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Partners (All) iGGi is a collaboration between Uni of York + Queen Mary Uni of London: the largest training programme worldwide for doing a PhD in digital games. iGGi Partners We are excited to be collaborating with a number of industry partners. iGGi works with industry in some of the following ways: Researcher Industry Knowledge Exchange - this can take many forms, from what looks like a traditional placement, to a short term consultancy, to an ongoing relationship between the researcher and their industry partner. Researcher Sponsorship - for some of our researchers, their relationship with their industry partner is reinforced by sponsorship from the company. This is an excellent demonstration of the strength of the commitment and the success of the collaborations. In Kind Contributions - iGGi industry partners can contribute by attending and/or featuring in our annual conference, offering their time to give talks and masterclasses for our students, or even taking part in our annual game jam! Check out our Industry Info page here to see these types of collaboration described in more detail. There are many ways for our industry partners to work with iGGi. If you are interested in becoming involved, please do contact us so we can discuss what might be suitable for you. 22 Cans AI and Games Autistica BT BetaJester Limited BiG BlitzGame Studios Bossa Studios British Broadcasting Corporation BBC British Games Institute (BGI) CBT Clinics COMIC Research Carnegie Mellon University Cooperative Innovations Creative AI Creative Assembly Die Gute Fabrik Digital Catapult Dubit Limited Durham University ESL UK Electronic Arts (EA) Enigmatic Studios Falmouth University Fluttermind LLC

< Back Sahar Mirhadi University of York iGGi PG Researcher Available for post-PhD position Sahar Mirhadi is a final-year PhD researcher investigating how video games support during challenging times. Her contributions have been published in the Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, and she has presented at Devcom on transforming the complexity of turn-based games into a strategic advantage. She is also a passionate Magic: The Gathering player, collaborating with competitive Magic team Worldly Counsel to convert tournament insights into a deeper understanding of player motivations and team dynamics. Sahar is also a Safe In Our World Ambassador, a recipient of the Magic: The Gathering New Perspectives Grant for Marginalised Players, and a member of the Birds of Paradise collective. A description of Sahar's research: Sahar's PhD research project investigates the specific aspects of games that facilitate coping for players during difficult life experiences. Building on earlier work that mapped broad links between game aspects and coping strategies, Sahar’s first study showed that games can support a variety of coping strategies, including emotion-focused, avoidance, and meaning-focused coping. However, questions remained about how these effects occur across different gaming contexts. To address this, her second study employed in-depth interviews and a grounded theory approach with players of Disco Elysium, Darkest Dungeon and Stardew Valley. The findings led to the development of the Games as Dynamic Coping Systems theory, which posits that specific aspects of video games scaffold a diverse range of coping strategies for players facing personal difficulties. The model highlights the dynamic interplay between what the player brings (e.g., prior experiences, needs, skills) and what the game provides (such as Narrative, Game Environment and Character Interactions). Through this interaction, players develop coping strategies, and the outcomes from coping feed back into their ongoing gaming and life experiences. While the grounded theory offered a deeper understanding of how specific game aspects support various coping strategies, it also revealed a gap: the temporal dynamics of coping. Sahar’s ongoing work aims to explore how players transition between coping strategies over time and what factors shape these transitions. Her overall aim is to provide a deeper understanding of specific aspects within games that support coping, shedding light on the potential benefits and limitations of video games during times of difficulty. sm2904@york.ac.uk Email https://linktr.ee/saharmirhadi Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/saharmirhadi/ LinkedIn https://bsky.app/profile/saharmirhadi.bsky.social BlueSky Github Supervisors: Dr Alena Denisova Dr Jo Iacovides Themes Player Research Previous Next

