< Back Prof. Simon Colton Queen Mary University of London iGGi Co-Investigator Supervisor Simon Colton is an AI researcher with particular focus on issues of Computational Creativity, where we engineer software to take on creative responsibilities in art and science projects. He undertakes projects advancing the state of the art in generative technologies such as evolutionary approaches and deep learning, and uses these to help develop software such as The Painting Fool, The WhatIf Machine, the Wevva game designer, the HR3 automated code generator, and the Art Done Quick casual creator for visual art. In turn, these software systems and their output are used in cultural projects such as a poetry readings, art exhibitions, game jams, and even the production of a West-End musical. This enables Simon to undertake much public engagement, with coverage from the BBC, The Guardian, MIT Tech Review, The New Scientist and many others. These practical and cultural projects inform an evolving philosophical discourse around what it means for machines to be creative, and Simon has co-authored numerous essays driving forward our understanding of this important topic. In this way, he has helped to introduce ideas such as automated framing of products and processes, issues of authenticity and the notion of the machine condition, i.e., what the lived experience of a machine is, and how this could be expressed by that machine through creative production. He is particularly interested in supervising students in project where we apply generative technologies to applications in videogame design, visual art, software engineering, music and text generation. One particular current interest is stretching the boundaries of both what can be achieved by, and our understanding of, generation deep learning methods such as generative adversarial networks (GANs) and auto encoders. Another current interest is the design of casual creators, which are creativity support tools where the focus is on users having fun, rather than on efficient, professional production of artefacts. He is currently developing a casual creator for visual art called Art Done Quick for public release, which employs evolutionary and deep learning techniques to deliver a fun-first experience while users make decorative art pieces. Any project involving generative technologies is of interest to Simon. Research Areas: Game AI Game Audio and Music Game Design Computational Creativity Player Experience Casual Creators Generative Deep Learning Email s.colton@qmul.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Accessibility Creative Computing Game AI Game Audio Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Yul HR Kang Queen Mary University of London Supervisor Yul Kang, MD, PhD is a computational cognitive neuroscientist studying how natural & artificial neural networks handle unavoidable uncertainty in sequential decision-making, such as wayfinding during navigation. He uses Bayesian approaches and probabilistic neural representation models, with applications to games, fundamental science, and healthcare. He received his MD in Seoul National University (South Korea), PhD in Columbia University (USA), and did postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge (UK), where he was elected and served as a Junior Research Fellow. His work was published in top-tier journals such as Current Biology and eLife, and was presented as a talk in leading computational neuroscience conferences such as Cosyne and Bernstein Conference. His work was featured in news outlets such as The Independent. His research addresses how the brain handles unavoidable uncertainty (e.g., from ambiguous visual scene) during sequential decision-making (e.g., wayfinding). It helps understand players’ behaviour and predict their uncertainty given a map (and hence difficulty). Since neurological patients often show specific impairments in such tasks, it may help earlier and more specific diagnosis of diseases. Yul is interested in predicting players’ behaviour, procedural generation of levels by predicting subjective uncertainty and fun, and using games for diagnosis of psychiatric and neurological diseases. Email yul.kang@qmul.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Creative Computing Game AI Immersive Technology Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Mariana Lopez University of York Supervisor Dr Mariana Lopez is a researcher in the field of sound design. She works on two main fields: accessibility and heritage. Her work on accessibility focuses on how sound design can be used to create accessible experiences for film and television audiences with sight loss, providing an alternative to traditional Audio Description practices. She was the Principal Investigator of the project Enhancing Audio Description funded by the AHRC. In the field of heritage, she focuses on acoustical heritage, by exploring how acoustic measurement techniques, computer modelling and the recreation of soundscapes can help us understand the sonic experiences of our ancestors. She was the Principal Investigator of the British Academy-funded project – The Soundscapes of the York Mystery Plays. Related to these fields she is supervising and has supervised projects in the field of mental health in connection to the creative arts; interactive installations; serious gaming and its impact on sustainability; accessibility and gaming; and sound design in participatory theatre, among others. Research themes: Game Audio and Music Games with a Purpose Sound and accessibility Equality and social justice Acoustical heritage Sound installations Email mariana.lopez@york.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Applied Games Game Audio - Previous Next

