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< Back Steph Carter University of York iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Steph is a psycholinguistics graduate from the University of York with a background in language teaching and SEND teaching. Their research focuses on second language acquisition, human-computer interaction, and gamification. Their research interests also include accessibility in games, disability representation, and games with a purpose. Outside of research, they have worked as a freelance accessibility consultant and occasionally take part in game jams with their colleagues. Steph’s project explores how game design can improve participants’ experiences in second language learning experiments while still enabling the collection of high-quality, controlled data. Although games and gamification are increasingly used in educational contexts, particularly for language learning, their potential in experimental design for second language acquisition research remains underexplored. This project investigates how incorporating game elements into psycholinguistic tasks can impact the participant experience and maintain data quality. The findings aim to inform the design and development of gamified data collection tools for both language learning and cognitive research, while also providing some practical guidance for researchers interested in gamifying their experimental methods. steph.carter@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://linktr.ee/steph_carter Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/steph-carter-742891123/ LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisor(s): Dr Abi Evans Themes Accessibility Applied Games Design & Development Game Data Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Best Game Related Research Award Goes to iGGi ! Widget Didn’t Load Check your internet and refresh this page. If that doesn’t work, contact us. Previous 23 Nov 2023 Next

< Back Dr Athen Ma Queen Mary University of London Supervisor Athen Ma is an innovator in interdisciplinary approaches to the study of communities and networked ecosystems. She is particularly interested in finding out how the structure and dynamics of communities evolve over time and what kind of mechanics that help underpin cohesion in communities. Her research has been published in world-leading journals, with recent works revealing the organisation of collaborative science in the UK (in PNAS highlight), uncovering how ecological networks rewire under drought (front cover of Nature Climate Change ), and how agricultural ecosystems are resilient to changes in farming management (in Nature Ecology and Evolution ). Online multiplayer games naturally form a platform for social relationships to develop, and deciphering the social structure and dynamics of the communities formed will provide insights into many aspects in games, ranging from users engagement and retention to team formation. For example, matchmaking enables users to find other players who share similar profiles, interests as well as skills and personality; has been seen as an important tool for establishing and maintaining a thriving gaming community. Athen is keen to explore novel ways to use advances in social network analysis to investigate player communities in games across multiple network scales, so as to better understand their formation and evolution. Findings from this research will help identify/predict the type of social interactions that will promote the level of engagement among players and community cohesion, paving the way for designing in-game activities that will foster long-time engagement and retention. athen.ma@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://sites.google.com/site/athenma2015/ Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Game Data Player Research - Previous Next

< Back iGGi Studentships - Home Fees Candidates iGGi SPECIAL RECRUITMENT ROUND - home-fees only - With focus on home candidates only, we are inviting applications for studentships for the iGGi PhD Programme. Each studentship includes four years of fully funded (fees and stipend at UKRI rate) full-time study starting September 2023. The PhD researchers will be based at Queen Mary University of London or University of York (depending on which uni the chosen primary supervisor belongs to). To apply please follow the instructions on our Apply page Submit your full application by Monday 15 May 2023, 12:00 noon BST. Previous 5 Apr 2023 Next

< Back iGGi @ Develop:Brighton 2025 What an exceedingly exciting Develop we had this year! With 24 sponsored/official iGGi PG Researchers and Staff, and a fair few Alumni/soon-to-be Alumni, iGGi's presence confidently reached the count of 30. Here are some of iGGi's highlights: The iGGi Stand on the Develop Expo Floor With above-average footfall compared to previous times, the iGGi stand proved to be busy and popular this year. Visitors to the stand included familiar, friendly faces (big thanks to all of those "Friends of iGGi" who managed to drop by!), games industry folks who were new to the idea of iGGi and interested to hear about potential collaboration with iGGi , and then there were also those who thought about pursuing games further on an academic pathway . In summary, many vivid conversations were had, and regardless of whether they were future-opportunity-focused or more just-in-the-moment, we enjoyed them all! Displays at the stand were: "Exploring Human Behaviour in Social Virtual Reality" by Karl Clarke "Interactive Tool to Explore Different Playstyles in MicroRTS" by Ruizhe "Jay" Yu Xia "Detachment Undone" by Luiza Gossian "Future Factory - a Card Game" by Prasad Sandbhor An invitation for Indie Devs of Narrative Games to participate in a focus-study by Alex Flint Our this year's showcase video and " iGGi @ Develop " lookup iGGi Speaker at Develop This year, we were thrilled to hear Francesca Foffano's presentation on Player Emotional Design where she talked about how we experience emotions best design practices emotional design design solutions for Emotional Accessibility If you missed the talk or you would like to recap, Francesca shared the slides and you can find them under this link . iGGi Speaker at the Game A11y Gathering The Game A11y Gathering was a satellite event to Develop and organisers included iGGi Alum Jozef Kulik , last year's iGGi Con Keynote Cari Watterton, and Mollie Evans (Nothing Without Us). The second iteration of this game-accessibility-focused micro conference was sponsored by Sony Interactive Entertainment PlayStation Studios, Games User Research, PlaytestCloud, Scopely, and hosted at Unity Technologies. Like last year, it brought together developers and advocates from across the industry to discuss accessibility in games. Notably, iGGi PG Researcher Steph Carter was a speaker at the event. Steph's presentation was titled "Why Words Matter: Accessible Language in Games" and discussed how the words we use - whether in menus, dialogue, or instructions - shape how players understand and interact with game worlds. Steph shared why language is a crucial part of games accessibility, drawing on their experience as a neurodivergent player, an accessibility consultant and linguistics specialist. Quite a few of the other iGGi PGRs also attended the event and found it very instructive in its practical focus. Big thank you to organisers, sponsors and hosts, for putting on this fabulous event! >>> PICTURES TO FOLLOW Develop Impressions In comparison to last year's slightly subdued vibes and despite the fact that we've still not seen the end of incoming waves of layoffs (e.g., Microsoft), this year's atmosphere felt relaxed and cautiously optimistic. The sunny weather certainly helped! Two of the iGGis in particular struck lucky during the Develop Expo and won things at other stands. Namely a PS5 (in the raffle from GamesAid ) and a Packman Machine (in a contest at Big Games Machine ) After three days of full-on networking, it was finally time for a bit of chillin by the beach. The week left us looking forward to next year already! See you again in 2026, Brighton! Previous 10 Jul 2025 Next

