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< Back Dr Cristina Dobre Goldsmiths iGGi Alum Cristina Dobre has a background in Mathematics and Computing receiving distinction in her undergraduate degree in Computer Science. My current focus is on the nonverbal cues that influence and shape the social interaction in immersive VR environments. More broadly, I'm investigating autonomous agents (or virtual humans) in social settings in terms of non-verbal interactions with users. I'm interested in the underlying mechanics of social interaction that help developing an emphatic and engaging virtual human. At the moment, I'm working on ML models based on multimodal datasets to detect various social cues (such as gaze) or various human-defined social attitudes (such as engagement) in social interactions in VR. I'm also interested in generating more complex behaviour for virtual characters (NPCs) that will improve the user's experience with the NPCs in a social VR setting. Designing communication and other social interactions in immersive VR can be a challenging task, and aspects on this are addressed in my research. The findings from these studies can help game designers and game developers determine the appropriate non-player character's non-verbal (and verbal) behaviour in games, especially in VR games. Along with its applications in the games industry, the findings would be useful for other applications such as designing multi-modal human-machine interactions and other systems for medical purposes, for social anxiety disorders therapy, simulations, training or learning. cristina.dobre@uni-a.de Email https://hci.social/@ShesCristina Mastodon Other links Website https://linkedin.com/shesCristina LinkedIn BlueSky https://www.github.com/shesCristina Github Featured Publication(s): Social Interactions in Immersive Virtual Environments: People, Agents, and Avatars Rolling Horizon Co-evolution in Two-player General Video Game Playing Using machine learning to generate engaging behaviours in immersive virtual environments More than buttons on controllers: engaging social interactions in narrative VR games through social attitudes detection Nice is Different than Good: Longitudinal Communicative Effects of Realistic and Cartoon Avatars in Real Mixed Reality Work Meetings Immersive Machine Learning for Social Attitude Detection in Virtual Reality Narrative Games Direct Gaze Triggers Higher Frequency of Gaze Change: An Automatic Analysis of Dyads in Unstructured Conversation Themes Game AI Immersive Technology - 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 Helen Tilbrook University of York iGGi Administrator iGGi Admin iGGi Administrator at York helen.tilbrook@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes - Previous Next

< Back Dr Anna Bramwell-Dicks University of York Supervisor Anna Bramwell-Dicks has an interdisciplinary background which started in Electronics and Music Technology before taking a sideways move to the field of Human-Computer Interaction research. She likes to combine her underlying interest in sound and music with applied psychology and creativity. She is very interested in research involving multimodal interaction (e.g. using audio, haptics, smell and/or proprioception as well as visuals within interfaces) particularly where audio is used to affect user’s behaviour or experiences. She is also very interested in accessibility research and any research in the application area of mental health and mental illness. As a lecturer in Web Development and Interactive Media, based in TFTI, Anna is always interested in work that involves designing and evaluating novel and interesting user experiences, particularly where that leads to the option to create fun, engaging, accessible experiences. She likes to work across a range of application areas ranging from learning environments to e-commerce to escape rooms and cultural exhibits! Anna is keen to work with students who want to design and develop gamified systems to support people with disabilities, physical or mental illness. Or, those who are also interested in multimodal experiences. Research themes: Accessibility Multimodal and multisensory systems Research methods anna.bramwell-dicks@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-bramwell-dicks-2b941a28/ LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Accessibility Applied Games Design & Development Game Audio Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Lizzie Vialls University of York iGGi Alum Discrete Models and Algorithms to create a more satisfying and strategic opponents For many 4x and Grand Strategy computer games (e.g. Civilisation, Europa Universalis), the player will be playing against one or more AI opponents. For many games, the AI is not clever enough to stand up to a player without being given the ability to "cheat" - ability to spawn in resources, see what the player is doing, etc. This creates an unsatisfactory opponent for a player, as it gives them opponents that fight through "cheating" over strategy or out-manoeuvring the player. The aim for my PhD is to look into the potential uses of SAT and similar to create a more satisfying and strategic opponent for players to play against in these styles of computer games. To this end, I’ll be identifying potential for improvement regarding my proposal, and once I’ve narrowed down the specifics - be it related to improving how SAT solvers can handle problems, or how better to encode AI into SAT - I will be working on ways to improve AI for turn based strategic games. Lizzie Vialls is a recent Computer Science graduate of University of Leicester, having graduated with a 2:1 and a prize for best third year project, which was the project that fueled her interest in SAT. When not searching for an errant semicolon in her code she can be found working with various online gaming communities, hunched over many a tabletop game, or attempting to make friends with the local feline populace. Please note: Updating of profile text in progress Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Game AI - Previous Next

