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< Back Philip Smith Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement I was born and raised in Bermuda, a small island in the Atlantic Ocean with an approximate population of 65,000 people. I finished my undergraduate degree in Computer Science with a Specialist in Game Design at the University of Toronto. For my Master's degree, I studied Computer Games Technology at City, University of London. My goal is to help expand the use of video games from purely recreational activities to viable avenues for aiding in real world problems. A description of Philip's research: My research will be focusing on maximizing player engagement in gamified citizen science as a continuation of my Master's thesis. 'Citizen science' is the practice of employing volunteers from the general public for the collection and/or processing of data with respect to a scientific project. Gamified citizen science projects have relied upon prolonged engagement from volunteers, but the number of long-term participants have been unsatisfactory in current projects. This project attempts to address the lack of sufficient volunteer engagement in gamified citizen science projects. The aim is to build a framework meant to guide game designers in creating an engaging citizen science video game based on the values set by Self-Determination Theory (SDT). These values adhere to the theory’s concept of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators of engagement. Intrinsic motivation relies on the factors of player autonomy, competence, and relatedness during gameplay. Extrinsic motivation relies on external incentives to core gameplay such as in-game rewards. As part of my research, I am evaluating multiple game design frameworks focused on Applied Games and identifying the merits and flaws each have when applied to a citizen science context. The information I gather will formulate a prototype of the Framework that will be iterated upon through design workshops, development, and playtesting. p.c.smithii@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky https://pjsmith97.github.io/ Github Themes Applied Games Design & Development - Previous Next

< Back Portfolio search and optimization for general strategy game-playing Link Author(s) A Dockhorn, J Hurtado-Grueso, D Jeurissen, L Xu, D Perez-Liebana Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back Dr Gavin Kearney University of York Supervisor Dr Gavin Kearney is a highly experienced researcher, lecturer and content creator specialising in spatial audio and surround sound. He joined the University of York as Lecturer in Sound Design in January 2011 and was appointed Associate Professor in Audio and Music Technology in 2016. He has written over 60 research articles and patents on different facets of immersive and interactive audio, including real-time audio signal processing, Ambisonics, virtual and augmented reality and recording and audio post-production technique development. He has undertaken innovative projects in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix, BBC, Dolby, Huawei, Abbey Road and Google amongst others. With the latter, he helped define the Google spatial audio pipeline through development of the SADIE binaural filters and decoders used worldwide. He is also an active sound engineer and producer of immersive audio experiences, working to develop new techniques and workflows for immersive music production in collaboration with Abbey Road Studios. He is Vice-Chair of the AES Audio for Games Technical Committee and was Co-Chair of the 2019 AES Immersive and Interactive Audio Conference at York. Gavin is particularly interested in supervising students with an audio background who wish to explore the following areas relating to audio for games Intelligent sound design Virtual Acoustics Spatial Audio Binaural sound Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality Immersive audio experiences for next gen mobile platforms Ambisonics and spherical acoustics Using audio to enhance player emotional state (as well as projects on health and well-being) Game Audio for therapy Accessibility through Game Audio gavin.kearney@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://www.audiolab.york.ac.uk Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavin-p-kearney LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Accessibility Applied Games Game AI Game Audio - Previous Next

< Back Mini Expo @ iGGi Con 2023 The iGGi Con 2023 Mini Expo ran during Conference Day 2 in the afternoon, in parallel with the main track. It offered a fabulous opportunity for Games Companies to connect with attending PhD researchers and masters students, and created a networking platform for all things game development and research. Here's a big THANK YOU to the games companies / individuals / NPOs who participated and enriched the Expo floor with their presence: Square Enix , Creative Assembly , Women In Games , Safe In Our World , King , Inhalation , Squingle Studios , Meaning Machine , Sumo ( The Chinese Room ) The feedback we so far received from both, Expo attendees and participating companies has been overwhelmingly positive: the Expo will definitely be back next year, at the iGGi Con 2024! Previous 15 Sept 2023 Next

iGGi Partners We are excited to be collaborating with a number of industry partners. IGGI works with industry in some of the following ways: Student Industry Knowledge Transfer - this can take many forms, from what looks like a traditional placement, to a short term consultancy, to an ongoing relationship between the student and their industry partner. Student Sponsorship - for some of our students, their relationship with their industry partner is reinforced by sponsorship from the company. This is an excellent demonstration of the strength of the commitment and the success of the collaborations. In Kind Contributions - IGGI industry partners can contribute by attending and/or featuring in our annual conference, offering their time to give talks and masterclasses for our students, or even taking part in our annual game jam! There are many ways for our industry partners to work with IGGI. If you are interested in becoming involved, please do contact us so we can discuss what might be suitable for you. COMIC Research