Training iGGi is a collaboration between Uni of York + Queen Mary Uni of London: the largest training programme worldwide for doing a PhD in digital games. Training The training programme is an essential part of the iGGi PhD. It helps students acquire the knowledge and skills they need to do great research -- research that can change both video games and wider society. The programme has a practical focus on the design and development of games. By deepening our PGRs' understanding of games, we aim to motivate and enable PhD research that has real relevance to how games are made and played. Page Index: The Modules - Bringing Researchers Together - Training Requirements The Modules Because iGGi offers a four year PhD programme, the PG Researchers (PGRs) are able to commit substantial time to this training during their first year. There are four modules, with delivery shared by the University of York and Queen Mary University of London: Game Design (York) PGRs learn how to conceive, design, prototype and playtest their own games, be it for entertainment or a 'serious' purpose like health, education, or research. Game Development (QMUL) The module provides hands-on training developing video games using industry-standard game engines. iGGi PGRs work together to prototype a new game in one week . It also introduces a range of state-of-the-art technologies for game development, such as novel interaction techniques, AI opponents and collaborators, and procedural content generation. Methods and Data (York) PGRs learn various methods for empirically studying games and players, including standard HCI methods and data science techniques for gaining insights from large game data sets. Research Impact & Engagement (QMUL) PGRs learn how to engage industry, players, and other societal stakeholders early on in their research, how to conduct responsible research and innovation that is overall beneficial to human wellbeing, and how to present their work online, to the media, and industry. Video Placeholder - to display Game Dev YouTube playlist >> For iGGi news and updates, including event announcements, follow us on social media Bringing Researchers Together A key aim of this training is to bring new researchers together as a well-connected cohort who will carry on learning from, and supporting each other throughout their studies. This has helped us build a strong iGGi community of researchers across four universities and multiple research fields, with a common goal of doing world class PhD research on games. Each module is delivered in two two-week blocks, with the exception of the remotely-supervised individual project. Six weeks of the training takes place in the Autumn of the first year, and another eight weeks is scheduled throughout the rest of first year. For researchers in receipt of an iGGi EPSRC studentship, travel and accommodation is provided for York researchers to study in London, and vice versa. Training Requirements Completing the training programme, including passing the modules, is a compulsory part of the iGGi PhD programme. The Game Development module does assume some knowledge of programming, at least the equivalent of an introductory class.