< Back Karl Clarke Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Karl Clarke is a PhD researcher focused on how virtual environments influence social interaction. He was born in England, grew up in the Middle East, and returned to the UK for university. He holds a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Audio Technology. During the COVID-19 lockdown, he began exploring virtual reality after getting access to a headset, which led to a shift in focus toward social VR. He is now part of the Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence (iGGi) doctoral programme, where his research looks at how spatial layouts and group behavior are shaped by virtual environments in free-standing social settings. Outside of his research, Karl runs SONAR, a music group hosted in VRChat that uses social VR for live performance and shared listening experiences. Through this project, he has independently learned game development skills in 3D modelling, scripting, and a small amount of graphics programming. He is currently looking to collaborate with VR studios or social platforms working on immersive and social experiences. karl.clarke@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://linktr.ee/llamahat Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/karl-clarke-york/ LinkedIn https://bsky.app/profile/llamahat.bsky.social BlueSky Github Supervisors: Themes Design & Development Immersive Technology Player Research Previous Next

< Back Dr Yongxin Yang Queen Mary University of London Supervisor Dr Yongxin Yang is a lecturer in financial technology at Queen Mary University of London, UK and he is also a part-time professor in finance at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, China. His research is in the area of meta learning and its interactions with other machine learning paradigms like reinforcement learning. He has broad interests in applied machine learning, esp. for finance problems, for example, portfolio optimization and financial derivatives pricing. For the project of meta reinforcement learning, we want to explore the learning algorithms that can transfer an existing RL agent into a new task (e.g., a new game episode) with the minimal effort on retraining it. For the project of AI Economist, we are going to create a multi-agent system, where each agent behaves like a human being who will interacts with the environment and other agents (e.g., produce and trade), then we study how a certain policy (e.g., monetary and tax) affects the economy. yongxin.yang@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://yang.ac/ Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky https://github.com/wOOL/ Github Themes Applied Games Game AI Game Data - Previous Next

< Back Prof. Sebastian Deterding iGGi Responsible Innovation Lead Supervisor Sebastian Deterding is a designer-researcher working on playful, gameful, motivational, and eudaimonic design. His work asks how we might re-design the socio-technical rule systems we live in to enable a good life for all. He is founder of the Gamification Research Network, and co-editor of The Gameful World (MIT Press, 2015). An internationally recognised leader of gamification research, he is frequently invited to keynote and speak at venues like Lift, Interaction, GDC, Games Learning Society, Google, IDEO, and MIT, and his work has been covered by The Guardian, The New Scientist, the Los Angeles Times, arte, and EDGE Magazine among others. As a senior research fellow at the Digital Creativity Labs, Sebastian works on the intersection of AI, machine learning, and design for augmented creativity: how can we create systems that learn to automatically adapt and serve optimally engaging content to users, and serve optimally supportive design suggestions and tutorials to creators? He is particularly interested in supervising students with a design, HCI, or behavioural sciences background on the following topics: understanding and designing for uncertainty, curiosity, and epistemic emotions in games applied games for decarbonisation and climate adaptation design for behaviour change Self-determination theory and games Research themes: Game Design Games with a Purpose Computational Creativity Player Experience Gamification sebastian.deterding@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://codingconduct.cc Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Applied Games Creative Computing Design & Development Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Jeremy Gow Queen Mary University of London iGGi Training Coordinator Supervisor Jeremy Gow is a game AI researcher with a focus on computational game design, exploring ways in which AI can help us understand players and games, enhance the game development process, and contribute to the creation of game content. He has been a lecturer at EECS and a member of the Queen Mary Game AI group since 2018. He has a background in artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction research, and a PhD in AI from the University of Edinburgh. He is particularly interested in supervising students with a game development or AI background on the following topics: Automated playtesting and QA AI-based game development tools Modelling player experience AI for the design of agents and procedural generators Computational creativity in games Research themes: Game AI Game Analytics Game Design Computational Creativity jeremy.gow@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Creative Computing Design & Development Game AI Game Data - Previous Next

< Back iGGi Con 2024 - It's A Wrap Now in its 11th iteration, the iGGi Con once again proved to be a full success. Each year, the iGGi Con showcases latest advancements in games research and offers a networking platform where games industry members and academics working in games and adjacent fields can connect. The iGGi Con 2024 was held at the University of York in the Law and Sociology Building of Campus East and spanned over two days. Totaling 11 talks, 3 keynotes, 2 panels, 3 workshops, 3 buzz talk sessions and 28 posters. It hosted l 160 attendees from industry and academia. The iGGi Expo ran in parallel during the afternoon of conference day 1 and afforded conference attendees the opportunity to chat 1:1 with participating iGGi industry partners: a big thank you to everyone who took part! We were also excited to welcome a number of iGGi Alumni who joined the event and who were able to share stories and anecdotes from their time with as well as after iGGi, and we loved the insights and tips they offered! And of course, we're back next year, again at the University of York , so, make sure you SAFE THE DATE >>> 10-11 September 2025 <<< The galleries below show impressions of the two days. iGGi Talks iGGi Keynotes iGGi Posters iGGi Panels More impressions Previous 13 Sept 2024 Next

< Back Rolling horizon evolutionary algorithms for general video game playing Link Author(s) RD Gaina, S Devlin, SM Lucas, D Perez-Liebana Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back The lived experience of Internet Gaming Disorder: core symptoms, antecedents and consequences as based on a qualitative analysis of Reddit posts. Link Author(s) E Petrovskaya Abstract More info TBA Link