A Ph. D candidate in computer science at UC Santa Cruz has programmed a Mario game which adapts to how good you are. The game starts off on a normal difficulty but quickly gets harder as you progress. If you die three times in a row, the game starts to get easier.

Here is what the creator Ben Weber has to say about the game:

"One of the inputs to the system is a set of parameters which specify probabilities for specific events to occur, such as placing a gap. By modifying these probabilities, the system can create a large space of levels with varying difficulty. Infinite Adaptive Mario scales up difficulty by increasing the frequently of gaps, average size of gaps, variation of ground height, and number of enemies. Scaling up the difficulty also tends to result in a larger number of possible paths through a level. [emphasis added]

The player begins at level 50, which produces levels with a moderate degree of challenge. Upon successful completion of a level, the challenge is increased. Faster completion times result in larger increases in difficulty. Upon death, the difficulty is decreased based on the amount of progress made by the player. If the player is close to the goal upon death, then the difficulty is decreased only a small amount. A new level is generated when the player either completes a level or fails to complete a level after three deaths."



If you would like to download the game, you can do so from the official site here.

Ben Weber