< Back Dan Cooke University of York iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Dan has a keen interest in the world of finance and how traditional finance interacts with the games industry. He is interested in how criminals use videogame ecosystems for crime and money laundering purposes. He has a background in Accounting and Finance and graduated with a MA in Applied Accounting from De Montfort University in 2019. Outside of his professional life he has an interest in E-Sports and competitive gaming and the content creation and monetisation of these industries. His research interests include money laundering in secondary video game markets, video game monetisation and how users experience with monetisation and secondary markets. A description of Dan’s research: Detecting money laundering in video games through secondary marketplaces Dan’s research has a focus on how criminals can use secondary video game markets for the purposes of money laundering. This includes using internal (developer supported) and external (community ran) systems for the purposes of money laundering. His research aims to identify the scale of the issue and provide ways to identify laundering in these markets as well as investigating safeguards that could be implemented in order to mitigate the risks of money laundering occurring in video game secondary markets. dan.cooke@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisor(s): Dr David Zendle Featured Publication(s): Money laundering through video games, a criminals' playground Themes Esports Game Data Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Laura Helsby University of York iGGi Alum Laura Helsby is a HCI researcher with a background in psychology, currently examining how features of games might be beneficial to wellbeing and mood. She is particularly interested in how people with persistent low mood play and experience games, and what this might mean for their wellbeing. So far, she has conducted one interview study asking people with low mood what they play and why, and one diary study investigating the 'in the moment' effects and motivations for gaming. Future plans involve making more direct measures of the impact of particular games on wellbeing, as well as looking further into the FPS and simulation genres to unpack what about these games might make them appealing to people with persistent low mood. Laura has achieved an MSc in Foundations in Clinical Psychology from Newcastle University and a BSc in Psychology from the University of York. In her spare time, Laura enjoys denying she is a computer scientist at all. Her hobbies include reviewing books professionally, board game nights and of course, playing video games. laura.helsby@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn https://bsky.app/profile/laurahelsby.bsky.social BlueSky Github Supervisors: Prof. Paul Cairns Dr Jo Iacovides Featured Publication(s): "Leave our kids alone!": Exploring Concerns Reported by Parents in 1-star Reviews Do People Use Games to Compensate for Psychological Needs During Crises? A Mixed-Methods Study of Gaming During COVID-19 Lockdowns Themes Applied Games Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Ruizhe "Jay" Yu Xia Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Ruizhe has bachelor degrees in Mathematics and Physics and a master's degree in Artificial Intelligence. After a short time as a consultant he decided to pursue research into what got him into AI in the first place: game agents. He enjoys games of all kinds, but strategy and RPG games occupy a sizeable portion of his collection. AI agents that perform with superhuman skill in increasingly complex games have appeared in recent years, but these agents are not always useful to game developers. Players within a game exhibit significant variance in their skill levels and play styles. Therefore, game agents with similar variance would better represent the player base. The research Ruizhe proposes will focus on three areas: measuring skill and play styles, developing game agents that mimic a range of human play styles and skill levels, and making these agents human-like. Upon successful completion, this research will improve the game development process via automated playtesting and will enable the development of AI agents that are more engaging and interactive. r.yuxia@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruizheyuxia/ LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisor: Prof. Simon Lucas Dr Jeremy Gow Themes Game AI Game Data - Previous Next

< Back Dr Shanxin Yuan Queen Mary University of London Supervisor Dr Shanxin Yuan is a Lecturer in Digital Environment at Queen Mary University of London. He has rich expertise in deep learning, low level computer vision, and 3D digital modelling of humans from photographs. His PhD thesis focused on 3D hand pose estimation, his work is well recognized in the academia and is also deployed into commercially launched mass market mobile phones. His current research on digital humans focuses reconstructing, modelling, and rendering digital twins. He is interested in super-realistic immersive gaming, body/hand pose and facial expression retargeting, and behaviour analysis with avatars. For the new project in 2023, we are interested in working on human facial expression estimation, high-res realistic face reconstruction and rendering, face re-enactment, and face augmentation. The aim of the project is to build an editable super-realistic 3D human face model that can express novel expressions, views, shapes, and appearance, from multiple sources of input, such as images, sounds, and key points. The related techniques include deep learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and neural rendering. shanxin.yuan@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://shanxinyuan.github.io/ Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanxin-yuan-4859b656/ LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Applied Games Creative Computing Game AI Immersive Technology Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Callum Deery University of York iGGi Alum Callum is a researcher and game developer investigating how real-time player experience measurement can be used to drive adaptive games. Aiming to embed player experience questionnaires into games in a way that doesn’t break immersion and presence, his PhD is focussed on leveraging the wide range of existing player experience questionnaires to improve games ability to adapt to players. This will involve exploring the states of immersion and presence: What is necessary to maintain them? What experiences can players reflect on without breaking immersion? How do we embed a questionnaire into an in-development game without disrupting the player experience? callum.deery@gmail.com Email Mastodon https://cfdj.itch.io/ Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisors: Dr James Walker Dr Anna Bramwell-Dicks Themes Accessibility Design & Development Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Nirit Binyamini Ben Meir Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Nirit Binyamini Ben-Meir is a designer/ artist based in London. Her work explores the interconnection between society, technology and ecology. She is an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art London, where she gained her MA in Information Experience Design. She has a professional background in visual communication and interaction design. She uses participatory installations, digital tools and responsive plants to create experiences for humans to interact with their biosphere. She combines ecological systems with technology to challenge human perception and provoke thought about bioethics, power relations, and the Anthropocene implications. Nirit’s main research interests are around More-Than-Human Interactions and the integration of living organisms into digital interactions. She investigates how these hybrid interactions may help mediate relatable, sensory experiences with plants and influence people's attitudes towards ecological stewardship. She is developing the Bio-Digital Garden concept, which combines computational elements and living moss, a responsive plant that gives qualitative visual feedback to changes in its environment in real-time. Her exploration focuses on the potential of using human-computer-plant to identify current weak points in pro-environmental behaviour and care for non-human entities, as well as influence people's perceived accountability through tangible feedback, bridging time-scale gaps, and generating a sense of urgency. n.binyaminiben-meir@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://niritbin.com/ Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisors: Prof. Sebastian Deterding Featured Publication(s): Domestic Cultures of Plant Care: A Moss Terrarium Probe Experience as a transformational practice Design Methods for Accessing the Pluriverse Forging new narratives Themes Applied Games Creative Computing Design & Development - Previous Next

< Back Gorm Lai Goldsmiths iGGi PG Researcher Inspired by the works of Karl Sims and William Latham as well games such as a Spore and No Man's Sky, Gorm's main work is focused on using artificial intelligence and machine learning to generate creatures for use in video games. Combining this with his background as a virtual reality pioneer, his full doctorate is looking into how mixed-initiative co-creative interfaces in vr can assist in creating procedural generated creatures for use in video games. As a stalwart of the game development community, Gorm ran the Danish chapter of the International Game Developer Association (IGDA) for 5 years, started the London Indie Game Developers meetup group which currently features almost 3000 members, co-founded the Nordic Game Jam, as well as the Global Game Jam. The Global Game Jam has been recorded into the Guinness Book of World Records, and has more participating countries than the Winter Olympics. Gorm is a games industry veteran who has worked on 17 commercial video games since 2004, and has spoken at numerous games industry conferences such as GDC, Nordic Game & Develop Brighton. Gorm is a student at Goldsmiths, University of London, where is he is supervised by William Latham and Frederic Fol Leymarie. lai.gorm@gmail.com Email Mastodon https://gormlai.github.io Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/gormlai/ LinkedIn BlueSky https://github.com/gormlai Github Supervisor(s): Prof. William Latham Featured Publication(s): Formal Constraints and Creativity: Connecting Game Jams, Dogma ’95, the Demo Scene, OuBaPo, and Renga poets What Is a Game Jam? The Dark Side of Game Jams On Mixed-Initiative Content Creation for Video Games Two decades of game jams Virtual Creature Morphology‐A Review Towards Friendly Mixed Initiative Procedural Content Generation: Three Pillars of Industry Introducing: the game jam license Trends in organizing philosophies of game jams and game hackathons The global game jam for teaching and learning Gplayer A compression method for spectral photon map rendering Themes Creative Computing Design & Development Game AI - Previous Next