< Back ResCOM Retreat 2022 - Ammerdown iGGi PGRs Carlos González Díaz, Cristina Dobre, Dan Gomme, Nuria Peña Perez, and iGGi Manager Tracy Dancer are currently attending the CDE CDT 's ResCom 22 Writing Retreat which takes place at Ammerdown Retreat in Somerset, 23 - 25 May, and the programme is filled with workshops, talks and socialising opportunities. A rather cosy time was had last night, as you can see on the images! Previous 25 May 2022 Next

< Back Characteristics and motivations of players with disabilities in digital games Link Author(s) J Beeston, C Power, P Cairns, M Barlet Abstract More info TBA Link

< 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 Player Research How might we use and combine diverse methods to understand how people experience games, interact with and through them, and are affected by them? Project areas include: Understanding and measuring player experience and motivation Using tools from neuroscience and psychology to understand emotion in game players Obtaining game player feedback without breaking immersion << Previous Theme page Next Theme page >> iGGi >>> People <<< relevant to this Theme: Doruk Balcı iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Design & Development, Player Research Read More Toby Best iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Game AI, Design & Development, Player Research Read More Dr Ivan Bravi iGGi Alum Game AI, Player Research Read More Steph Carter iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Applied Games, Design & Development, Player Research, Accessibility, Game Data Read More Dr Nick Ballou iGGi Alum Player Research, Game Data Read More Dr Valerio Bonometti iGGi Alum Player Research Read More Prof. Nick Bryan-Kinns Supervisor Applied Games, Creative Computing, Game Audio, Player Research Read More Dr Ignacio Castro Supervisor Game AI, Applied Games, Player Research, Game Data Read More Prof. Richard Bartle Supervisor Design & Development, Game AI, Player Research Read More Dr Anna Bramwell-Dicks Supervisor Game Audio, Player Research, Design & Development, Applied Games, Accessibility Read More Prof. Paul Cairns Supervisor Applied Games, Player Research, Accessibility, Game Data Read More Dr Guifen Chen Supervisor Creative Computing, Design & Development, Immersive Technology, Player Research Read More Load More iGGi People working in this Theme iGGi >>> Publications <<< relevant to this Theme: Cost-Effective Attention Mechanisms for Low Resource Settings: Necessity & Sufficiency of Linear Transformations P Hosseini, M Hosseini, I Castro, M Purver arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.01643, 2025 Peyman Hosseini View Details Domestic Cultures of Plant Care: A Moss Terrarium Probe N. Binyamini Ben-Meir, P.G.T. Healey, S. Deterding Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '25), 05-09 July 2025, Funchal, Portugal. ACM, New York, NY, USA 19 Pages Nirit Binyamini Ben Meir View Details Claims for no evidence also need evidence VM Karhulahti, N Huntington-Klein, N Ballou OSF, 2025 Dr Nick Ballou View Details From social media to artificial intelligence: improving research on digital harms in youth KL Mansfield, S Ghai, T Hakman, N Ballou, M Vuorre, AK Przybylski The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, Volume 9, Issue 3p194-204, 2025 Dr Nick Ballou View Details Scaling Analysis of Creative Activity Traces via Fuzzy Linkography A Smith, BR Anderson, JT Otto, I Karth, Y Sun, JJY Chung, M Roemmele, .. Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Amy Smith View Details "Leave our kids alone!": Exploring Concerns Reported by Parents in 1-star Reviews L Winter, L Helsby, D Zendle CHI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Article No.: 1036, Pages 1 - 16 Lauren Winter Dr Laura Helsby View Details Load More iGGi Publications for this Theme Previous Next

