2023 Settlement Generation Competition

This is the overview page for the sixth iteration of the GDMC AI Settlement Generation Challenge in Minecraft, which ran in 2023. The submission Deadline was the 15th of June, 2023, and results were announced on the 24th of August, 2023, both at the IEEE Conference on Games (COG2023) and online. The competition was sponsored by the IEEE CIS Education Competition Subcommittee, and the winner recieved 500 US dollars. The Settlement Generation Challenge is about writing an algorithm that can create a settlement for a given, unknown Minecraft map. The challenge is to produce an algorithm that is adaptive towards the provided map, creates a settlement that satisfies a range of functional requirements - but also looks good and evokes an interesting narrative. The goal is to basically produce an algorithm that can rival the state of the art of what humans can produce. So far there have been 5 iterations of the challenge: once in 2018, and in 2019, in 2020, and in 2021. You can watch the presentation for last years winner's here on youtube. To participate, you have to write a program that can build a settlement for an unknown Minecraft map. You have two options for producing this code: either write a script for the Minecraft map editor Amulet, or write a program for our community-developed HTTP framework, which lets you directly interface with a live Minecraft map. We can provide you with a framework and code to get started for both options on our submission-type pages. After you submit your algorithm, we will run it on a few previously unseen maps, and a panel of human judges will then evalute the resulting settlement, based on the criteria Adaptation to the Environment and Terrain, Functionality from an Embodied Perspective, Narrative Integration, and Visual Aesthetics.

Previous Years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 Conferences IEEE Conference on Games (COG2023) Submission Languages Python, Java, other Submission Types HTTP Framework Amulet Minecraft Version 1.19.2 Deadlines: Submission: 15. of June, 2023 Results: August, 2023

