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< Back Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) iGGi QMUL is located at the heart of East London on Queen Mary, University of London's Whitechapel campus. iGGi QMUL is part of QMUL’s School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science . While QMUL-based iGGi PGRs can belong to more than one research group, they all by default belong to the Game AI Group (GAIG) . The iGGi/GAIG office space is situated within the Digital Environment Research Institute (DERI) at Empire House, Whitechapel campus. How to reach the iGGi Offices at Empire House, Whitechapel The address for the iGGi office space is 2nd Floor Empire House DERI 67-75 New Road London, Whitechapel E1 1HH Whitechapel campus map Accesibility: Empire House access guide Arriving by Tube The Whitechapel campus is easily accessible via public transport, with the Whitechapel Underground station on London Underground's Elizabeth Line (purple on the Tube map), Hammersmith and City Line (pink on the Tube map), and District Line (green on the Tube map), just a seven minute walk away. When you exit the station, turn right and walk along Whitechapel Road until the next larger junction. Turn left into New Road. Empire House will be located to your right. Please use the Transport for London Journey Planner to help you plan your journey: https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/ or their interactive maps showing Underground, Docklands Light Railway (DLR) and bus information Arriving by Bus The Whitechapel campus is based on Whitechapel Road, on the 25 and 205 bus routes, and Empire House is just off Whitechapel Road, on New Road. Cycling/Walking If you are travelling by bike or walking, please use the postcode above and the campus map to help you navigate to the venue. Bike storage facilities can be found in the Empire House Basement. Arriving by car For both our Mile End and Whitechapel campuses, car parking for visitors is not offered due to our central location. Local parking restrictions also apply on weekdays and weekends.We therefore strongly recommend you use one of the alternative transport methods listed above. If you do need to drive to campus, QMUL open day published a list of offsite parking options within easy reach of Whitechapel, including park and ride options. If you are a blue badge holder and require parking on site, please email opendays@qmul.ac.uk . iGGi QMUL Gallery Map depicting QMUL Mile End campus & the iGGi Con 2023 venue location iGGi Con 2023 venue: The Graduate Centre (Mile End campus, QMUL), viewed from Bancroft Road iGGi Con 2023 venue: Ground floor entrance of the Graduate Centre - Mile End campus, QMUL Mile End campus with the Graduate Centre on the left Birds eye view of Mile End campus, QMUL Map depicting QMUL Whitechapel campus with Empire House where all of the iGGi Office space is located Empire House Basement, QMUL (Whitechapel) iGGi office space, Empire House, QMUL (Whitechapel campus) The Blizard Building opposite Empire House, Whitechapel campus (QMUL) Previous Next

< Back Ethereum Crypto-Games: Mechanics, Prevalence, and Gambling Similarities Link Author(s) OJ Scholten, NGJ Hughes, S Deterding, A Drachen, JA Walker, D Zendle Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back 2020 Cohort Mini-Conference The recent 2020 cohort Mini-Conference was a great success! It was held in York and focused on highlighting the work being submitted and published by the iGGi PGRs at this stage in their projects. The cohort members had a chance to meet one another (as due to the pandemic, some still had not ever met before!) and to take a deep dive in to each-other's work, sharing knowledge in a simultaneously bonding and educational trip. The meet certainly fostered ideas for some collaborations between students, so watch this space! Previous 20 Apr 2022 Next

< Back Opening the World of Contextually-Specific Player Experiences Link Author(s) NGJ Hughes, P Cairns Abstract More info TBA Link

< Back Dr Daniel Gomme University of Essex iGGi Alum Players have underlying expectations of the opponents they play against in strategy games: don't break the rules, provide a sense of tension, be able to communicate plans... AI doesn't always fulfil these. Dan's focus is on finding ways to better fulfil those expectations - and even to overtly change them - in order to improve player experience. With qualitative tools and in-game testing, he's found several concrete design mechanisms that can further that goal. daniel.gomme@yahoo.co.uk Email Mastodon Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-gomme/ LinkedIn BlueSky https://github.com/OctarineSourcerer Github 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

< Back General video game artificial intelligence Link Author(s) DP Liebana, SM Lucas, RD Gaina, J Togelius, A Khalifa, J Liu Abstract More info TBA Link

