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< 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. joe.kulik@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/jozef-kulik-a62516140/ LinkedIn https://twitter.com/ChronoJoe Twitter Github Supervisors: Prof. Paul Cairns Dr Jen Beeston Featured Publication(s): 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 Younès Rabii Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for post-PhD position Younès is an awarded game designer and generative AI researcher. Their current research is concerned with the relationship between a game's rules, its narrative, and how to build AI systems that can understand these relationships, manipulate them, and invent new ones. Younès also has been a game developer for the past 10 years. They specialize in crafting new forms of play and making it accessible for their peers. Their work has been previously exposed in the French embassies and international conferences like the Game Developers Conference, the Gamedevs of Color Expo and the A MAZE Festival. A description of Younès' research: Younès' research goal is to bring to video games some of the most interesting properties of roleplaying games: their ability to trust every player with building a part of the game, and their ability to generate both new narrative and gameplay on the fly. Younès is working both on the AI techniques needed to allow that, and how to design the social spaces around those games in a way that won't hurt players or abuse creators. For the end of their PhD, Younès is designing a prototype in that new genre, counting among the first games to contain a form of Live Automated Game Design. yrabii.eggs@gmail.com Email Mastodon http://pyrofoux.itch.io/ Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/youn%C3%A8s-rabii-755717185/ LinkedIn https://twitter.com/pyrofoux Twitter https://github.com/pyrofoux Github Supervisor(s): Dr Mike Cook Dr Jeremy Gow Featured Publication(s): " Hunt Takes Hare": Theming Games Through Game-Word Vector Translation Why Oatmeal is Cheap: Kolmogorov Complexity and Procedural Generation Revealing game dynamics via word embeddings of gameplay data Themes Creative Computing Design & Development Game AI - 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. adrian.barahona.rios@gmail.com Email Mastodon https://www.adrianbarahonarios.com/ Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianbarahona LinkedIn https://www.twitter.com/adrianbhaudio Twitter https://github.com/adrianbarahona Github Supervisor Dr Tom Collins Featured Publication(s): 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 Matt Bedder University of York iGGi Alum Abstraction-Based Monte Carlo Tree Search. (Industry placement at PROWLER.io) Monte Carlo Tree Search is a popular artificial intelligence technique amongst researchers due to the remarkable strength by which it can play many games. This technique was prominently used as the basis for AlphaGo, the AI by Google DeepMind that became the first of its kind to beat professional human players at the game Go. But despite lots of interest from academics into Monte Carlo Tree Search, the technique has seen little use in the games industry - due in part to how it is not fully understood, and due to how complex it is to implement into large games. Matthew’s research is looking into how game abstractions can be used to help implement and optimise Monte Carlo Tree Search into existing commercial video games. Semi-automated methods for domain abstraction are being investigated, with the aim of making it fast and easy for game developers to be able to implement Monte Carlo Tree Search into their products, and to exploit the wealth of academic research into this technique. Matthew is currently studying towards his PhD at the University of York, having previously graduated for the Department of Computer Science with a MEng in Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence. Before starting his PhD, Matthew spent a year at BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre working on contracts with the European Space Agency, and has performed research into vertebrae models of Parkinson's disease with York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis. Please note: Updating of profile text in progress Email Mastodon Other links Website https://linkedin.com/pub/matthew-bedder/80/2a7/a51/ LinkedIn https://www.twitter.com/@bedder Twitter Github Featured Publication(s): Characterization and classification of adherent cells in monolayer culture using automated tracking and evolutionary algorithms Computational approaches for understanding the diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson's disease Automated motion analysis of adherent cells in monolayer culture Themes Game AI - Previous Next

