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< Back Yu-Jhen Hsu Queen Mary University of London iGGi Alum I have always been interested in automation specifically within strategy games, starting from civilization 5. I have a background in Artificial Intelligence with a Master of Science degree from Queen Mary, University of London, with a focus on Game AI, Computer Vision and Machine Learning/Deep Learning. My research interests involve Game AI improvement in real-time turned-based games with the help of data science techniques. A description of Yu-Jhen's research: This project has two goals. Firstly, to improve the performance of MCTS (Monte Carlo Search Tree) implementation. Secondly, the goal is focused on building an AI agent that is able to win the game but also provide feedback information/data about it’s decisions to the players and designers. In order to achieve the goal, the plan of the project is to use different data science skills to enable the game AI agent to understand the utility of different actions and decrease the time needed for making decisions. The data collected can also help the game AI agent explain it’s behaviors, hence provided useful information/data for its users and designers. y.hsu@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/yujhenhsu/ LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisors: Dr Diego Pérez-Liébana Dr Raluca Gaina Featured Publication(s): Why Choose You?-Exploring Attitudes Towards Starter Pokémon Tribes: a new turn-based strategy game for AI research MCTS Pruning in Turn-Based Strategy Games. Themes Game AI Game Data - Previous Next

< Back Evgenii Kashin University of York iGGi Alum Evgenii, a Computer Science enthusiast, began crafting games in school using the Warcraft3 editor. He spent five years as a Machine Learning Engineer, excelling in computer vision and graphics. His work at Snap included creating engaging lenses and researching 3D object capturing. An ECCV2020 article on face manipulation, with over 100 citations, is a testament to his prowess. Away from work, he enjoys bouldering, hiking, racing, and gaming. My research is dedicated to establishing a cost-effective approach for creating and generating 3D scenes for game development, a critical aspect of modern VR/AR applications. Harnessing the potential of generative visual content, I aim to develop algorithms capable of realistically completing 3D scenes from a few images. This could revolutionize the entertainment and creative industries, particularly game development. Picture having only a couple of images from your favourite film and envisioning the entire scene. Such technology can enhance the efficiency of 3D artists, democratize game development, and serve as entertainment in itself. Currently, I am developing an algorithm to achieve this goal. The proposed solution employs a general pretrained text-to-image model for supervision, with a NeRF 3D representation of the scene. The central concept involves iterative outpainting, where each iteration updates the NeRF weights. evgenii.kashin@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/evgeny-kashin/ LinkedIn BlueSky https://github.com/EvgenyKashin Github Supervisor Dr William Smith Featured Publication(s): The Sky's the Limit: Relightable Outdoor Scenes via a Sky-Pixel Constrained Illumination Prior and Outside-In Visibility Stylegan2 distillation for feed-forward image manipulation Themes Creative Computing - Previous Next

< Back Prakriti Nayak Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Prakriti is a neuroscientist passionate about pushing boundaries at the intersection of technology and biological research. Her journey began with a deep dive into neuroscience during her master’s program, where she explored large-scale imaging data and mastered statistical modelling techniques. Afterward, she pursued a career in scientific editing. She views gaming as an excellent platform to connect different fields, such as computational modelling and behaviour. Prakriti plans to develop a model of player uncertainty to enhance the gaming experience by setting difficulty levels that are enjoyable for each player, making games more accessible for people with limited cognitive capabilities. Additionally, her work has diagnostic applications. A description of Prakriti's research: Navigation and spatial memory are essential cognitive processes that enable individuals to orient themselves in complex environments. Amid the inherent uncertainty of environmental noise and cognitive variability, the brain employs sophisticated strategies to make navigational decisions. This project aims to elucidate the cognitive underpinnings of spatial navigation performance by leveraging gaming data to understand how individuals manage spatial uncertainty. The plan is to adapt a Bayesian ideal-observer model based on visual simultaneous localization and mapping. The model will fit and predict the player’s moment-by-moment movement decisions, given the first-person view and the map of the game environment. Fitting the model to the players' gameplay trajectories will yield parameters indicating each individual's levels of visual, motor, and memory noise. The combination of parameters that best differentiate between players will then be examined. This research has the potential to enhance our understanding of spatial navigation and its underlying mechanisms, as well as improve spatial navigation in games, offering an adaptive gaming experience tailored to individual spatial uncertainty