< Back Rory Davidson University of York iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Learning and Strategy Acquisition in Digital Games Given the success and impact of games and the gaming industry, it is unsurprising that it has become the centre of a significant body of academic research and other literature. However, while the cognitive effects of gameplay have been extensively studied, this has typically been done from a “black-box” perspective – that is, looking at the effects of gameplay as a whole upon some other task or metric, such as ability to strategize or proclivity to violence – leaving the inner mechanisms of cognition during gameplay much less understood. In particular, while the idea of learning from games is an area of continued interest in educational psychology, very little literature exists on the subject of how learning in games actually occurs on a cognitive level. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by examining the ways in which player learning and strategy acquisition occur within games. This examination will have two main hierarchical goals. In the first phase, the study will use experimental methods inspired by analysis of learning methods used in games as well as literature review of more general theories of learning and cognition, such as the dual-process account or the CLARION model, in order to form a model better specialized for the field of digital gaming. In the second phase, it will analyse how such a theory may be put to practical use to inform the design of games and game-like experiences. These two phases can be summed up in the following main research questions: Phase 1: How can strategy acquisition in digital games most effectively be explained as a cognitive process? Phase 2: How can this understanding be put into practice in the development of games with specific desirable characteristics? By linking a more complete understanding of cognition and learning during games with measurable or observable gameplay characteristics, this study will further research on gameplay experience, such as that on immersion. The first phase of research additionally has relevance to the field of AI, in which human responses to difficult and complex problems such as digital games may be mimicked or otherwise used to inform the design of new techniques, as well as to gamification, which attempts to elicit such responses in non-game contexts. rd553@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisor: Prof. Paul Cairns Featured Publication(s): Automatic Game Tuning for Strategic Diversity Themes Applied Games Design & Development Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Tom Cole iGGi Alum + Supervisor Games should be studied as interactive systems, but are more often studied using techniques reserved for non-interactive media. As developers, we are ‘selling ourselves short’, and not exploring the creative and expressive potential of digital games to their fullest. Out of the myriad of affective experiences possible, we generally only design and experience a fraction of what could be offered. Tom hopes to help address this by studying how game mechanics, gameplay systems and control methods can be used and interpreted to create meaning and elicit a wider range of emotional responses than is commonly seen in digital games at present. Broadening and deepening emotional engagement with an emphasis on mechanics and systems. (Industry placement at Bossa Studios) Video games, with their unique properties such as interactivity, agency, control mechanics, feedback loops and gameplay systems, have the potential to impart deep emotional experiences – some already do of course. However, study of this emotional engagement remains lacking. Reliance on techniques and theory appropriated from film, literature and cultural studies yields limited results. There is relatively little understanding of how procedural elements such as control mechanisms and gameplay systems can be leveraged (or synergised with narrative and/or audio-visual elements) for emotional affect. Tom was previously at Supermassive Games where he was a designer on the BAFTA award-winning horror game Until Dawn and artist on Killzone Shadow Fall. Tom got his BSc in Biology with Industrial Experience from Manchester. After teaching science in secondary schools for a while, he decided games were more interesting and got his MA in Digital Games Theory and Design at Brunel. After time at Goldsmiths, University of London and the University for Creative Arts, Rochester, Tom is now Lecturer in Games Development at the University of Greenwich where he teaches games development, design and production. From 2016 to 2024 he led the organisation of Adventurex - the Narrative Games Convention, a sold out international conference which grew from 100 to 650 people during his time leading it. tom@tommakesgames.com Email Mastodon http://www.tommakesgames.com Other links Website https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tom-cole-87043a38 LinkedIn BlueSky Github Featured Publication(s): Emotional exploration and the eudaimonic gameplay experience: A grounded theory More than a bit of coding:(un-) Grounded (non-) Theory in HCI Eudaimonia in Digital Games Thinking and doing: Challenge, agency, and the eudaimonic experience in video games "Moments to Talk About": Designing for the Eudaimonic Gameplay Experience Grounded Theory in games research: making the case and exploring the options Grounded Theory in Games Research: Making the Case and Exploring the Options Emotional and functional challenge in core and avant-garde games The Tragedy of Betrayal: How the design of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus elicits emotion Themes Design & Development Game AI - Previous Next

< Back Rob Homewood Goldsmiths iGGi Alum Personalised Aesthetics for Games The worldwide games industry is a huge market and as the spectrum of people who spend time playing games increases, there is more and more competition to create games that capture the attentions of a wide audience. Whilst games have been traditionally designed with specific cultural demographics in mind, a game that could dynamically match the cultural values of a range of demographics would maximize its potential market. Robert’s research looks at developing techniques for procedurally generating dynamic game assets that can be viewed as being relevant at a ‘per player’ level. He aims to do this by actively profiling a player’s social networks and building up a picture of the cultural references with which they identify. This knowledge could then be used to create game assets that match an aesthetic the player would likely feel comfortable with, allowing a more flexible decoupling between game mechanics and aesthetic during the design process. Designers could then focus on creating interesting game mechanics that could work in a variety of settings and the system would fill in the aesthetic detail based on the requirements of the individual player at run-time. Having studied in five countries, Robert is currently undertaking a PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London where he is part of the EPSRC funded IGGI (Intelligent Games and Games Intelligence) program. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Game Design and Production Management from the University of Abertay Dundee which included a year of studies at the George Mason University Computer Game Design Program. He also spent a year studying Serious Games at Masters level at the University of Skövde in Sweden (which has the longest running Serious Games program in the world). Robert has an active interest in the media arts field and has exhibited his work in three countries. Please note: Updating of profile text in progress Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-j-homewood-36906132/ LinkedIn BlueSky Github Themes Player Research - Previous Next

