< Back Dr Valerio Bonometti University of York iGGi Alum Game analytics and player psychology: creating reliable models of player motivation Motivation can be loosely defined as a process of the brain and the mind, capable of driving and deeply shaping human behaviour. Motivational processes are embedded in many everyday life situations, exerting their effects via a wide range of incentive mechanisms and objects. Understanding this process in a videogame context, however, requires a more holistic approach considering not just the incentive properties of the game but also the player personal characteristics. My project aims to create reliable cross-games models of player motivation taking into account the contribution of natural inter individual variability. This will be accomplished linking in-game behavioural data and psychological models via a hybrid approach, where findings from small scale experimental studies (hypothesis-driven) will guide the realization of large scale (data-driven) applications for predicting players' characteristics, future behaviour and motivation evolution. Being able to model player motivation and predict the trajectories of its evolution could possibly lead to personalized and dynamic engagement strategies able to adapt accordingly to the player characteristics and in-game behaviour. Achieving a similar goal would be of pivotal importance in industrial and gamification contexts. I obtained my bachelor degree in Psychological Science and my master degree in Clinical Psychology at Padova University (Italy). During my academic path I acquired knowledge in general psychology, cognitive psychology, psychophysiology, neuroscience and research methodology. After my master degree I spent a considerable amount of time as a research trainee, both abroad and in my country, always investigating the reward process and its effects in various contexts. During this period I worked on various projects across different fields ranging from psychophysiology, player research and game analytics. In my free time I enjoy practicing indoor climbing and travelling, I like figurative art in general and more specifically I’m a huge cinema and graphic-novel enthusiast. Supervisors: Prof. Anders Drachen, Dr Sam Devlin Please note: Updating of profile text in progress Email Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Featured Publication(s): From Theory to Behaviour: Towards a General Model of Engagement Modelling early user-game interactions for joint estimation of survival time and churn probability Predicting skill learning in a large, longitudinal MOBA dataset Mind the gap: Distributed practice enhances performance in a MOBA game Approximating the Manifold Structure of Attributed Incentive Salience from Large-scale Behavioural Data: A Representation Learning Approach Based on Artificial Neural Networks Themes Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Phoebe Hesketh University of York iGGi Alum Phoebe's PhD explored how people learn to play games through gameplay, online media, and community interaction. At the University of York, Phoebe worked on her skills as a researcher by exploring multiple methodologies and disciplines. She built upon her quantitative research skills from Bristol with qualitative research during their PhD including grounded theory and thematic analysis. She took courses in user-centred design and evaluation and designing for accessible player experiences (through AbleGamers). She participated in game jams and game development courses for experience and technical design. She also gave a talk at DEVELOP 2021 communicating and sharing her research and expertise in how players learn to play games to help designers with their onboarding for their games. She originally studied Engineering Mathematics at the University of Bristol which focused on systems and mathematical modelling and simulation, the mathematics and implementation of AI and Machine Learning systems, programming in object-oriented programming languages such as C++ and Java, and developed ray tracers in computer graphics courses. She also worked on projects in linguistics, logistics, computer vision, and physics. Once completing her PhD, Phoebe moved into the games industry as an AI programmer for several years before looking to return to games and player research. She has set up her own company, Take A Mo, that focuses on helping developers analyse their systems and internal systems to maximise access for players in usability, onboarding, accessibility, and representation. She is a currently carving her niche in the industry. Email phoebe@takeamo.co.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Supervisors: Prof. Sebastian Deterding Dr Jeremy Gow Featured Publication(s): Learning Team-Based Esport Games: Success Factors in Learning from Spectating How Players Learn Team-versus-Team Esports: First Results from A Grounded Theory Study Themes Esports Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Susanne Binder Queen Mary University of London iGGi Manager iGGi Admin iGGi Manager @ QMUL ; alongside David Hull (iGGi Manager @ UoY) , and supported by Shopna Begum , Helen Tilbrook and Oliver Roughton, she's mostly in charge of making things run at iGGi with particular focus on iGGi-QMUL-specific admin iGGi-QMUL-specific student concerns PR, website and social media industry liaison Email s.binder@qmul.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes - Previous Next