+Original Competition Call Overview To participate, you, or a team, have to write some code that can generate a Minecraft Settlement for an unseen Minecraft map. We accept submission in several frameworks, see below. You submit the code, together with some additional information to us before the deadline. The code will then applied to 5 different locations within a large map, which are not known before the deadline. The resulting settlements will then be sent to a range of expert and volunteer judges, who use Minecraft to look at and interact with the settlements, and then assign scores to each generator. We then announce the results - including who got the highest score and relating the settlements, code, and feedback publicly. Rules To participate you need to submit your code to our website before the deadline. Team submissions are allowed. Anyone is able to participate. One submission per person / team only (We have considered exceptions for academic supervisors who led several teams - please contact us to discuss) Unless you object specifically, we will publish the code and attached documentation after the evaluation period. You keep ownership and rights to your own code and work - but unless you object we assume we can share it and use it in our material. If you have any further questions about the rules, please ask them on our discord, so we can clarify: Join Discord Winners will be announced in August 2023. At the same time, we will also publish the detailed evaluation results online for each algorithm. Once the results have been announced we will also publish the competition maps, the settlements generated by the algorithms, and the participant's description of their algorithm. We also encourage participants to publish their code, but this will not be mandatory. Unless participants object to sharing their code, we will make it available on our website with an appropriate open-source license. If they decline, we will not publish the code. In either case, the organizers will not take exclusive ownership of the code. You can find previous years' maps, code, resulting settlement, evaluation scores, and other things on our website. Evaluation In general, participants submit code, this code will be applied to several Minecraft maps unknown to the participants beforehand, and the resulting settlement will then be evaluated by humans. The human scores determine the winner. The detailed evaluation methodology, including scoring criteria, and list of awards can be found on our evaluation page. These are the instructions sent to the judges in 2023. It includes download links, settlement locations and detailed scoring guidelines. Awards In 2023 we will be awarding the following awards, see the evaluation page for details: Best Settlement - the main GDMC AI Settlement Generation Challenge (prize of 500 US Dollars for first prize) Best Underground Structure - a new award, based on judges' choice Best Chronicle - optional challenge, awarded based on judges choice, need to opt-in at submission time. Innovation Award - awarded by organizers and developers, aims to recognize technical and conceptual novelty. Submission (Now Closed) We supported two submission options in 2023, either write code for an HTTP client that interacts with the HTTP framework or submit an amulet script. See valid submission methods page to see all current methods. Maps with Settlements (Download them here!) This year we had one large map, where the participants were asked to generate settlements at 11 different locations. This link allows you to download all maps with generated settlements so you can play them on your own. To get around the map, we recommend you use the teleport command to get around. To teleport, press t or / to open the command line of Minecraft and you can then teleport by typing the following commands: /tp x-coordinate y-coordinate z-coordinate So typing /tp 0 0 0 will get you teleported to coordinates 0,0,0. Note that the y coordinate is actually the height in Minecraft. The following locations are where you can find generated settlements: The large 1000 by 1000 map, with an existing settlement based on last year's winner (as part of the hybrid challenge to see how well the generator deals with existing buildings). You will be teleported to the top of the observation balloon of the existing settlement. /tp 450 158 626 Swamp and Mangrove Swamp Map with many trees and a central lake. /tp -12700 200 5000 An easy coastal map, flat and mostly unforested. With a coastal island suitable for bridge building. /tp -12700 200 200 A high mountain ridge with very steep slopes and little buildable area. A new biome type since the last version we used. /tp -5300 200 2400 A small island with lots of water and little buildable area. /tp 1500 200 -2900 Participants This year the GDMC competition had 11 submissions. The following list provides a short description for each generator, as submitted, and where the participants agreed a link to their code. The number in the title indicates the number the map had in the original judging package of all maps, which you can download above. Niels-NTG (1) Field Lab Gamma Overall 3rd place. Submission by Niels-NTG for the 2023 AI Settlement Generation Challenge. Download the submitted code here. Check out the repo if you aren't there already for post-submission developments. Field Lab Gamma γ Field Lab Gamma is a mysterious scientific research station that suddenly just appeared into the world. Where did it come from? Who were the staff? What were they looking for and where have they gone to? Rexos, Xeon0X and Eclairsombre (2) ReXenGen-2023 Download the code here. PositionNotLoaded (3) JEB_GEN_ Overall winner. You can download the [code] here, or look at their detailed write up as PDF. kk (4) Redstone City Generator Download code here. An overall write up of the generators is up on Arxiv as a pdf. Oblique (5) Oblique Decided not to share code. Shadow Wizard Money Gang (6) Grimoire No 1 Overall 2nd place. Download the code here. Matheo and Tanguy - Tsukuba Team (7) Surface & Underground clash Best Underground Structure. Download code here. Castle lover (8) Castle with gradient Download code here. Tobias Deinb√∂ck (9) Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm Generator Decided not to share code. MGAIA - Leiden University (10) Collapsing Water Waves Procedural content generation in Minecraft for the GDMC competition. This project uses a combination of interesting techniques to generate a settlement in Minecraft. It uses the wave function collapse algorithm to generate randomized realistic buildings in Minecraft. Additionally, it uses water simulation to connect the buildings through realistic-looking paths Finally, it uses a large language model (LLM) to add a story to the settlement. Download code here. The download contains not just code, but a report on the project, a detailed readme with links, and a set of images to illustrate the advanced features. PandaVision II (11) PandaVision II Download code here. The group also maintains a GitHub repository. Results Awards 1st overall: Team PositionNotLoaded with the generator JEB_GEN_ (Winner of 500 US dollars) 2nd overall: Team Shadow Wizard Money Gang with the generator Grimoire No 1 3rd overall: Team Niels_NTG with the generator Field Lab Gamma Best Underground Structure: Team Matheo and Tanguy - Tsukuba Team with the generator Surface & Underground clash Best Chronicle: No participants Innovation Award: 3 Honorable Mentions ReXenGen-2023: Unique, large scale road network Castle Lover: Use of Geometry and Gradients for Large-scale structures MGAIA – Leiden Uni: Command block usage, and WFC for modular buildings. The 2023 winner announcement on Youtube Results Table [Download] the full results table, including comments, here! Livestream of Judges Poster Here is the official 2023 GDMC poster. Feel free to print your own copy and help us advertise the competition: Examples Here is a link of videos of good, human-created settlements that showcase some of the things we are looking for in a generator. FAQ Here is a short FAQ.