, those props are removed and spawned dynamically through the PGC system. The system starts with points placed around the building that can be rotated, offset, or resized. Points overlapping the building are cut off using a spline shaped to match that specific structure.
Objects like barrels, boxes, benches, or ladders are then spawned on selected points. Splines can also place objects along walls or leaning against them. Priority rules decide which objects remove others - for example, ladders always clear nearby props to leave climbing space. Overall, it’s mainly a visual upgrade. If we’re reimagining a good game, we want it to shine from every angle possible.
Piotr teased to us that in Frostpunk 1886, we're using PGC to build what we could call "organic city tissue" - but what exactly does it mean?
The system starts with a grid of points generated by the PGC system. These points don’t physically exist in the level; they’re created dynamically and store location, rotation, and scale data for spawned objects. That becomes the base for everything else.
Once the grid is generated, random noise can be added to vary the points. For example, some points can be removed entirely so nothing spawns there. This breaks up patterns and makes the placement feel much more natural and random, which is exactly the goal.
But sometimes it can get tricky…:
Optimising individual building graphs definitely is a challenge. Avoiding multiple looping dependencies between buildings may get complicated, especially when you place a hundred bunkhouses, so we need ways to make each building as independent as possible with its debris.
What was Piotr’s road to Frostpunk 1886?
Before Frostpunk 1886, I worked on Frostpunk 2 and several personal projects involving procedural generation - roguelike levels, generated items, and similar systems.
I used to think: “If you don’t know how to do it, make a rule and let the system spawn it randomly.” Sounds rough, but proc gen isn’t just about filling gaps. It still requires rules, balancing, predicting edge cases, and thinking outside the box.
Piotr's advice for developers:
The hardest part: downloading and launching the game engine :D But seriously - if you’re starting a tech art journey in gamedev, don’t focus too much on gameplay at first. Try building a cool simulation just for fun, where you can walk around and maybe interact with objects if needed. That’s a good starting point.
From there, it’s about finding that one missing thing - maybe a forest biome (summon the PGC tool!) or some visual fog that creates the atmosphere you imagined. Once you learn the basics, you’ll naturally start optimising things and focusing more on visual quality. Those polished pieces can become a strong starter portfolio. There are plenty of tutorials online for scripting and optimisation. Build your portfolio and jump right into it.
What is the future of PGC in Gamedev?
Definitely, better optimisation methods would allow more interactions between spawned objects. But if I were to go wild? That's creating whole simulations of randomness. NPC, biomes, weather events, species, planets… Big bang. But we're approaching very narrow and cruel subjects of questioning if humans would take their time and dedicate themselves to finding a good place to start the universe in. Hey, we already have the whole solar system around us. :D Maybe it's not that much needed to go spiralling into simulation of simulations… at least for me. How about Minecraft 2?... (pray)
At the end, we couldn’t resist asking about the personal gaming side of Piotr:
What I enjoy the most are those story-driven RPGs and my favourite of all time… Control. Currently, I am playing Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire and Sorcery: Contested Realm TCG. When we speak about inspirations and wow factor, which I observe in our other friends from different studios, there are two games I found out about while learning the PCG workflows. The first one is Chicken Run: Eggstraction, and the second is The Witcher 4. The Chicken Run is the one that was a bigger influence on the Frostpunk 1886 approach, as it showed how each element has its own small PCG area, like a personal pile of trash. This was something that reassured me that PCG can really be used for anything. When it comes to Witcher, that's a completely different cinema, as you've probably already heard of that gigantic proc gen forest, which is not going to make it into our bald, frozen world, but still stayed with me as a “wow” factor.
As with every upcoming episode, the City is calling for your feedback! If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas about this update and PCG, share them in the comments or our Discord channel! Stay tuned, Citizens. And remember: The City Must… ~ 11 bit studios Team