levels. p.nayak@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website http://www.linkedin.com/in/prakritinayak LinkedIn BlueSky https://github.com/PrakritiNayak Github Supervisors: Dr Guifen Chen Dr Yul HR Kang Themes Accessibility Applied Games Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Lorenzo Jamone Queen Mary University of London Supervisor I am a Lecturer in Robotics and Director of the CRISP group (Cognitive Robotics and Intelligent Systems for the People) at the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) of the Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). The CRISP group is part of ARQ (Advanced Robotics at Queen Mary). Since October 2018, I have been a Turing Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute. I am interested in understanding human (and animal) intelligence, by using computational techniques that include computer simulations and real robots. My research topics include: human creativity and creative problem solving, human perception, human-human non-verbal communication, object affordances, tool use, body schema, eye-hand coordination, dexterous manipulation and object exploration, human-robot interaction and collaboration, tactile and force sensing. I am interested in supervising students with an engineering, computer science or behavioural sciences background on the following topics: Creating computational models of human creativity Creating computational models of decisional agents l.jamone@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://lorejam.wixsite.com/crisp Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Applied Games Creative Computing - 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 Rory Davidson University of York iGGi PG Researcher Available for post-PhD position Learning and Strategy Acquisition in Digital Games Given the success and impact of games and the gaming industry, it is unsurprising that it has become the centre of a significant body of academic research and other literature. However, while the cognitive effects of gameplay have been extensively studied, this has typically been done from a “black-box” perspective – that is, looking at the effects of gameplay as a whole upon some other task or metric, such as ability to strategize or proclivity to violence – leaving the inner mechanisms of cognition during gameplay much less understood. In particular, while the idea of learning from games is an area of continued interest in educational psychology, very little literature exists on the subject of how learning in games actually occurs on a cognitive level. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by examining the ways in which player learning and strategy acquisition occur within games. This examination will have two main hierarchical goals. In the first phase, the study will use experimental methods inspired by analysis of learning methods used in games as well as literature review of more general theories of learning and cognition, such as the dual-process account or the CLARION model, in order to form a model better specialized for the field of digital gaming. In the second phase, it will analyse how such a theory may be put to practical use to inform the design of games and game-like experiences. These two phases can be summed up in the following main research questions: Phase 1: How can strategy acquisition in digital games most effectively be explained as a cognitive process? Phase 2: How can this understanding be put into practice in the development of games with specific desirable characteristics? By linking a more complete understanding of cognition and learning during games with measurable or observable gameplay characteristics, this study will further research on gameplay experience, such as that on immersion. The first phase of research additionally has relevance to the field of AI, in which human responses to difficult and complex problems such as digital games may be mimicked or otherwise used to inform the design of new techniques, as well as to gamification, which attempts to elicit such responses in non-game contexts. rd553@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisor: Prof. Paul Cairns Featured Publication(s): Automatic Game Tuning for Strategic Diversity Themes Applied Games Design & Development Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Kyle Worrall University of York iGGi Alum Available for post-PhD position Kyle is a final-year PhD researcher at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence (IGGI) at the University of York, where his work centers on pioneering deep learning-driven music tools for video game composers. In addition to his research, Kyle is a Lecturer in Games Programming at Edge Hill University, where he encourages the next generation of game developers to appreciate the critical role of audio in interactive experiences. Beyond academia, Kyle is the Founder of Cocreative Technology, an ethical AI music startup on a mission to empower musicians with cutting-edge, AI-driven tools that amplify creative expression, combat burnout, and elevate the emotional depth of game soundtracks. Kyle's research explores how deep learning and generative AI can enhance the creative workflow of video game composers, and improve the experience of players by reducing musical repetition. His work spans symbolic music generation, and real-time adaptive music systems, aiming to improve the emotional expressiveness and of game audio. His recent publications focus on deep learning models for interactive music authoring, expressive