< Back Dr Daniel Gomme University of Essex iGGi Alum Dan used to research what players want from the AI they play against, and how to fulfil those wants. These days, he makes some of Minecraft's UI happen without exploding too much, and has altogether too much interest in shiny tools, creative outlets, and general wholesomeness. Email daniel.gomme@yahoo.co.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Supervisor Prof. Richard Bartle Featured Publication(s): Player Expectations of Strategy Game AI Playing with Dezgo: Adapting Human-AI Interaction to the Context of Play Strategy Games: The Components of A Worthy Opponent Distributed Social Multi-Agent Negotiation Framework For Incomplete Information Games Tools To Adjust Tension And Suspense In Strategy Games: An Investigation Themes Design & Development Game AI Player Research - Previous Next

iGGi The Musical - a micro musical in 5 songs, premiered and derriered by The iGGi Band after the closing remarks of BiGGi Con 2026 "iGGi The Musical" "iGGi The Musical" has been proudly conceived and produced by iGGi PGRs, iGGi Members of Staff and iGGi Alumni. It's a micro musical comprising 5 songs in total and welcomes audience participation. If you're around for its Premiere at BiGGi Con, you're in for a treat. The iGGi Band Cameron Johnston, David Hull, Karl Clarke, Kyle Warrall, Nicole Levermore, Paul Cairns, Peter Cowling, Susanne Binder. The founding members of the iGGi Band had their first musical gathering during the 2025 Research Retreat "Unconference" where the idea of "iGGi The Musical" came to life. The band has since doubled in size. The band wishes to share that they value community and fun over perfection and musical accomplishment and hope that their audience embraces these core values. If you are privy to one of their performances and wish to sing along, find below the song lyrics: Lyrics to iGGi The Musical > iGGi Plays Zelda > PhD iGGi > Super Mario > Portal : Still Alive > I-G-G-I iGGi Plays Zelda (to the tune of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust) [Verse 1] iGGi played Zelda. Wanted to become a Doctor. A Doctor of games. Sent in a C V. As interviewee. Passionate creator. They said, “See you later.” [Verse 2] iGGi really read, searching for the edge of knowledge, to find the unknown. And found in a funk. Their ideas were junk. They'd been much to free, method’logic’ly. [Bridge 1] Where was the supervisor? At some congress in Waikiki. iGGi needed some guidance. To refute the toxic words of referee three [Verse 3] iGGi stayed the course, striving for a piece of voodoo, and then in a flash. The question was good. The question was answered. Wrote a new grimoire. Returned back to Zelda. [Bridge 2] Then along came the viva. The external said “Not for me. This needs major corrections” iGGi smashed them graduated as Doctor iGGi! PhD iGGi (to the tune of the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby) Ah, look at all the research questions! Ah, look at all the research questions! Gamification Making the choices for actions with M C T S Brains and Tetris Player engagement Balancing games so there's fun in a win or a loss Physics and moss All the research questions. Curiosity. All the research questions. iGGi PhD. Large language models Empow'ring players to make up their own game design Limited time Horror and humans AI for style, strength, for sound and for worlds: PCG Birds and trees All the research questions. Curiosity. All the research questions. iGGi PhD. Narrative testing Games so you know what to day when you're heading abroad Money and fraud Uncanny valley Helping to cope, Understanding a route through the sea T R P G All the research questions. Curiosity. All the research questions. IGGi P h D. Ah, look at all the research questions! Super Mario (instrumental - no lyrics) Portal : Still Alive (slightly adapted from the original) [Verse 1] This is a triumph. I’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS! It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction. Aperture science. We do what we must because we can. For the good of all of us. Except the ones who are dead. [Bridge 1] But there’s no sense crying overev’ry mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake. And the science gets done and you make a neat gun. For the people who are still alive. [Verse 2] I’m not even angry. I’m being so sincere right now. Even though you broke my heart and killed me. And tore me to pieces. And threw ev’ry piece into a fire. As they burned, it hurt because I was so happy for you. [Bridge 2] Now these points of data make a beautiful line. And we’re out of beta we’re releasing on time. So I’m glad I got burned; think of all the things we learned. For the people who are still alive. [Verse 3] Go ahead and leave me. I think I prefer to stay inside. Maybe you’ll find someone else to help you? Your supervisor? That was a joke haha FAT CHANCE! Anyway the cake is great it’s so delicious and moist. [Bridge 3] Look at me still talking when there’s science to do. And I look out there makes me glad I’m not you. I’ve experiments to run there is research to be done. On the people who are still alive. [Outro] And believe me, I am still alive. I’m doing science and I’m still alive! I feel fantastic and I’m still alive! When you’re dying I’ll still be alive. And when you’re dead I will still be alive. Still alive. Still alive. I - G - G - I (to the tune of Y-M-C-A) [Verse 1] Gamer, there's no need to feel down, I said Gamer, pick yourself off the ground, I said Gamer, 'cause you're in a new town There’s no need to be unhappy Gamer, now it's time to uncork, I said Go there, to Queen Mary or York, you can Play there, and I'm sure you will find Many ways to have a good time [Chorus] It's fun to study at I.G.G.I. And do your research at I.G.G.I. We have everything, that you need to create You can hang out and i-de-ate It's fun to study at I.G.G.I. And do your research at I.G.G.I. You can find out new things, we have research degrees And we'll cover stipend and fees. [Verse 2] Gamer, are you listening to me? I said Gamer, what do you want to be? I said Gamer, you can make real your dreams, But you’ve got to know this one thing No-one does it all by them-self, I said Gamer, write that book for your shelf, and just Go there, to the I.G.G.I. You can do research while you play [Chorus] It's fun to study at I.G.G.I. And do your research at I.G.G.I. We have everything, that you need to create You can hang out and i-de-ate It's fun to study at I.G.G.I. And do your research at I.G.G.I. You can find out new things, we have research degrees And we'll cover stipend and fees. [Verse 3] Gamer, I was once in your shoes, I had Ideas, that I thought were good news, I felt Game Devs need a concept that's new For design; to understand you That's when someone came up to me and said "Gamer, take a walk up the street. It’s a Place there called the I.G.G.I. You can make your i-de-a fly" [Chorus] It's fun to study at I.G.G.I. And do your research at I.G.G.I. We have everything, that you need to create You can hang out and i-de-ate It's fun to study at I.G.G.I. And do your research at I.G.G.I. You can find out new things, we have research degrees And we'll cover stipend and fees. It's fun to study at I.G.G.I. And do your research at I.G.G.I. You can jam a new game, see what the player does, and then talk about it in your buzz Gamer, gamer, are you listening to me? Gamer, gamer, time for your PhD? I.G.G.I. - Live your dream at the I.G.G.I. - No-one, no-one does it all by them-self Gamer, gamer, write that book for your shelf I.G.G.I. - Just go to the I.G.G.I. Gamer, gamer, get your research degrees Gamer, gamer, don't you worry 'bout fees I.G.G.I. - It's fun to study at I.G.G.I. !!!

