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< Back Dr Yizhao Jin Queen Mary University of London iGGi Alum Currently a student at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), I have delved deep into the realms of artificial intelligence and game design. With a passion for understanding the complexities behind real-time strategy (RTS) games and their dynamic, unpredictable nature, I have committed myself to contribute novel insights to this domain. Research: My primary research area is Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning (HRL) for Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games. RTS games, known for their intricate mechanics and vast decision spaces, present a formidable challenge for traditional AI approaches. By employing HRL, I aim to develop agents that can not only understand the multi-layered tactics and strategies of these games but also learn to adapt to ever-changing game scenarios efficiently. The main objectives of my research are: Better Generalization: To create agents that can seamlessly transition between different RTS games or various maps within the same game without extensive retraining. This involves understanding common strategic threads across multiple game domains. Efficient Training: RTS games are inherently time-consuming due to their vast decision spaces and prolonged gameplay. My research seeks ways to optimize the training process, ensuring that AI agents can learn faster and with fewer computational resources. acw596@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky https://github.com/decatt Github Supervisors: Prof. Greg Slabaugh Prof. Simon Lucas Themes Game AI Previous Next

< Back iGGi Con 2025 Successfully Concluded! iGGi Con 2025 successfully concluded yesterday. Over the last 10 years, iGGi Con has firmly established itself as an annual showcases of the UK's latest advancements in games research and as a networking platform that connects individuals from industry and academia who are working in games. The iGGi Con 2025 took place at the Ron Cooke Hub on the University of York's Campus East. The event stretched over two days and comprised 13 talks, 3 keynotes, 1 panel, 1 workshop, 2 buzz talk sessions, 24 posters and plenty of coffee breaks during which attendees could engage with each other. We were excited to see so many of our industry partners present, as well as members of the increasingly large group of iGGi Alumni who shared their experience of "life after a PhD". We're already looking forward to next year's iGGi Con, also branded BiGGi Con ! BiGGi Con will be special in that it will quite likely be the last of its kind but we'd therefore envisage it to be larger and sparklier than ever! So make sure you SAFE THE DATE >>> 16-17 September 2026 <<< This time, we'll be back at the capital city >>> at Queen Mary University London <<< Can't wait to see you there! Previous 12 Sept 2025 Next

< Back Evaluating Generalization in General Video Game Playing Link Author(s) D Perez-Liebana, M Balla, S Lucas Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back The role of uncertainty in moment-to-moment player motivation: a grounded theory Link Author(s) S Kumari, S Deterding, J Freeman Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back Sahar Mirhadi University of York iGGi PG Researcher Available for post-PhD position Sahar Mirhadi is a final-year PhD researcher investigating how video games support during challenging times. Her contributions have been published in the Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, and she has presented at Devcom on transforming the complexity of turn-based games into a strategic advantage. She is also a passionate Magic: The Gathering player, collaborating with competitive Magic team Worldly Counsel to convert tournament insights into a deeper understanding of player motivations and team dynamics. Sahar is also a Safe In Our World Ambassador, a recipient of the Magic: The Gathering New Perspectives Grant for Marginalised Players, and a member of the Birds of Paradise collective. A description of Sahar's research: Sahar's PhD research project investigates the specific aspects of games that facilitate coping for players during difficult life experiences. Building on earlier work that mapped broad links between game aspects and coping strategies, Sahar’s first study showed that games can support a variety of coping strategies, including emotion-focused, avoidance, and meaning-focused coping. However, questions remained about how these effects occur across different gaming contexts. To address this, her second study employed in-depth interviews and a grounded theory approach with players of Disco Elysium, Darkest Dungeon and Stardew Valley. The findings led to the development of the Games as Dynamic Coping Systems theory, which posits that specific aspects of video games scaffold a diverse range of coping strategies for players facing personal difficulties. The model highlights the dynamic interplay between what the player brings (e.g., prior experiences, needs, skills) and what the game provides (such as Narrative, Game Environment and Character Interactions). Through this interaction, players develop coping strategies, and the outcomes from coping feed back into their ongoing gaming and life experiences. While the grounded theory offered a deeper understanding of how specific game aspects support various coping strategies, it also revealed a gap: the temporal dynamics of coping. Sahar’s ongoing work aims to explore how players transition between coping strategies over time and what factors shape these transitions. Her overall aim is to provide a deeper understanding of specific aspects within games that support coping, shedding light on the potential benefits and limitations of video games during times of difficulty. sm2904@york.ac.uk Email https://linktr.ee/saharmirhadi Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/saharmirhadi/ LinkedIn https://bsky.app/profile/saharmirhadi.bsky.social BlueSky Github Supervisors: Dr Alena Denisova Dr Jo Iacovides Themes Player Research Previous Next