performance modelling, the ethical considerations in AI-assisted creativity, and the integration of neural networks with procedural music generation in games. By combining symbolic AI and audio signal processing, Kyle develops tools that support composers in ideation, iteration, and adaptive composition, while remaining transparent and musically intuitive. An experienced speaker, Kyle has presented at leading industry events, including Airwiggle's AirCon 2025, Game Sound Con 2024, Audio Dev Con 2024, the Global Arts and Psychology Symposium 2023, the Play Again Symposium 2024, and the Digital Creativity, Industry and Culture Conference 2022. He is also a regular contributor to the IGGI Conference (2020–2024), and has been featured in TechCrunch, Dazed, The Story of the Sound, and The Audio Programmer podcast, as well as featured on a panel with leaders in game audio from Meta and Sony. kyle.worrall@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyleworrallmusic/ LinkedIn BlueSky https://github.com/KJWAudio Github Supervisors: Dr Jon Hook Dr Tom Collins Dr Josh Reiss Featured Publication(s): Final Fantasy VII Remake Music Redesign for Evolved Expectations Across Console Generations Considerations and Concerns of Professional Game Composers Regarding Artificially Intelligent Music Technology Comparative evaluation in the wild: Systems for the expressive rendering of music Reflection Across AI-based Music Composition The Ethics of Creative AI Themes Creative Computing Game Audio Previous Next

< Back Connor Watts Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher I am a machine learning research engineer and software developer with commercial experience deploying and maintaining models for start-ups and larger organizations. I have experience researching and developing novel algorithms, as well as designing custom environments for application in domains such as combinatorial optimization, finance and games. c.watts@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-watts-363354232/ LinkedIn BlueSky https://ConnorWatts.github.io Github Supervisor: Dr Paulo Rauber Themes Game AI - Previous Next

< Back Luiza Gossian Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Luiza is a multidisciplinary researcher, game designer and developer interested in translating real world concepts into engaging game mechanics. She is passionate about creating games that can encourage an understanding of ourselves and the socially connected world we live in. Luiza is also an experienced painter, graphic designer and photographer and uses her visual skills and psychology background to prototype experimental game designs, design game documentation and craft atmospheric experiences. A description of Luiza's research: How can a subject as serious as genocide be successfully and respectfully translated into a casual game? Difficult subjects are often implemented with polar opposite approaches in games: either they are made to be highly emotional, socially conscious games that portray the gravity of a situation, yet are only played by those already informed and aware; or they are pure entertainment games that turn these subjects into wild amusement parks that appeal to broader gamer audiences yet do nothing to appropriately address the themes they glorify. Within this polarity there exists the potential to create games that tackle more serious subjects yet do so in a way that is more lighthearted and entertaining, and therefore more likely to reach the audiences who stand to gain the most. In her research, Luiza is exploring how to design games about genocide that break away from traditional approaches and embrace the ludic potential of games. Drawing on theories of intergroup and cultural psychology, as well as her own experiences, she is exploring how these difficult themes can be explored in engaging, effective and informative ways. Currently, she is developing a hypercasual game that abstracts the ten stages of genocide to be used as an educational primer, a Tetris-esq game that uses social media and government sources to present the realities of refugees fleeing their homes, and a cosy mystery-adventure game which enables players to uncover historical crimes in a far away land. l.gossian@outlook.com Email Mastodon http://www.gossianblurs.com/ Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/lu-goss/ LinkedIn https://bsky.app/profile/lugossian.bsky.social BlueSky Github Supervisors: Prof. Sebastian Deterding Dr Anne Hsu Themes Applied Games Design & Development - Previous Next

< Back Dr Alena Denisova University of York Supervisor Alena Denisova is a Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of York, UK. She is actively involved in collaborative and interdisciplinary projects that involve conceptualising and measuring user experience of video games and designing and building educational and persuasive interactive media. Her research explores the role of the `placebo effect’ of technology in shaping player experiences, perceived challenge and uncertainty in video games, and, more recently, emotionally impactful player experiences - understanding how these experiences are shaped with the view to inform the design of games that promote these experiences. Alena is an active member of the games HCI community: she is a co-chair of the IEEE Task Force on Automatic Gameplay Evaluation and a member of the Programme Committee for the annual CHI and CHI Play conferences. She is interested in supervising students that have qualitative, mixed method or design experience