< Back Dr Jeremy Gow Queen Mary University of London iGGi Training Coordinator & Industry Liaison 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 Email jeremy.gow@qmul.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Creative Computing Design & Development Game AI Game Data - Previous Next

< Back Dr James Goodman Queen Mary University of London iGGi Outreach Coordinator iGGi Alum James has picked up degrees in Chemistry, History, Mathematics, Business Administration and Machine Learning. After a career in Consultancy and IT Project Management he is now finally doing the research he always wanted to. James is interested in opponent modelling, theory of mind and strategic communication in multi-player games, and how statistical forward planning can be used in modern tabletop board-games (or other turn-based environments). With a constrained budget, how much time should an agent spend thinking about it's own plan versus thinking about what other players might be doing to get in the way. How does this balance vary across different games? His secondary research interests are in using AI-playtesting as a tool for game-balancing and game-design. Email james.goodman@qmul.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Supervisors: Dr Diego Pérez-Liébana Prof. Simon Lucas Featured Publication(s): Dice, Cards, Action! The Analysis, Play and Design of MultiplayerTabletop Board Games with Monte Carlo Tree Search From code to play: Benchmarking program search for games using large language models LLM-based Program Search for Games Seeding for Success: Skill and Stochasticity in Tabletop Games From Code to Play: Benchmarking Program Search for Games Using Large Language Models Skill Depth in Tabletop Board Games Measuring Randomness in Tabletop Games A case study in AI-assisted board game design Following the leader in multiplayer tabletop games PyTAG: Challenges and Opportunities for Reinforcement Learning in Tabletop Games MultiTree MCTS in Tabletop Games Visualizing Multiplayer Game Spaces TAG: Terraforming Mars Fingerprinting tabletop games AI and Wargaming Metagame Autobalancing for Competitive Multiplayer Games Does it matter how well I know what you’re thinking? Opponent Modelling in an RTS game Weighting NTBEA for game AI optimisation Re-determinizing MCTS in Hanabi Noise reduction and targeted exploration in imitation learning for abstract meaning representation parsing UCL+ Sheffield at SemEval-2016 Task 8: Imitation learning for AMR parsing with an alpha-bound Themes Design & Development Game AI - Previous Next

