I've spent more time than I should have on Diablo III, a video game where our hero adventures through endless series of challenges. Each level in the game has a randomly generated layout so it's not possible to memorize where the most rewarding monsters live or where the best treasures are hidden. This keeps the game interesting because every level is an exploration in an environment I've never seen before and will never see its exact duplicate again.

This is what came to my mind when I learned of WorldForge, a new feature of AWS RoboMaker. For those who don't know: RoboMaker is an AWS offering built around ROS (Robot Operating System) that lets robot builders leverage the advantages of AWS. One example most closely relevant to WorldForge is the ability to run multiple virtual robot simulations in parallel across a large number of AWS machines. It'll cost money, of course, but less than buying a large number of actual physical computers to run those simulations.

But running a lot of simulations isn't very useful whey they are all running the same robot through the same test environment, and this is where WorldForge comes in. It's a tool that accepts a set of parameters, then generate a set of simulation worlds that randomly place or replace features according to those given parameters. Then virtual robots can be set loose to do their thing across AWS machines running in parallel. Consistent successful completion across different environments builds confidence our robot logic is properly generalized and not just memorizing where the best treasures are buried. So basically, a randomized dungeon crawler adventure for virtual robots.

WorldForge launched with ability to generate randomized residential environments, useful for testing robots intended for home use. To broaden the appeal of WorldForge, other types of environments are coming in the future. So robots won't get bored with the residential tileset, they'll also get industrial and business tilesets and more to come.

I hope they appreciate the effort to keep their games interesting.