that they wish to apply to studying digital games. Possible research topics include exploring what makes choices in games meaningful for players, how perceived uncertainty, risk-aversion, and luck affect decision making in games, and how skill is acquired and advanced throughout while playing video games. She is also keen to work with students who wish to work on games with a purpose. For instance, designing and developing games that promote informed decision-making about moral and ethical choices, such as promoting sustainable lifestyle, reflecting on important real-life issues, developing personally, etc. alena.denisova@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/alenadenisova/ LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Applied Games Design & Development Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Océane Lissillour University of York iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement I started my journey as an undergrad in psychology specialising in ergonomics. It was then that I realised that I could study video games for a living. This led me to relocate myself to the south of France to, mostly enjoy the sun, but also undertake my dream MSc in Technological Innovation and Cognitive Psychology. As part of my master’s internship I had the pleasure to work in collaboration with researchers from the CLLE, a laboratory branch of the national research centre. This helped me develop my knowledge and awareness of video games and motivational processes and convinced me that if I could survive the bureaucracy of the French Government I could probably do a PhD. Afterwards, I moved on to work in Aeronautics for a brief time but landed back to academia in 2024 to join the wonderful iGGI community as a postgraduate researcher. A description of Océane's research: My research focuses on the act of taking a regular activity and ‘gamifying’ it by applying mechanics commonly found inside video games (such as points). This technique has been widely applied within research but its psychological aspects have seldom been studied. The aim of this thesis is to assess the efficacy and applicability of this technique, particularly the score element mechanic. It focuses on understanding the functionalisation of numerical values in games as this has not been studied previously in the literature. This research hopes to contribute to the better understanding of the impact of the design of points on motivation and behaviour. It has been proposed in precedent literature that the use of gamification will provide a partial solution to the critical decline in learners’ motivation and engagement the schooling system faces today. oceane.lissillour@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website http://www.linkedin.com/in/oceane-lissillour LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisors: Dr Abi Evans Prof. Sebastian Deterding Themes Design & Development Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Igor Dall'Avanzi Goldsmiths iGGi Alum Creation of accessible tools for the use of procedural audio in video games The aim of this research is to investigate and provide new tools to developers for the use of procedural audio into video games. Procedural approaches could address different issues that commonly afflict game audio. In music, generative systems are not only less repetitive, but offer more adaptability as well. For what concerns sound design, they can provide not only variety, but stronger and more realistic support to the interaction with the game world; interaction that is becoming even deeper with the advent of VR Yet, these methods still need improvement on different sides. One is the level of quality that procedural audio needs to achieve to compete with the current aesthetic established by the use of rendered sounds and music in the media. Another is the additional amount of work required by the CPU to render the assets on runtime, and its variable cost). Finally, there is a general lack of user-friendly tools, to link common programming languages for audio to game engines. Software like MaxMsp, Pure Data or SuperCollider is used to design generative audio systems. A more accessible integration of these software could promote generative approaches among sound designers and composers in the field, that today have instead access to tools mainly designed to be used with rendered assets. My plan is to bring on research first by focusing on how a higher degree of quality could be addressed, exploring tools like the above mentioned MaxMsp, Pure Data, low level solutions, and machine learning algorithms. Primary research will be run to confront procedurally generated audio content with rendered one; to understand its impact on the player, and the level of quality needed to deliver a satisfactory experience. The creation of more accessible interfaces and tools dedicated to implement procedural audio in video games will be investigated and undertaken. I like to make noises of all sort and to play with them. For this reason I graduated in Music Production in 2016 and, at the moment of writing, I am finishing my final project for an MSc in Sound and Music for Interactive Games at Leeds Beckett University. Composer and sound designer, in the last year I have been focusing on audio implementation and programming, and I am currently exploring machine learning approaches for procedural audio. Please note: Updating of profile text in progress Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Game Audio Player Research - Previous Next