< Back Dien Nguyen Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement I graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a BSc in Computer Game Science where I became interested in the intersection of games and artificial intelligence – applying search, planning, evolutionary methods and knowledge representation to game playing and game design. My long-term goal is to work on the problem of formalizing game elements, representing game systems in a way that allows for automatic reasoning and inference. I also enjoy playing games where I can customize and theorycraft my playstyle to satisfy certain gameplay fantasies while beating the game. My current research is within the field of Automated Game Design Learning, an emerging field in AI research with the purpose of learning game design models through playing. The current strategy is to play out the full game in thousands of iterations, which can be impractical for complex games with large state space and computationally expensive forward models. My research will focus on applying Go-Explore—a recent exploration paradigm that outperforms many state-of-the-arts—to improve the efficiency of automated playtesting of tabletop games by using an archive of interesting game states to reduce the time needed for self-play. The research will be primarily conducted within the TAG framework and aim to be game-agnostic. On successful completion, this research will improve game development cycles, resulting in higher-quality games, and potentially give unique insights into the game design process. Email d.l.nguyen@qmul.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Supervisor: Dr Diego Pérez-Liébana Featured Publication(s): JSON-Bag: A generic game trajectory representation Unveiling modern board games: an ML-based approach to BoardGameGeek data analysis Themes Applied Games Creative Computing Design & Development Game AI - Previous Next

< Back Tania Dales University of York iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Tania is an indie video game designer and developer, working with horror, science fiction and games which are a little strange, bizarre and uncomfortable. About Tania's research: "My research explores the relationship between humanoid character design and existential horror in video games. I adopt a mixed methods approach, investigating existing games, designer interviews and player surveys, along with a research-through-design methodology, reflecting on the practice of character design. The core games I am exploring incorporate themes of existential horror, identity, self, and human existence. In video games with horror themes, non-playable characters (NPCs) are often used to prompt a reaction from the player, and it isn’t always fear. There are often times when the NPC isn’t acting in an outwardly threatening way, yet it still causes us to become unsettled. My research explores unsettling NPCs that incorporate themes of existential horror." Email tania.dales@york.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Supervisor: Dr Ben Kirman Themes Design & Development Game AI Immersive Technology Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Adrián Barahona-Ríos University of York iGGi Alum From 2018 and in collaboration with Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe, Adrián is researching strategies to increase the efficiency in the creation of procedural audio models for video games by using DSP and machine learning approaches. His main research interests, applied to the synthesis of sound effects, are generative deep learning (GANs, RNNs and VAEs) to synthesise raw audio and machine learning to find out the best parameters for a synthesiser to generate a target sound. Adrián has been enthusiastic about sound and more specifically about game audio since he began his studies. By the time he completed an HND in Creative Media Production in Madrid, he started working in the industry as a recording engineer in an ADR studio for the Spanish localisation of video games (such as Fallout 4, Until Dawn or Just Cause 3). He moved from Spain to the UK in 2015 to take a BA (top-up) in Music Production at the Southampton Solent University and an MSc in Sound Design at the University of Edinburgh immediately after. During that journey, he focused his career in procedural audio and explored ways to create models for interactive applications by using different techniques. Email adrian.barahona.rios@gmail.com Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Supervisor Dr Tom Collins Featured Publication(s): RESP: Reference-guided Sequential Prompting for Visual Glitch Detection in Video Games Deep Learning for the Synthesis of Sound Effects NoiseBandNet: controllable time-varying neural synthesis of sound effects using filterbanks Sonifying energy consumption using SpecSinGAN SpecSinGAN: Sound Effect Variation Synthesis Using Single-Image GANs Synthesising Knocking Sound Effects Using Conditional WaveGAN Perception of emotions in knocking sounds: An evaluation study Perceptual Evaluation of Modal Synthesis for Impact-Based Sounds Illuminating Game Space Using MAP-Elites for Assisting Video Game Design Themes Creative Computing Game Audio - Previous Next

< Back Dr Jozef Kulik University of York iGGi Alum Jozef’s first study has focused on developing a better understanding of the challenges and barriers to making accessible games. This identified a vast array of personal, organisational, and external factors which contribute to the difficulties that developers experience when seeking to make their games more accessible, and also identifies avenues which might be helpful. One key finding in this research was that one of the biggest challenges that developers experience relates to a lack of lived experience with disability, or knowledge of the player experience with disabilities. My most recent research is focused on how to effectively extract that knowledge from players with disabilities, then insert it into a large studio within the UK. This research takes a multi-pronged approach to assisting developers in making more accessible games. First by directly assisting a studio with knowledge about their games, second generating potentially transferable knowledge on accessibility issues and player experience for the rest of the industry, and exploring how research methods such as diary study methodology can be valuable in extracting data from natural play environments with people with disabilities. Email joe.kulik@york.