< Back Dr Kevin Denamganaï University of York iGGi Alum After graduating as an Engineer from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l'Electronique et de ses Applications (ENSEA), France, with two double-degree diplomas, a MEng in Electrical Engineering and Information Science from the Osaka Prefecture University (OPU), Japan, and a MRes in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics from the Université de Cergy-Pontoise (UCP), France, Kevin Denamganaï spent a year accumulating experience as a Robotics & Machine Learning freelancer. He is now putting those skills at use in the IGGI PhD program, that, among other things, gives him the opportunity to reunite with video games. Indeed, it was thanks to a keen interest towards video game creation that he started learning programming around 12. His research interests are about everything psychology, neuroscience, AI, (deep) reinforcement/imitation learning, robotics, and natural/artificial language emergence and understanding as well as human-computer interfaces, challenging the question what are the necessary components of artificial agents to be able to converse with human-beings in an engaging manner and to be able to cooperate with them towards a pre-defined goal, e.g. clearing a level in a given video game. Email kevin.denamganai@york.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Supervisor(s): Dr James Walker Featured Publication(s): CueTip: An Interactive and Explainable Physics-aware Pool Assistant EReLELA: Exploration in Reinforcement Learning via Emergent Language Abstractions Language Model Inversion through End-to-End Differentiation xInv: Explainable Optimization of Inverse Problems ETHER: Aligning Emergent Communication for Hindsight Experience Replay Visual Referential Games Further the Emergence of Disentangled Representations Meta-Referential Games to Learn Compositional Learning Behaviours A comparison of self-play algorithms under a generalized framework On (Emergent) Systematic Generalisation and Compositionality in Visual Referential Games with Straight-Through Gumbel-Softmax Estimator ReferentialGym: A Nomenclature and Framework for Language Emergence & Grounding in (Visual) Referential Games A generalized framework for self-play training Coupled Kuramoto oscillator-based control laws for both formation and obstacle avoidance control of two-wheeled mobile robots Obstacle avoidance control law for two-wheeled mobile robots controlled by oscillators Themes Game AI - Previous Next

< Back Dr Tom Collins University of York Supervisor Tom runs the Music Computing and Psychology Lab in the Music Department at University of York, and so makes a good supervisor for game audio projects, but he has wider interests in media (e.g., podcasts) and sport (especially football), and in sport how AI can be leveraged to enhance analytics that lead to new insights into, and competitive advantages in, individual and team performance. Tom is internationally recognised for his work in automatic music generation, web systems for music, and information retrieval. His research has been featured by the BBC (BBC Click), The Times, and Financial Times among others. Tom is interested in supervising students who have a background in at least one of the following areas, and who are interested in acquiring knowledge of the others: Data science and machine learning (especially deep learning); One of music, podcasts, or sport; Software engineering (especially full-stack JavaScript development). Email tom.collins@york.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Esports Game AI Game Audio Game Data Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Janet Gibbs Goldsmiths iGGi Alum Janet is exploring how multi-modal perceptual feedback contributes to a player's sense of presence in the virtual world. Jaron Lanier described Virtual Reality (VR) as the substitution of the interface between a person and their physical environment with an interface to a simulated environment. This interface is of particular significance in understanding how presence depends on the nature, extent and veridicality of our sensorimotor interaction with the virtual environment, and how that relates to our normal engagement with the real world. In practice, only selected parts of the interface are substituted - we are never fully removed from our physical environment. Our perceptual apparatus evolved to make sense of changing sensations in multiple modalities originating naturally and coherently from the same event or percept. By contrast, in VR, individually crafted feedback using different technologies for each modality are coordinated to appear as if from a single source. VR benefits from a long history of visual and audio technologies, developed in harness for virtual experiences from cinema to computer games. Haptics is a relative newcomer that must be blended with them to create coherent multimodal perceptual experiences. Additionally, haptics is closely related to proprioception, and to the wide range of tactile senses—texture, heat, pain etc—that current VR systems do not address. Building on sensorimotor theory of perception, Janet aims to establish how our perceptual system responds to multi-modal feedback that almost, but not quite, matches what we are used to, in making sense of the simulated environment of VR. Email JGIBB016@gold.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Featured Publication(s): Investigating Sensorimotor Contingencies in the Enactive Interface A comparison of the effects of haptic and visual feedback on presence in virtual reality Novel Player Experience with Sensory Substitution and Augmentation Investigating sensorimotor contingencies in the enactive interface 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 Email anna.bramwell-dicks@york.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Accessibility Applied Games Design & Development Game Audio Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Ignacio Castro Queen Mary University of London Supervisor Ignacio Castro is Lecturer in Data Analytics at Queen Mary University of London. His work sits at the intersection between economics and networks. His interest spans from online social networks and moderation to the macroscopic evolution of the Internet. He has been an investigator on three major grants that hold over £6 million in funding. His work appears in top tier journals and conferences including Web Conference, ACM SIGCOMM, ACM SIGMETRICS, ACM IMC, ICWSM, and IEEE/ACM Trans. on Networking. He is interested in supervising students with a background in social network analysis, NLP and/or machine learning. Email i.castro@qmul.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Applied Games Game AI Game Data Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Ozan Vardal University of York iGGi Alum Ozan studied undergraduate psychology at the University of Groningen, and holds a master's degree in Performance Psychology from the University of Edinburgh, where he wrote theses on the dynamics of psychological momentum in sport competition and the decision-making of expert applied psychologists respectively. He has long been fascinated with the psychological mechanisms underpinning complex skills, owing to his own background as a classically trained musician and his previous work as a performance psychology consultant with competitive athletes. His primary research interests involve the behavioural and neural factors surrounding human learning and skilled performance. A description of Ozan's research: Ozan views games as behaviourally rich environments for the study of complex skills and human learning. The competitive and immersive nature of games encourages millions of players to develop profound skill over hours, days, and even years of practice. Ozan’s work takes advantage of large data repositories generated by such players to study how different patterns of practice result in differences in learning outcomes. He also uses experimental methods in his work, and is currently using neuroimaging methods (MEG) and modelling techniques to identify how shifts between different behavioural and neural states affect performance as people play Tetris. By using games as a vehicle to study psychology, Ozan aims to develop scalable solutions to studying human learning. He hopes for a future where the science of learning is sufficiently advanced, such that (artificial) trainers can recommend optimised practice schedules for motivated learners, in any performance domain. Please note: Updating of profile text in progress Email ov525@york.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Featured Publication(s): Using video games to study the acquisition and performance of psychomotor skills Mind the gap: Distributed practice enhances performance in a MOBA game Themes Design & Development Esports Game Data - Previous Next