< Back 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. iGGi is a consortium of four universities or sites: the University of York (York), Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), Goldsmiths, University of London (Goldsmiths), and the University of Essex (Essex). iGGi received funding in two phases: “iGGi 1” funded the first five cohorts of researchers across York, QMUL, Goldsmiths, and Essex and PGR intake spans from 2014 to 2018; “iGGi 2” started in 2019 with funding for a further five cohorts, this time only at York and QMUL. One of the "Essex iGGis" from the iGGi 1 funding round is still in the process of completing their PhD work. Essex is therefore still listed here as an active iGGi site, even though future iGGi main events such as the iGGi Conference and the iGGi Game Jam will take place at one of the iGGi 2 sites, i.e., either York or QMUL. iGGi Essex is part of the University of Essex's School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering . You can find the University of Essex campus map in the gallery below. iGGi Essex Gallery University of Essex Colchester Campus University of Essex Campus Map Colchester Campus, University of Essex 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 n.bryan-kinns@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~nickbk/ Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Applied Games Creative Computing Game Audio Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Piers Williams University of Essex iGGi Alum Partial Observability as a game mechanic There is a wide variety of different types of games, each providing its own unique challenge to artificial intelligence. Not all games provide full access to the environment, creating interest and difficulty by hiding particular pieces of information from the player. Other types of game expect teamwork from the players rather than being solely adversarial. Some games use both restrictions, and it is this type of game that this thesis concentrates on. Piers graduated from the University of Essex with an MSc in Computer Science. His interests lie in the field of Artificial Intelligence and in particular Multi-Agent Systems. Please note: Updating of profile text in progress Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Featured Publication(s): Hexboard: A generic game framework for turn-based strategy games Evaluating and Modelling Hanabi-Playing Agents Monte carlo tree search applied to co-operative problems The 2018 hanabi competition Artificial intelligence in co-operative games with partial observability Ms. Pac-Man Versus Ghost Team CIG 2016 Competition Cooperative games with partial observability Themes Game AI - Previous Next

< Back Dr Mona Jaber Supervisor Mona Jaber is a lecturer in Internet of Things (IoT) who’s research is centred at the intersection of IoT and machine learning for sustainable development goals. In particular, she is interested in harnessing IoT data to model mobility trends in a digital twin platform that allows users to test future measures in a verisimilar virtual environment. Her research is grounded in privacy-preserving measures for capturing and analysing IoT data. She is the winner of a new investigator award research grant (DASMATE £500K) in which she examines distributed acoustic sensors systems and a privacy-preserving alternative data source to model active travel. She is interested in supervising students on the topic of serious game building that engages the public in shaping their neighbourhood through interventions in the virtual environment towards sustainable 15 minutes city goals. m.jaber@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon http://eecs.qmul.ac.uk/profiles/jabermona.html Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/mona-jaber/ LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Accessibility Applied Games Game AI - Previous Next

