Dr Joseph Walton-Rivers

University of Essex

Controlling Non-player characters. (Industry placement at Visteon)

Within games non-player characters help to sell the world and give meaning to the player's experiences. These characters in games are presently not very believable and often lack the ability to interact with each other in meaningful ways. This work is looking at creating socially capable, believable agents to populate the worlds of role playing games. These agents need to be able to cope with player's actions and be capable of acting independent in the world.

Joseph studied computer science at the University of Essex, obtaining a first class degree. During his study there he received two awards for academic achievement. After graduation he worked in the IT team of a company with offices across the United Kingdom where he developed and maintained their IT systems. Since starting IGGI he has worked on research involving co-operative agents working together to solve shared goals. He has a keen interest in programming and the Free Software movement. During his free time he enjoys strategy and puzzle games including Prison Architect, the Shadowrun series and Galactic Civilization 2.