< Back iGGi Game Jam 2024 - We Made It!! After 48 hours of intense but not-too-intense game-making, we've assembled for play-testing and general socialising. Overwhelmingly positive feedback suggests that this year's iGGi Game Jam was a success! Following tradition, we also gave out some awards. (The trophies were charmingly designed and 3D printed by the organising team!) Here are the winning teams of the iGGi Game Jam 2024 Awards: Best Vision CONGRATS to the Winning Team: Team Crazy Skiing ( Joshua Silveira Kritz , Nicole Levermore, Anthony Owen) with their game “Ultimate Ski Brawl” Best Mechanic CONGRATS to the Winning Team: Project Googly Eyes ( Toby Best , Daniel Cooke, Callum Deery , George L. ong, Sunny Thaicharoen ) with their game “See What Exists” Best Bug CONGRATS to the Winning Team: Retina Racer ( Karl Clarke , Dominik Jeurissen , Marko Tot , Ruizhe Yu Xia ) with their game Retina Racer Best Narrative/Immersive Experience CONGRATS to the Winning Team: Nice Dynamite ( Ross Fifield , Charline Foch , Bobby Khaleque , Oliver Withington , Kyle Worrall , Michael Saiger ) with their game “Phantom Frames” Best Art Direction CONGRATS to the Winning Team: The Moss Collective ( Nirit Binyamini Ben Meir , Dimitris Menexopoulos , Erin Robinson) with their game “Moss Dance” Last but not least, MASSIVE THANKS go to the organising team who ensured that this year's jam turned into the enjoyable event that it was! Namely: Toby Best, Karl Clarke, Océane Lissillour, Francesca Foffano, Alan Pedrassoli Chitayat, Jeremy Gow, Ben Kirman Previous 12 Jan 2024 Next

iGGi PhD Projects - listing iGGi PhD Projects 2023 Game Audio This page displays the supervisor-proposed PhD projects on offer under the above stated theme: If you are interested in any of the projects listed and would like further details and/or to discuss, please email the project supervisor. Please note that you can also frame your own project independently granted that you have secured a supervisor's support. For a list of available supervisors please see the accepting students section of our website. While iGGi has checked that the project descriptions listed below are within iGGi's scope , we wish to highlight that you are still responsible for ensuring that your proposal, too, is in line with this scope, and we would further like to point out that supervisor-framed projects are not prioritised in the application selection process: they are judged by the same criteria as applicant-framed proposals. For guidance to make sure that the proposal you submit (regardless of whether it has been supervisor-framed or created entirely by you) sits within iGGi's scope please refer to this link: https://iggi.org.uk/iggi-scope Navigate to other Themes on offer: Game AI Design & Development Player Research Game Audio Game Data Immersive Technology Creative Computing E-Sports Applied Games Back to ALL Projects Game Audio Machine Learning of Procedural Audio This work will investigate whether procedural audio can fully replace the use of pre-recorded sound effects. Price Game Audio Duration Joshua Reiss & Nemesindo Read More Load More

< Back Alex Flint University of York iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Alex has an academic background in Psychology and Human-Computer Interaction. Their Master’s dissertation comparing measures of perceived challenge and demand in video games was published at CHI 2023. Alex has previously worked on the Research Operations team at PlaytestCloud and as a freelance Games User Researcher. They are also a Student Video Games Ambassador for UKIE, and regularly volunteer at conferences such as CHI Play and the GamesUR Summit. When they aren’t at their desk, you can find Alex figure skating, playing roller derby, or DJing 80’s rock. Alex’s research focuses on levelling up the narrative testing practices of indie video game developers. Narrative testing is a specialised games user research (GUR) practice that requires resources and knowledge not easily accessible to indie developers, meaning they are often disadvantaged compared to their larger AAA counterparts. Thus, Alex's work proposes the direct study of indie developers to level the playing field by democratising narrative testing best practices and empowering non-research team members to conduct GUR activities. Alex aims to achieve this goal by: 1) Defining narrative testing best practices. 2) Identifying key challenges indie developers face when evaluating narrative. 3) Co-designing and evaluating narrative testing prototype(s). 4) Assessing methods for disseminating GUR knowledge. The successful completion of this work will impact how indie studios conduct narrative testing, ultimately leading to the creation of better games. alex.flint@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://alexflint.tech Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexlflint/ LinkedIn https://bsky.app/profile/alexlflint.bsky.social BlueSky Github Supervisor: Dr Alena Denisova Dr Jon Hook Featured Publication(s): Comparing Measures of perceived challenge and demand in video games: Exploring the conceptual dimensions of CORGIS and VGDS Faking handedness: Individual differences in ability to fake handedness, social cognitions of the handedness of others, and a forensic application using Bayes’ theorem Themes Design & Development Player Research - Previous Next