A video game that changes every time you play

Adaptive Games

You’ve chosen to imagine a video game that changes its challenge as you play. You might want to learn more about adaptive games, which can respond to how well you’re playing. Just don't get too good—or your game might decide it's time to unleash the mega-boss!

Fun Facts:

In the 1978 arcade game Space Invaders, the remaining aliens moved faster as players destroyed them.
Zelda can rearrange itself. In Cadence of Hyrule, the land of Hyrule and its dungeons are randomly generated.
In Mario Kart, your place in the race helps decide which items you receive.

Adaptive Games

LISTEN

This scenario explores adaptive games, games that can change their challenge or experience based on the player. A game might notice how someone is playing and adjust things like the difficulty, available help, or what happens next. This can create experiences that work differently for different players instead of giving everyone exactly the same game. A future game could take this idea even further, changing parts of itself each time you play based on what you do. Just don't get too good—or your game might decide it's time to unleash the mega-boss!

Fun Facts:

Space Invaders came out in 1978. Its aliens speed up as fewer remain on screen.
A Minecraft world begins with a secret number. Each new Minecraft world uses a number called a seed to help create its landscape. Use the same seed again and you can generate the same terrain; use a different one and you get another world.
Zelda can rearrange itself. In Cadence of Hyrule, the land of Hyrule and its dungeons are randomly generated. Starting a new adventure can put parts of the world in different places.
In Mario Kart, your place in the race helps decide which items you receive. Racers near the back can receive especially powerful items that give them a chance to catch up.
A game could someday react to your heartbeat. Researchers recently tested an experimental game that used both player performance and heart rate to decide whether to add or remove enemies and rooms. This is research rather than a feature of a commercial children's game, but it shows how unusual adaptive games could become.

Discussion Question:

Should a game change its challenge automatically, or should players always choose?

LISTEN

Physical Build:

Create an adaptive game using paper, blocks, cups, or other classroom materials. Make three versions of one challenge: easy, medium, and tricky. Ask someone to play, then change the next round based on how they did. You are now the game’s adaptation system!

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Digital Build:

With an adult, ask ChatGPT:

“Create a simple adventure game that gets harder when I succeed.”

Play several rounds and notice what changes. Then redesign one rule so the game adapts in a different way.

or a book that writes new stories every time you read it?

Story-Writing Book

Generative Stories

LISTEN

You’ve chosen to imagine a book that creates a new story every time you read it. You might want to learn more about generative stories, where computer tools can create new parts while we interact with them. But if you get to help write the story, don't go complaining to the author about the ending!

Fun Facts:

Colossal Cave Adventure, created in 1976, let readers type commands that changed what happened in a computer story.
The Choose Your Own Adventure book series began in 1979 and let readers choose different story paths.
AI Dungeon can generate new story events in response to what a player types.

Generative Stories

LISTEN

This scenario explores generative storytelling, stories in which parts of the narrative can be created or rearranged as the experience unfolds. Instead of every word and event being locked into one order, a generative story can use rules, reader choices, or digital systems to produce different characters, events, paths, or endings. This could give readers a more active role in shaping stories and make rereading the same story feel different each time. A book that creates a new adventure whenever you open it takes that idea to an extreme: the story itself keeps changing. But if you get to help write the story, don't go complaining to the author about the ending!

Fun Facts:

In 1976, programmer Will Crowther created Colossal Cave Adventure. Players explored its world by typing simple commands.
The Choose Your Own Adventure series launched at Bantam Books in 1979. Readers made choices that sent them to different pages.
One interactive comic has 3,856 possible stories. Jason Shiga's Meanwhile begins with a seemingly tiny decision—chocolate or vanilla ice cream—but its branching paths can lead readers through thousands of possible routes.
AI Dungeon uses AI to generate story events from a player’s actions and words. Each adventure can unfold differently.
B. S. Johnson's The Unfortunates has a first and last section, but its 25 middle sections can be read in random order.

Discussion Question:

If a computer helps create a story, how should people share control with it?

LISTEN

Physical Build:

Make a never-the-same storybook from folded paper. Start with one opening page, then create several character, place, problem, and ending cards. Each time someone reads your book, they pick different cards and build a new story. Add more cards whenever you think of new possibilities.

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Digital Build:

With an adult, ask ChatGPT:

“Start a kid-friendly story and give me three choices after each part.”

Pick a choice and keep reading. Then restart with different choices and compare the two stories. Draw your favorite moment from each version.