ABSTRACT
An increasing number of games are moving toward offering complex stories and depicting detailed worlds, fundamentally dependent on the creation of meaning. Although roguelikes and other procedural games are known primarily for their mechanics and gameplay rather than these less formal elements, there is no reason that designers of procedural games need to fall behind in this aspect of game design. This chapter looks at how meaning is created, the concept of meaninglessness, and two methods of how meaning can be produced during play. In the process, it examines the design goal of emphasizing meaning over more traditional aspects of game design, the use of meaning as a game mechanic and its intriguing relationship to the practice of seeking out game "spoilers", and what is believed as the procedural generation of meaning can bring to game design in the future.