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. University of California, Irvine

< Back George Long Queen Mary University of London iGGi PG Researcher Available for placement George is an IGGI PhD student interested in AI assisted game design, particularly in how it can be used to assist in the creation and balancing of game mechanics. After graduating with a BSc in Computer Science at the University of Essex, he joined IGGI in 2021 to be able to research how Artificial Intelligence can be applied specifically to reduce the prevalence of Min-Maxing in Role-Playing Games. A description of George's research: My research focuses on the concepts of Min-Maxing and Meta in Role-Playing Games, and how we can use AI assisted game design to reduce their prevalence. Min-Maxing in Role-Playing Game refers to the idea of building a character in a Role-Playing Game by maximising their positive traits while minimising negative ones, often through exploiting game mechanics. This can cause optimal strategies to emerge which not only have the potential to upset the game balance, but when these strategies become prominent enough in the community to form a Meta, it can have wider consequences such as the shunning of players deemed not to be using optimal strategies, and loss of creative choice when building characters. There are two methods I am looking into to reduce the effectiveness of Min-Maxing. The first is using AI to discover these Min-Maxed strategies. Secondly, how AI can be used in the game balancing process to identify and modify the mechanics which enable these strategies. Currently, I am focusing on the first method, with my research looking into how we can measure the effectiveness of units in combat scenarios to identify which units could be considered unbalanced. g.e.m.long@qmul.ac.uk Email Mastodon http://www.longhouse.dev Other links Website https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgelonghouse/ LinkedIn BlueSky Github Supervisor(s): Dr Diego Pérez-Liébana Featured Publication(s): PyTAG: Challenges and Opportunities for Reinforcement Learning in Tabletop Games PyTAG: Challenges and Opportunities for Reinforcement Learning in Tabletop Games Themes Design & Development Game AI Game Data - Previous Next

< Back 'Did you hear that?' Learning to play video games from audio cues Link Author(s) RD Gaina, M Stephenson Abstract More info TBA Link

Academic Pathways into Games 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. Academic Avenues into Games You are interested in pursuing Games as an academic career or would like to complement your CV with an academic degree in Games. But.. ...iGGi is no longer recruiting! "What now??" you ask. iGGi has recruited its last of (a total of) 10 cohorts in 2023 as the 2x5 years of scheduled intakes have been completed, and there is no funding for any further cohorts. Many of you have since contacted us to ask if there are other academic avenues into Games. So we thought we'd dedicate a page (this one) to this very topic, and lay out the options available to you via the iGGi partner universities. At Queen Mary University of London Bachelor Degree: BSc Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Masters Degree: MSc Computer Games PhD: The Game AI Research Group (GAIG) at Queen Mary University of London Also check out our list of suitable supervisors at QMUL on our iGGi Supervisor page (you can filter by location, and/or research theme) At the University of York Bachelor Degree: BSc Interactive Media Masters Degree: MA Digital Media and Culture MA Social Media and Management PhD: For suitable supervisors at UoY check out our iGGi Supervisor page (you can filter by location, and/or research theme) At the University of Essex Bachelor Degree: BSc Computer Games BSc Computer Games (incl. foundation year) Masters Degree: MSc Computer Games PhD: For suitable supervisors at Essex check out our iGGi Supervisor page (you can filter by location, and/or research theme) At Goldsmiths, University of London Bachelor Degree: BSc Games Development BSc Computer Games Programming BSc Creative Computing BSc Digital Arts Computing Masters Degree: MA Games and Playful Design MA Computer Games: Art & Design MA Computational Arts MA/BSc Virtual & Augmented Reality PhD: MPhil/PhD Arts & Computational Technology at Goldsmiths For suitable supervisors at Goldsmiths check out our iGGi Supervisor page (you can filter by location, and/or research theme) Funding Funding your studies can be a challenging endeavor at any level, but given our existing scope of Postgraduate level, the below points relate specifically to financing PhD studies. In the UK, there are six different types of funding sources to consider for financing a PhD: Government Funding through organisations such as the UKRI (iGGi, for instance, is a PhD programme funded by the EPSRC , which is one of UKRI's nine councils) >>> check out the UKRI Funding Finder Postgraduate Research Loans , available to individual PhD students >>> check out gov.uk's Doctoral Loan info page Most universities offer a very limited amount of their own "Studentships " and it is best to contact the respective university (or even the department) directly to find out more Charities and Trusts support individual PhD students through the award of Scholarships and Bursaries >>> check out the turn2us search tool which offers a custom-search-able database of grants you might qualify for Companies may directly investing in research projects that are of business interest to them and partner with a relevant university, or directly sponsor a PhD student And of course, if this is an option available to you, you can try and self-fund your course Games Courses at non-iGGi Universities There are many other universities in the UK that offer games-related courses, the below links are but a small selection, just to give you a starting point. Please note that this is not intended to be a ranking or particular recommendation in any way, and that the listing is merely based on our recent collaborations, interactions, and existing contacts with individuals or specific projects at these institutions. King's College London >> King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence University of Abertay >> Department of Games and Arts University College London >> Cinematic and Videogame Architecture University of the Arts London >> Game Design University of Hertfordshire >> 3D Games Art & Design University of East London >> Game Programming University of Staffordshire >> Games Courses Birmingham City University >> Game Studies You can also check out this games map website from Ukie which lists, among other games-relevant entities, academic institutions that offer games courses.