< Back Prof. Matthew Purver Queen Mary University of London Supervisor Matthew Purver is Professor of Computational Linguistics, and leader of QMUL’s Computational Linguistics Laboratory. His research has covered many aspects of natural language processing (NLP), with a £4m grant portfolio including projects on fundamental techniques like cross-lingual processing and incremental language understanding, and applications to news media, social media analysis and mental health diagnosis. His work has been covered by the Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, LA Times, NBC and Scientific American, among others. He is also a senior researcher at the Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia, and in 2011 he co-founded the company Chatterbox Labs Ltd. He is interested in supervising students with a background in NLP, linguistics or machine learning and an interest in analysis or generation of natural language. Research themes: Language in Games Game AI Computational Creativity m.purver@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~mpurver/ Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Creative Computing Game AI - Previous Next

< Back Dr Patrik Huber University of York Supervisor Patrik Huber is a researcher, developer and entrepreneur, working on 3D face reconstruction and face analysis in images and videos using 3D face models. He is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Computer Vision in the Department of Computer Science of the University of York, UK, and he’s the Founder of 4dface.io, a small start-up specialising in 3D face models and realistic 3D face avatars for professional applications. His research is focused on computer vision, in particular, he is interested in the question of how to robustly obtain a metrically accurate, pose-invariant 3D representation of a face from 2D images and videos. He is interested in face tracking, 3D face modelling, analysis and synthesis, metrically accurate 3D face shape reconstruction, inverse rendering, and combining deep learning with 3D face models. Patrik is particularly interested in supervising students with a strong background and interest in computer vision, machine learning, computer graphics, and modern C++/Python, on topics related to creating 3D face avatars of players for immersive playing and social experiences , and using face analytics for professional e-sports . Research themes: 3D face avatars for games AR/VR Serious games and social interaction Immersive 3D player experiences Game Analytics Games with a Purpose E-Sports patrik.huber@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://www.patrikhuber.ch/ Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrik-huber/ LinkedIn BlueSky https://github.com/patrikhuber Github Themes Applied Games Esports Game Data Immersive Technology Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Ross Fifield University of York iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement I am a user-centred games designer and researcher with a background in both practical and theoretical dimensions of play. I hold a BA and MA in Games Design from Falmouth University and have recently been engaged in teaching further and higher education courses in games development. My work sits at the intersection of design innovation, player psychology, and emerging technology, with a particular focus on how people find, engage with, and sustain play in social contexts. Currently undertaking a PhD as part of the iGGi programme, my research investigates the social and psychological factors that influence whether and how individuals choose to play with others. I aim to develop actionable insights that reduce barriers to engagement, support better player matchmaking, and encourage more inclusive and sustainable multiplayer experiences. I am particularly interested in live data applications and their potential to inform adaptive matchmaking systems and enhance game discovery. My practice draws from speculative and disruptive design methodologies, with a commitment to developing future-proof solutions that benefit academic, educational, and commercial communities alike. I maintain professional interests in affective psychology and digital heritage. As a player, I take an agnostic approach to genre, though I have a particular affinity for First Person Shooters, MMOs, sandbox games, and live-action roleplay. I am seeking placement opportunities with studios and organisations that are open to collaboration on live, data-driven projects focused on social play, player engagement, matchmaking and game discovery. My goal is to contribute meaningfully to real-world game development while refining methodologies that support more empathetic, inclusive, and dynamic player experiences. ross.fifield@york.ac.uk Email https://bsky.app/profile/rossfifield.bsky.social Mastodon http://www.rossfifield.com Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossfifield/ LinkedIn https://bsky.app/profile/rossfifield.bsky.social BlueSky Github Supervisors: Dr Joe Cutting Prof. Paul Cairns Themes Player Research Previous Next