< Back Lauren Winter University of York iGGi PG Researcher Lauren was introduced to gaming from an early age when they received a PlayStation One as a gift. From there, video games became a huge part of their life, exploring new worlds through the eyes of a vast array of characters. Following their undergraduate degree in Psychology with Sociology, they completed their MSc in Psychology Research Methods at the University of Nottingham. A fascination with looking for trends in data and creating complex spreadsheets in Excel led them to a job analysing student information in a school, where they also ran four Esports teams competing across three games. Their research interests primarily focus on player research in team-based PVP games and looking at players’ awareness of each other in these environments. A description of Lauren's research: Lauren’s project will investigate the interaction between competitive and cooperative play, such as is found in team-based PVP environments. Simultaneous combinations of competitive and cooperative play are found in many high grossing games, such as Call of Duty and League of Legends. These games provide environments for players to play with and against teams of both friends and strangers, and elicit social presence, a term used to indicate the awareness of others in the digital environment. Lauren’s research will focus on two types of social presence: cooperative presence and competitive presence. Despite the popularity of these games, little is known about the juncture between the two and the effects they have on player experience, or what game design factors can be used to manipulate them. Lauren’s work will focus on identifying non-gameplay design factors that influence cooperative and competitive presence. Through the development of a bespoke game, created in Unity, Lauren will investigate how people work together and against each other. Does better cooperation lead to better competition and does better competition lead to better cooperation? lauren.winter@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-winter-/ LinkedIn Twitter Github Supervisor: Prof. Paul Cairns Featured Publication(s): "Leave our kids alone!": Exploring Concerns Reported by Parents in 1-star Reviews Better Dead than a Damsel: Gender Representation and Player Churn Themes Design & Development Player Research - Previous Next

< 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 Twitter 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 Claudio Guarnera University of York Supervisor You can get more out of your site elements by making them dynamic. To connect this element to content from your collection, select the element and click Connect to Data. Once connected, you can update it anytime without affecting your design or updating elements by hand. Add any type of content to your collection, such as rich text, images, videos and more, or upload it via CSV file. You can also collect and store information from your site visitors using input elements like custom forms and fields. Be sure to click Sync after making changes in a collection, so visitors can see your newest content on your live site. claudio.guarnera@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://www.cs.york.ac.uk/cvpr/member/claudio/ Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/giuseppe-claudio-guarnera LinkedIn https://twitter.com/ClaudioGuarnera Twitter Github Themes Applied Games Creative Computing - Previous Next

< Back Karl Clarke Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement Having originated from England, I relocated to the Middle East in 2006. Upon my return to England, I pursued higher education and obtained a Bachelor's degree followed by a Master's degree in Music Technology. During the COVID lockdowns, I embarked on a new venture in game development and virtual reality after being granted access to a VR headset. Engaging in immersive experiences and delving into the realm of Social VR, I began honing my skills in 3D modeling and development using Unity by creating Social VR Environments. karl.clarke@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://www.llamahat.com/ Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/karl-clarke-york/ LinkedIn https://twitter.com/LlamaHatVR Twitter Github Supervisors: Themes Design & Development Immersive Technology Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Diego Pérez-Liébana Queen Mary University of London iGGi Industry Liaison Supervisor Born in Madrid (Spain) and living in London (United Kingdom), I am a Senior Lecturer in Computer Games and Artificial Intelligence at Queen Mary University of London. I hold a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Essex (2015) and a Master degree in Computer Science from University Carlos III (Madrid, Spain; 2007). My research is centered in the application of Artificial Intelligence to games, Tree Search and Evolutionary Computation. At the moment, I am especially interested on General Video Game Playing and Strategy games, which involves the creation of content and agents that play any real-time game that is given to it, and research in Abstract Forward Models. I have recently been awarded with an EPSRC grant on Abstract Forward Models for Modern Games. I am author of more than 100 papers in the field of Game AI, published in the main conferences of the field of Computational Intelligence in Games and Evolutionary Computation. I have publications in highly respected journals such as IEEE TOG and TEVC. I have also organised international competitions for the Game AI research community, such as the Physical Travelling Salesman Competition, and the General Video Game AI Competition, held in IEEE (WCCI, CIG) and ACM (GECCO) International Conferences. I also experience in the videogames industry as a game programmer (Revistronic; Madrid, Spain), with titles published for both PC and consoles. I worked as a software engineer (Game Brains; Dublin, Ireland), where I oversaw the development of AI tools that can be applied to the latest industry videogames. I am particularly interested in supervising students with background on applications of Tree Search or Evolutionary Algorithms for strategy games. Research Themes: Game AI Rolling Horizon Evolutionary Algorithms. Monte Carlo Tree Search Statistical Forward Planning methods. Strategy Games. diego.perez@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://diego-perez.net Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/diegoperezliebana/ LinkedIn https://twitter.com/diego_pliebana Twitter https://github.com/diegopliebana Github Themes Game AI Game Data - Previous Next