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Supervisors: Prof. Paul Cairns Dr Jen Beeston Featured Publication(s): Understanding how we make accessible games: Perspectives from the games industry and players with disabilities A Qualitative Investigation of Real World Accessible Design Experiences within a Large Scale Commercial Game Development Studio Grounded theory of accessible game development What makes icons appealing? The role of processing fluency in predicting icon appeal in different task contexts Themes Accessibility Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Abi Evans University of York Supervisor Abi Evans is a Lecturer in Interactive Media in the Department of Theatre, Film, Television, and Interactive Media at the University of York. Her research is at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Learning Sciences, exploring how technology can provide real-time adaptive scaffolding for the skills and processes associated with effective learning in a variety of settings. Abi is particularly interested in supervising students who want to create and evaluate games and immersive experiences for learning or develop approaches for measuring learning in games. Her current project focuses on developing experiences for people who are learning to code, specifically tackling barriers to learning such as imposter syndrome and misconceptions about coding concepts. Abi would also welcome students interested in games for learning in other disciplines and in informal settings as well as traditional academic disciplines. Email abi.evans@york.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Design & Development Immersive Technology Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Evelyn Tan University of York iGGi Alum Evelyn holds a master’s degree in Industrial-Organisational Psychology from University College London (UCL) and has previously worked in the HR Technology industry where she undertook projects on game-based assessment, virtual team coaching and virtual reality (VR) hiring and training. She has published her work on developing trust in virtual work teams at CHI PLAY 2019, a premier conference for games research. On the Emergence and Development of Team Cohesion in Newly Formed Virtual Teams Evelyn specialises in teamwork and team dynamics. She is interested in uncovering how cohesion emerges and develops, and to identify its predictors. Her goal is to understand how to build high-performing teams that make people want to stay and remain united in the pursuit of their shared objectives. Under IGGI, she studies virtual teams in competitive esport games, specifically newly formed ad hoc teams. By applying theories and principles from psychology, her work can be extended to address the challenges faced by real-world teams with similar characteristics, for example emergency response teams and short-term project teams. By studying team cohesion – its emergence and development – her work addresses the broader challenges of building high-performing teams which retain their members. Please note: Updating of profile text in progress Email Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Featured Publication(s): Communication Sequences Indicate Team Cohesion: A Mixed-Methods Study of Ad Hoc League of Legends Teams Less is More: Analysing Communication in Teams of Strangers Trusted Teammates: Commercial Digital Games Can Be Effective Trust-Building Tools Themes Esports Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Ben Kirman University of York iGGi Training Coordinator Supervisor Available to supervise non-iGGi students for 2024 intake Ben is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Prof) in Interactive Media at the University of York, who has over 20 years' experience as a creative technologist. Since his first programming job fixing Y2K bugs (you're welcome), he has worked with dozens of organisations, large and small, in design and prototyping playful experiences. His research uses game design and playful design as a way to explore the complex effects of emerging technologies through novel and unexpected interactions and experiences. Most often, this is through the design and development of games, digital/physical prototypes, and design fictions. Ben has applied this in topics ranging from immersive theatre, dog technology, non-league football, radical cycle delivery, and time travelling robots, to educational games, esports, new situationism and magic. The unifying theme is play – as a topic of study, a way of working, for research insight, and as expression or output in games or playful experiences. This work, especially the more bizarre stuff, has often been covered by traditional media, including the BBC, New Scientist, Wired, The Guardian, TIME, Metro, the New York Times, and Your Cat magazine. Ben is keen on supervising students with strong creative drives, with an interest in making, design, experimentation, and a broad perspective on games and play. This might be a project about playful props in immersive theatre, or a project about context in locative and site-specific games, or any other project that looks to explore new possibilities and new implications of emerging technology through the lens of play. Research themes include: Game Design Applied Games Computational Creativity Sports with an E and without an E Player Experience Email ben.kirman@york.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Applied Games Creative Computing Design & Development Esports Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Paulo Rauber Queen Mary University of London Supervisor I am a lecturer in Artificial Intelligence at Queen Mary University of London. Before becoming a lecturer, I was a postdoctoral researcher in the Swiss AI lab working on reinforcement learning under the supervision of Jürgen Schmidhuber. I believe that intelligence should be defined as a measure of the ability of an agent to achieve goals in a wide range of environments, which makes reinforcement learning an excellent framework to study many challenges that intelligent agents are bound to face. Email p.rauber@qmul.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Game AI - 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. Email p.nayak@qmul.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Supervisors: Dr Guifen Chen Dr Yul HR Kang Themes Accessibility Applied Games Player Research - Previous Next