Baba is Y'all 2.0: Design and Investigation of a Collaborative Mixed-Initiative System

Abstract

This paper describes a new version of the mixedinitiative collaborative level designing system: Baba is Y'all, as well as the results of a user study on the system. Baba is Y'all is a prototype for AI-assisted game design in collaboration with others. The updated version includes a more user-friendly interface, a better level-evolver and recommendation system, and extended site features. The system was evaluated via a user study where participants were required to play a previously submitted level from the site and then create their own levels using the editor. They reported on their individual process creating the level and their overall experience interacting with the site. The results have shown both the benefits and limitations of a mixedinitiative system and how it can help with creating a diversity of 'Baba is You' levels that are both human and AI designed while maintaining their quality.

Keke AI Competition: Solving puzzle levels in a dynamically changing mechanic space

“…Baba is You is arguably more dynamic than the other competitions' domain games, as the objects in the level that a player interacts with can alter the entire state of the level itself. With the Baba is Y'all editor and database, the mechanic space and complexity of these levels can be explored in even more depth [2]. However, the AI solver used as an aide to validate the levels for solvability was lacking in performance, and could not solve levels that most human users could solve relatively quickly on their own.…”