WHY2025

Embrace Chaos! How Game Randomizers Work
2025-08-10 , Cassiopeia
Language: English

Game randomizers can breathe fresh air into your favorite video games by changing where things are, what enemies you fight, or even what the win conditions are. But how do they work? Let's embrace chaos and learn about them!


Game randomizers can breathe fresh air into your favorite video games by changing where things are, what enemies you fight, or even what the win conditions are. But how do they work? In this talk, I'll share my experience building a randomizer for the Gameboy Advance version of Final Fantasy 1. I'll tell you about the stumbling blocks I hit, and how I solved them. I'll also share the lessons I learned building my project, and how I'd do it better next time.

Nikki is a software developer with interests in game design and procedural generation, with a particular love of game randomizers. She originally made one of the world's first video game randomizers back in 1995 when she and her friends wanted more excitement playing deathmatch games of Doom 2.