< Back Prof. Nick Bryan-Kinns Queen Mary University of London Supervisor Nick Bryan-Kinns is Professor of Interaction Design and Director of the Media and Arts Technology Centre at Queen Mary University of London. He is Distinguished Professor at Wuhan University of Technology, and Guest Professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of the British Computer Society, Senior Member of the Association for Computing Machinery, and leads the Sonic Interaction Design Lab in the Centre for Digital Music. He has published international journal papers on cross-cultural design, participatory design, mutual engagement, interactive art, and tangible interfaces. His research has been exhibited internationally and reported widely from the New Scientist to the BBC. He chaired the Steering Committee for the ACM Creativity and Cognition Conference series, and is a recipient of ACM and BCS Recognition of Service Awards. He is interested in supervising students with HCI, Interaction Design, or AI backgrounds on research into the intersection of Sonic Interaction Design, play, and AI. Especially project which involve designing and evaluating computer mediated experiences for human participation and collaboration. Research themes: Game Audio and Music Games with a Purpose Computational Creativity Player Experience Gamification Email n.bryan-kinns@qmul.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Applied Games Creative Computing Game Audio Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Andrei Iacob University of Essex iGGi Alum Identifying Immersion in games using EEG and other measures (Industry placement at Sony SIE) The project aims to identify markers for immersion in player’s EEG signals. A few steps towards it include designing an experiment that reduces data noise and helps identify time frames for immersion during gameplay, recording EEG data among other “tests” to improve the accuracy of the state localization on a timeline. This research could prove useful for the games industry in a few ways: - it can provide tools for game testing (e.g. which parts of the game are immersive, which parts lack in that aspect) – thus making it easier to improve the game experience across the board; - it could also be used in making real-time adjustments to games (increase / decrease difficulty levels, pace, etc. to enhance the player’s immersion). Although the EEG data is the main focus of the project, it is not the only one. Correlations will be analyzed between different tests and in-game behaviors that should render even more information regarding the player’s state and mindset during gameplay. This information will be just as valuable and perhaps more readily available for widespread use in the near future. Andrei is a keen programmer and gamer. He graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from the University of Essex. Andrei’s research interests are in the field of brain- computer interfaces and computer games. His hobbies include programming, gaming, guitar and skiing. Please note: Updating of profile text in progress Email Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Prof. Richard Bartle University of Essex iGGi Co-Investigator Supervisor Richard Bartle is a renowned pioneer in game design and research. He co-wrote the first virtual world, MUD ("Multi-User Dungeon") in 1978, and has thus been at the forefront of the online games industry from its very inception. He is an influential writer on all aspects of virtual world design, development, and management. As an independent consultant, he has worked with many of the major online game companies in the U.K. and the U.S. over the past 30 years. His 2003 book, Designing Virtual Worlds , has established itself as a foundation text for researchers and developers of virtual worlds alike. His Player Type theory is taught in game design programmes worldwide (he appears in examination questions!). His interests are directed mainly virtual worlds, particularly Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs, or MMOs), but cover all aspects of game design. He is keen to see AI used for non-player characters in MMOs (his PhD is in AI), and his current work considers the long-term moral and ethical implications of this. They’re maybe not what you might think they were at first glance… Email rabartle@essex.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Design & Development Game AI Player Research - Previous Next

iGGi PhD Projects - listing iGGi PhD Projects 2023 This page displays the supervisor-proposed PhD projects on offer for our 2023 intake: If you are interested in any of the projects listed and would like further details and/or to discuss, please email the respective project supervisor. Please note that you can also frame your own project independently as long as you have secured a supervisor's support. For a list of available supervisors please see the accepting students section of our website. While iGGi has checked that the project descriptions listed below are within iGGi's scope , we wish to highlight that you are still responsible for ensuring that your proposal, too, is in line with this scope, and we would further like to point out that supervisor-framed projects are not prioritised in the application selection process: they are judged by the same criteria as applicant-framed proposals. For guidance to make sure that the proposal you submit (regardless of whether it has been supervisor-framed or created entirely by you) sits within iGGi's scope please refer to this link: https://iggi.org.uk/iggi-scope Select by Theme: Game AI Design & Development Player Research Game Audio Game Data Immersive Technology Creative Computing E-Sports Applied Games ALL Projects Design and Development Realistic physical interaction of 3D point cloud objects This project will investigate geometric and machine learning approaches to developing 3D game assets. Price Design and Development Duration Miles Hansard, Changjae Oh Read More Game Data Building Player Profiles in Mobile Monetisation: A Machine Learning Approach This project aims to use machine learning techniques to segment and profile mobile gamers in terms of their in-game spending. Price Game Data Duration David Zendle Read More Creative Computing Novelty Optimisation Can we identify and automatically balance the right amount of novel content we serve to players? Price Creative Computing Duration Jeremy Gow, Sebastian Deterding Read More Player Research Modelling the interactions in metaverse videogames This project will seek to inform AR and VR enabled videogames by analysing existing online platforms supporting these technologies. Price Player Research Duration Ignacio Castro Read More Game AI Automatic Evaluation of Tabletop Games This project proposal aims to research and develop methods to accurately evaluate the impact of modern Tabletop Games components in different aspects of gameplay. Price Game AI Duration Diego Pérez-Liébana Read More Game AI Principled and Scalable Exploration Techniques for Reinforcement Learning In this project, you will develop principled and scalable exploration techniques based on reducing model uncertainty. Price Game AI Duration Paulo Rauber Read More Creative Computing Novel video narrative from recorded content This project constructs novel video narratives from recorded content under employment of deep learning tools and techniques. Price Creative Computing Duration Nick Pears Read More Game Audio Machine Learning of Procedural Audio This work will investigate whether procedural audio can fully replace the use of pre-recorded sound effects. Price Game Audio Duration Joshua Reiss & Nemesindo Read More Immersive Technology Places That Don't Exist The goal of this project is to combine state-of-the-art 3D computer vision and procedural content generation to create game-ready scene models and assets from existing media. Price Immersive Technology Duration William Smith Read More Immersive Technology Tactile Interaction With Virtual Reality Content In this project the student will explore the use of vibrating motors distributed over the human hand (e.g. using a wearable glove) to give tactile feedback about the physical interactions happening in a VR. Price Immersive Technology Duration Lorenzo Jamone & Valkyrie Industries Read More Game AI Evolving Perception for Game Agents This project will investigate game agents in open world games which evolve their senses and world representation alongside learning what actions to take in each state. We will evolve game agents with highly alien behaviours which nevertheless have high fitness in the open world environment, while investigating important scientific questions about how senses and world representations evolved in humans. Price Game AI Duration Alex Wade, Peter Cowling Read More Game Data Understanding ongoing mental states using video games: applications to mental health research. This project will use a combination of neuroscience and advanced data analysis methods to examine the link between video game play and the brain. We will use a combination of cutting-edge data analytic techniques applied to large, existing video game telemetry datasets and neuroimaging experiments designed to measure changes in ongoing mental states while people play simple video games. Price Game Data Duration Alex Wade Read More Load More