< Back iGGi Research Retreat "Unconference" Group Outcomes Trust and Freedom in Transformative Games The "Problem" Generating a sense of trust is important in order to communicate in a way that can have a transformative effect. The group discussed how games build or break trust and the factors involved in creating tustworthy games. What we did The group discussed different gaming experiences that had built or broken trust and the gameplay involved. We discussed the importance of trust and also a sense of freedom for players to feel secure in their user journey through a game. Finally, we discussed how we could outline a model for game development for developers aiming to create transformative games. The "Outcome" The group agreed that most gaming experiences can benefit from ensuring that players can take a break during the game in order to either reflect or emotionally process the experience. This should be easy to do, and not hidden inside complex menus, so that the player feels they have the freedom to escape from the experience at any time. It will help to build trust as it will help players feel more secure. Building a sense of trust is important for games that have the intention of delivering transformative experiences, but not as much for other gaming experiences. Games primarily created to entertain can trick and scare players in order to generate suspense and interest. However, such effects are likely to lessen the learning for the player. The less the player feels in charge, the less likely the game is of providing the context for a personal learning experience. At the same time, transformative games need to be motivating and many also use more shocking effects to bring their point across. Players can be tricked into doing immoral acts, either gradually building towards such a point or as a sudden surprise. While such situations can feel very manipulative and potentially trust-breaking, they can be very effective if the player feels that the gaming experience as a whole is trustworthy and relevant. Games like Lucas Pope's "Papers, Please", Brenda Romero's "Train" and 11Bit Studio's "This War of Mine" are relevant examples. This example underlines how trust-generation for transformative games is about creating a relationship between the creator and the player - a "player contract" - that is solid enough to allow also for surprises and player manipulation without breaking the overall sense of participating in a gaming experience that invites personal reflection. The group then discussed how to design a model that helps creators of transformative games to develop games that invite player trust and offer a sense of safety and freedom. Previous Next Previous Next

< Back iGGi at Develop:North As most of you will be aware, the Develop conference has launched a new location this year in the shape of " Develop:North ". Develop:North took place at The Spine in Liverpool on 14 November 2024. Five of our iGGi PG Researchers attended, and here's a summary of the event from one of them - Ross Fifield: "Develop: North was great. The venue was excellent and Tandem did a superb job organising it as always. Registration was easy and there were no issues as far as I can tell. There was a good mix of talks. It was significantly smaller than Brighton, but not unexpectedly so, given that this was their first go. While a couple of the talks were really quite thought provoking, I personally found the networking opportunities particularly helpful. I'm speculating that the organisers will run Develop:North at a slightly larger scale than this year, but regardless of that, I would recommend this conference to all iGGi PGRs and anyone in the UK who is working in games and adjacent fields." iGGi PGRs at Develop:North in Liverpool, 14 November 2024 Previous 15 Nov 2024 Next