< Back Dimitris Menexopoulos Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for post-PhD position Dimitris Menexopoulos is a versatile music composer, sound designer, audio technologist, and multi-instrumentalist based in London, UK. With an academic background in Geoscience, Electronic Production, and Information Experience Design, he draws upon a broad knowledge base across Art, Science, and Technology to inform his work. He has released two solo albums (Perpetuum Mobile – 2017, Phenomena – 2014), three EPs (Siren’s Call – 2025, Modern Catwalk Music – 2022, 40 – 2020), and two soundtracks (Iolas Wonderland – 2021, The Village – 2019), and has performed internationally. Collaborative work includes projects with choreographer/dancer Akram Khan (Thikra: Night of Remembering – 2025), director Shekhar Kapur (Brides of the Well – 2018), and electronic musician Robert Rich (Vestiges– 2016), among others. As a designer, he has exhibited work at venues such as Christie’s London (Christie’s Lates – 2023, with Scarlett Yang), Somerset House (24 Hours in Uchronia with Helga Schmid – 2020), and the Barbican Centre (Nesta FutureFest – 2019, with Akvile Terminaite). Currently, his research focuses on graphics-driven procedural audio for interactive and linear experiences, as well as on innovative systems for music composition and performance. His original scientific publications and devices have been featured at prestigious events in Japan (AES 6th International Conference on Audio for Games – 2024), Spain (AES Europe – 2024), the UK (Iklectik – 2020), France (IRCAM – 2020, 2019), and the USA (Mass MoCA – 2019). Since 2025, he has served as a reviewer for Computer Music Journal, published by MIT Press—one of the leading academic journals in the field of computer music and digital sound technology. contact@menex.world Email http://www.linktr.ee/menex.world Mastodon http://www.menex.world Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitris-menexopoulos/ LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisors: Dr Josh Reiss Dr Tom Collins Featured Publication(s): Using texture maps to procedurally generate sound in virtual environments The State of the Art in Procedural Audio Themes Creative Computing Game Audio - Previous Next

< Back Prof. Peter Cowling Queen Mary University of London iGGi Director Supervisor Peter Cowling has led teams that have won £45 million for research into games and digital creativity. After decades of experience in novel models and algorithms for AI decision-making, his research is now targeted on finding and promoting promising research directions in AI, games and digital creative technology, to benefit people and wider society. Playful ideas, curiosity and games have a central role! As Principal Investigator, he led the teams which won the grants for IGGI (2014 and 2019) and Digital Creativity Labs (2015). He is a member of the Programme Advisory Board which informs strategy in the Digital Economy area of UK research council funding. He has sat on several research council grant funding prioritisation panels, chairing two. He has presented ideas for the use of games as a tool to influence and understand the human condition at a number of venues, including TEDx and 10 Downing Street. He has published over 100 papers, winning 2 best paper awards at AIIDE. His research technology has over 5 million installs in commercial games – he was invited to talk at GDC about that. He would be interested to supervise students whose research uses games as a tool to gather opinion or promote understanding: to identify research directions and harness the future potential of games, creativity and AI to benefit people and society. He is particularly interested in how games and other curious, creative things can help us to understand a world of complex interacting agents, each living a world created by their own thought (!). Research themes: Research visions for games and AI Game design/development to influence, inform and understand people and society Game AI peter.cowling@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://www.petercowling.com/ Other links Website https://uk.linkedin.com/in/peter-cowling-3590962 LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Applied Games Design & Development Game AI - Previous Next

< Back Bobby Khaleque Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for post-PhD position Bobby Khaleque is an IGGI student focused on the creation of Automated Game Design (AGD) Systems particularly for Secret Box experiences. Secret box experiences refer to games which focus less on their game mechanics and rules and more on their aesthetic design, mood evocation and exploration. AGD systems might help empower solo and indie developers during the game design process by quickly creating playable versions of games with little to no human intervention required. A further research goal of his project is game quality evaluation for games seeking to provide the aforementioned experience. After completing a Bachelors in Computer Science and a Masters in Artificial Intelligence both at QMUL he decided to pursue games research particularly for AGD and player experience due to the lack of research in regard to games aiming to provide a Secret Box experience. Bobby is part of the QMUL Game AI group actively pursuing his research in Computational Creativity to answer the question: Can a computer design a high quality Secret Box experience? b.d.a.khaleque@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky https://github.com/BKhaleque Github Supervisor(s): Dr Mike Cook Dr Jeremy Gow Featured Publication(s): What Factors Do Players Perceive as Methods of Retention in Battle Royale Games? Themes Creative Computing Game AI - Previous Next