< Back Nicole Levermore University of York iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement My academic background is within Neuroscience, having achieved BSc Neuroscience and Psychology, MSc Translational Neuroscience and an MPhil in Auditory Neuroscience. Outside of my research interests, I enjoy playing video games, hiking and playing the cello. A description of Nicole's research: Video games have enormous potential for research on cognition and mental health and previous research suggests that playing video games can improve visual attention and memory. In my project, I will use video games to perform basic research into a common psychiatric disorder (ADHD), paving the way for improved diagnosis, monitoring and therapy. ADHD is typically diagnosed in childhood and is characterised by failures of attentional state maintenance. This project involves using a cutting-edge neuroimaging techniques to investigate how subjects with and without ADHD switch between attentional states (for example, ‘engagement’ and ‘flow’) while playing a cognitively engaging video game. The ultimate goal is to use video games to understand how mental health impacts people’s ability to focus on cognitively demanding tasks and, potentially, to develop therapeutic intervention. nicole.levermore@york.ac.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-levermore-b14245283 LinkedIn https://twitter.com/NicoleLevermore Twitter Github Supervisor: Prof. Alex Wade Themes Accessibility Design & Development Immersive Technology Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Ildar Farkhatdinov Queen Mary University of London Supervisor Dr Ildar Farkhatdinov is a Lecturer in Robotics at QMUL since 11/2016 and a Turing Institute Fellow. He is an internationally leading expert in assistive robotics and human-machine interaction. He is a principle investigator of several projects on wearable robotics, mobility assistance and haptic interfaces (including funding from the UK government on supernumerary robotic limbs and assistive wheelchairs, £500k+). Several of his research works were recognised as the best paper or finalists for best paper awards at leading robotics conferences. Before joining QMUL, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the Human Robotics group of the Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London (2013-16). He earned Ph.D. in Robotics in 2013 (Sorbonne University, UPMC, France), M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering in 2008 (KoreaTech, South Korea) and B.Sc. in Automation and Control in 2006 (Moscow University, Russia). He has actively collaborated on a number of large-scale research projects: EPSRC NCNR to create novel robotic solutions for the nuclear industry; EU FP7 BALANCE to develop balance and robotic walking assistance for the elderly; EU FP7 SYMBITRON to develop exoskeleton control for people with spinal cord injury. My research interest relevant to CDT IGGI include serious games for medical applications, as well as using game theory to investigate human-machine interaction. Research themes: Game Design Serious games Virtual reality Game theory i.farkhatdinov@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon https://hair-robotics.qmul.ac.uk Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/ildar-farkhatdinov-33075016 LinkedIn Twitter Github Themes Design & Development Game AI Immersive Technology Player Research - Previous Next

< Back Dr Myat Aung University of York iGGi Alum Immersion is a state in which players are engaged to a degree of total absorption that inhibits the ability to correctly report one’s surroundings or time. Present theory on immersion has developed a coherent model that provides sufficient evidence to distinguish itself from other cognitive concepts such as presence, attention, selective attention, absorption and flow. However, immersion research thus far has been hindered by difficulties with taking in-vivo measurements of cognition and physiological responses during videogame play. This presents an ideal opportunity for implementations of neuroimaging methods to carry out such real time measurements of attention, as well as other cognitive processes and their roles in videogame immersion. Using various combinations of neural and physiological methods such as skin conductance, eye tracking, electroencephalography and even functional magnetic resonance imaging, it is now possible to obtain richer data in immersion research. The goal of this project is to apply such methods in order to better define and measure videogame immersion, identify the cognitive processes and hierarchical models that are involved in immersion and ultimately contribute to the literature in videogame immersion. Though neuroimaging is limited by statistical sensitivity, challenging experimental logistics and non-ideal lab environments, they are still presently the best tools available to obtain fine-grain data of attention and the many other cognitive components of immersion. Such knowledge would contribute significantly to a better understanding of effective development of videogames, as well as educational tools. I am an MPsych Psychology graduate from the University of York, having studied Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience & Neuroimaging for four years. My Master’s research was primarily in vision, attempting to manipulate and record parahippocampal responses to visual stimuli selected parametrically by computer algorithms. During my degree I also spent much of my time researching videogames, studying the literature on the effects of videogame play on sleep, and working with a IGGI PhD student as a lab assistant. Between my degree and my PhD, I have also been working as a data analyst at Digital Creativity Labs researching skill learning in large gaming populations from Riot Games’ League of Legends. Please note: Updating of profile text in progress Email Mastodon Other links Website LinkedIn Twitter Github Featured Publication(s): Different rules for binocular combination of luminance flicker in cortical and subcortical pathways Investigating the non-disruptive measurement of immersive player experience The trails of just cause 2: spatio-temporal player profiling in open-world games Predicting skill learning in a large, longitudinal MOBA dataset Themes Game AI - Previous Next