< Back iGGi Con '22 Our annual conference iGGi Con '22 concluded last Wednesday. With around 150 attendees from academia, industry and organisations, the feedback received so far is overwhelmingly positive! Here are some of the highlights: 05 Sep - Internal Day In line with tradition, the first day of the 3-day conference was arranged as an internal event. After an informal start of the day with a year-group catch up and parallel staff meeting, a range of focus workshops addressed the different stages of "iGGi life" for the respective year groups (e.g., Year 1 Welcome, Thesis Writing, Knowledge Exchange, Post-PhD Career Planning, Academic Writing, etc.). A special Thank You goes out to all the supervisors who attended the iGGi Supervisor Community Session! This was followed by the iGGi Plenary Session - in-person for the first time since September 2019! The discussion centred much around the current cost of living crisis, and in summary: a lot more work still needs to be done to adequately address the situation! The evening and night were spent socialising in town (including optional subsequent partying!). 06 Sep - 1st iGGi Con Day The iGGi Con is a public conference and networking event (registration necessary) aimed at industry, organisations and academics who work in the field of digital games, as well as being an opportunity for the iGGi community to get status-updates on everybody's current research work. Posters - an informal session to discuss and talk about the current work of iGGi PG Researchers (PGRs) and some affiliated researchers who exhibited their posters in the foyer of the Ron Cooke Hub. Keynotes - the wonderful Rachel Kowert and the equally wonderful Tom Cole (who is also an iGGi Alumnus) gave their talks to a very inquisitive audience - a summary of which will become available via our YouTube channel . Talks - six talks by selected iGGi PGRs belonged to the categories "Game Psychology", "Game AI", and "Applied Game Design" - speakers were Elena Petrovskaya , Laura Helsby , Bobby Khaleque , Marko Tot , Prasad Sandbhor , Michael Saiger . Industry Panel - four representative from games industry (Rui Craveirinha, Nina Roussakoff, Tom Keane, Kish Hirani) held a panel discussion on "the perceived difference between academia-performed and industry-performed research" which saw vivid audience engagement. After a busy day, everyone chilled out over drinks. 07 Sep - 2nd iGGi Con Day The morning kicked off with four parallel tracks of workshops, namely a Roundtable on competitive gameplay integrity in Collectible Card Games (Sahar Mirhadi, Guilherme Matos De Faria, Sunny Thaicharoen) Qualitative analysis? In MY Excel? It's more likely than you think (Nathan Hughes) a Tutorial on Regret Minimization for optimal play in imperfect information games (Michael Aichmüller) Accessibility beyond access: Using an APX design approach to tackle real world accessibility issues (Callum Deery, Jozef Kulik) Lunch time coincided with the 1:2:1 Industry Meet Session in which ten fabulous individuals who work in the games industry were available for in-person chat. Participating companies included Earcom, Godolphin Games, Player Research, Safe In Our World, Sony/PlayStation, The Chinese Room, UKIE Talks - six talks by selected iGGi PGRs belonged to the categories "User Experience", "Player Decision and Agency", and "Creative AI" - speakers were Francesca Foffano , George Long , Nick Ballou , Nathan Hughes , Kyle Worrall , Amy Smith . Keynote - last but not least the audience had the pleasure to listen to energetic Sahar Asadi's talk titled "From research to production: the journey of content production automation". The conference concluded with closing remarks by general conference chairs Debbie Maxwell and James Walker. A massive Thank You! also to the PGR Organising Team comprising - Sahar Mirhadi, James Goodman, Prasad Sandbhor, Michael Saiger, Florence Smith Nicholls, Francesca Foffano - you did a fantastic job! See you again next year - this time in London! MARK THE DATE: 13+14 September 2023 Previous 12 Sept 2022 Next

< Back AI-Generated Imagery: A New Era for the 'Readymade' Link Author(s) A Smith, M Cook Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back Prasad Sandbhor University of York iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Prasad is a serious game designer and researcher. He has designed digital, tabletop and hybrid games in diverse areas such as education, healthcare, entrepreneurship, social safety, accessibility and sustainability. He is a part of the ‘Play in Nature’ initiative that crafts playful experiences to connect people with nature around them. He also teaches game design and user experience design. As a multidisciplinary design consultant, Prasad has been involved in conceptualising and creating B2C and B2B digital products for Indian as well as international organisations. His professional experience of 8 years in setting and leading design teams has made him proficient in strategic management of design. Prasad has been able to maintain his secret identity as a freelance author too. He writes short stories and essays in his native language, Marathi. A description of Prasad's research: Prasad’s PhD research explores designing games that facilitate the sensemaking of climate actions among university students. It defines ‘sensemaking’ as a structured process aiding the understanding of alternative pro-environmental actions within complex constraints, involving activities like reflection, brainstorming, and critiquing. The primary objective of his work is to identify game elements that impact players’ ability to make sense of climate actions to articulate design and facilitation guidelines for researchers, designers, and educators from climate change education and communication domains. It also aims to explore the transferability of sensemaking from the game into the real world. As a part of his research, Prasad is designing 3 climate change games using user-centred methods and exploratively evaluating them to see how they help players experience and develop sensemaking. He started with ‘Climate Club’, a tabletop role-playing game dealing with climate action-related decision-making challenges within everyday constraints. Its evaluation showed that the use of curated group setup, relatable contexts, problem-solving mechanic, and explicit mention of climate issues enhances sensemaking while group dynamics and asymmetric role-plays may cause hindrance. Combining these with other literature findings, Prasad designed ‘Climate Club 2.0’, a mini-live action role-playing game (LARP) about planning a climate-friendly holiday which is currently under evaluation. prasad.sandbhor@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://linktr.ee/prasadsandbhor Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/prasad-sandbhor/ LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisor: Dr Jon Hook Featured Publication(s): Radical Alternate Futurescoping: Solarpunk versus Grimdark Climate Club: A Group-based Game to Support Sensemaking of Climate Actions Radical Alternate Futurescoping: Solarpunk versus Grimdark Themes Applied Games Design & Development - Previous Next