< Back Prof. Damian Murphy University of York Supervisor Damian Murphy is Professor in Sound and Music Computing at the Department of Electronic Engineering AudioLab, University of York, where he has been a member of academic staff since 2000, and is the University Research Theme Champion for Creativity. He started his career in the Performing Arts Department at Harrogate College and has previously held positions at Leeds Metropolitan University and Bretton Hall College. His research focuses on virtual acoustics and he has published over 130 journal articles, conference papers and books in the area. He is a member of the Audio Engineering Society, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a visiting lecturer to the Department of Speech, Music and Hearing at KTH, Stockholm. Prof. Murphy is also an active sound artist and the Director of the £15m XRStories Creative Industries R&D Partnership exploring interactive and immersive storytelling for the UK’s creative and cultural sectors. He is interested in supervising students with interests in sound design, acoustics and audio signal processing and with a particular focus on: Interactive and immersive audio environments for real-time systems Room acoustics simulation and auralisation Assessment of immersive audio content for gameplay and competitive advantage Interactive/immersive audio storytelling Acoustic scene classification using spatial and spectral feature Audio for immersive environments. Research themes: Game AI Game Audio and Music Games with a Purpose Player Experience Email damian.murphy@york.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Themes Creative Computing Game Audio Immersive Technology - Previous Next

< Back Toby Best Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for post-PhD position Toby has always held video games as an integral part of his livelihood, ever since catching his first Pokémon on the Game Boy Color. The ever-developing evolution of technology, from the humble NES and R.O.B. preventing the video game market crash in 1983, to the Wii’s motion controls, to augmented and virtual reality today, has been a key inspiration, and one of the reasons why he studied Mathematical Computation at University College London. He also has a keen interest in tabletop roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. His research interests involve the potential of combining roleplaying games' collective storytelling and interactive narrative with the power of artificial intelligence and deep learning. A description of Toby's research: Artificial Intelligence is the field of creating digital agents capable of decision-making and rational thought to fulfil a core goal or aspect. For tabletop and video games, an implemented AI would attempt to ‘solve’ the game by finding optimal winning strategies. However, tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) are driven by the power of collective storytelling and interactive narrative, as opposed to set rules, and therefore have a more open-ended goal - maximising player enjoyment for all participants. This involves a Game Master (GM) player as both narrator and referee, controlling the non-playable characters (NPCs) and the campaign behind the screen, whereas players usually control one player character (PC) each to interact with the world. There is no ‘failure’ state compared to traditional games, as campaigns can continue until players lose interest or the narrative is ‘complete’; even all PCs dying (known as a total party kill) can drive the narrative in a new direction. This project aims to study and piece together the different elements that would go into a Game Master AI, building on current state-of-the-art game-playing AI, such as Director AIs in games such as Valve’s ‘Left 4 Dead’, and studying the implications of such developments for players and game designers alike. For example, whether it could replicate the playing experiences of a human GM as a replacement, or enhance the experience by working with a human GM. Email t.j.best@qmul.ac.uk Website LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky GitHub Other Link Supervisors: Dr Alena Denisova Dr Raluca Gaina Prof. Simon Lucas Featured Publication(s): "Journeys in the Dark"-Towards Game Master AI in Complex Board Games Why Choose You?-Exploring Attitudes Towards Starter Pokémon Themes Design & Development Game AI Player Research https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYRhQ-w5yPA Previous Next