iGGi Unconference Group Outcomes (List) 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 Research Retreat "Unconference" Since Summer 2024, iGGi has been running a "Research Retreat" (aka "Unconference") at a secluded cottage village in Derbyshire. We gather 30 people made up of iGGi PGRs, Alumni, Staff and Industry Partners and ask: What are the nagging questions from your PhD research (or, for industry partners: in your work or from your pet project) where you could use new eyes and approaches? What are the most intriguing research questions in your area? What ideas has your research/work/hobby thrown up that you'd love to take a closer look at? What are the key research ideas and questions in other areas? The ideas to be explored emerge during the retreat: Everyone can propose an idea/topic/"problem", and participants then choose which small group they would like to join to explore further. To play with new ideas. Below you can find a selection of group outcomes from the 2025 iGGi Unconference iGGi Research Retreat "Unconference" August 2025 The Future of AI This group discussed what the "future of AI" might look like, how it will change us as a society and what possibilities it could create. Read More iGGi Research Retreat "Unconference" August 2025 Social Simulation Game on a Graph / Network This group started off with the idea of a cellular automaton and set off to investigat how such a simple structure could be rendered as a playable simulation of social dynamics. Read More iGGi Research Retreat "Unconference" August 2025 Generative AI, Abstraction and Epistemology This group tried to come up with the skeleton of a short presentation for technologists in the former CIS region about the topic. Read More iGGi Research Retreat "Unconference" August 2025 Trust and Freedom in Transformative Games This group discussed how games build or break trust and the factors involved in creating tustworthy games. Read More

Locations (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. Locations iGGi Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) iGGi QMUL is located at the heart of East London on Queen Mary, University of London's Whitechapel campus. Read More University of York (UoY) iGGi York is located just outside the City of York's centre, on University of York's East Campus. Read More Goldsmiths, University of London (Goldsmiths) iGGi Goldsmiths is located in New Cross, South East London, five miles from central London. Read More University of Essex (UoE) iGGi Essex is located two miles from the historic city of Colchester and set in over 200 acres of beautiful parkland. Read More

< Back Gaze for Dyads & Blinks for Triads: Task Engagement Predictors in Free-Flow VR Interactions Link Author(s) C Gonzalez Diaz, GC Dobre, E Andre, C Conati Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back The many faces of monetisation: Understanding the diversity and extremity of player spending in mobile games via massive-scale transactional analysis Link Author(s) D Zendle, C Flick, S Deterding, J Cutting, E Gordon-Petrovskaya, ... Abstract More info TBA Link

Realistic physical interaction of 3D point cloud objects Theme Design and Development Project proposed & supervised by Miles Hansard, Changjae Oh To discuss whether this project could become your PhD proposal please email: miles.hansard@qmul.ac.uk < Back Realistic physical interaction of 3D point cloud objects Project proposal abstract: Point cloud data is becoming widely available, owing to commodity depth cameras and lidar systems. This creates many opportunities for creating 3D game assets, including environments and objects, from scanned real-world data. The realistic rendering of such data has been widely investigated (e.g. https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01017700/) , and can be performed efficiently. However, physical interactions between point clouds, meshes, and other representations are also critical, for gaming and VR applications. These interactions, which include collision, deformation, occlusion, and other effects, may require alternative representations (e.g. https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.12033) . This project will investigate geometric and machine learning approaches to these open problems, in typical game environments. Supervisor: Miles Hansard , Changjae Oh Based at: