Defined the topic and delivered the state of the art for my Master's thesis on procedural generation in games.
During this phase of my Master's, I faced an unexpected challenge: none of the proposed thesis topics matched my interests or long-term goals. I knew I wanted to work on something related to games, so I decided to pursue a custom topic that would truly motivate me.
After many conversations with professors and former students, I began researching the state of the art in procedural generation, exploring its applications and potential in the gaming field. I read extensively on the subject, including a full book dedicated to procedural generation in games, and became fascinated by the balance between randomness, control, and design intent.
Eventually, I defined my thesis around the generation and assessment of tower defense maps with controlled difficulty. The goal was to design a system capable of generating levels based on a target difficulty input, automatically testing them with simulated waves of enemies to evaluate how well the generated level matched the intended challenge.
This milestone marked the completion of the state of the art and the formal delivery of my monography. It laid the foundation for the research and development phase that would later follow, and it was the first real step into combining my academic background with my passion for game development.