Game Interpretation
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen Mary University of London
Department Name: Sch of Electronic Eng & Computer Science
Abstract
Academia is abuzz with incredible breakthroughs, but most of them don't directly apply to game developers on the ground. I'm building a bridge between the gritty realities of game development and the theoretical work of brilliant scientists by developing AI that Interprets real world games into formats that theoretical techniques need - like a language interpreter - so that academics and developers don't need to worry about the technicalities of integrating new technologies into their projects.
To achieve this I'm using techniques, such as intrinsically motivated AI, to create agents that can play and understand games without access to code - so that developers don't need to change their codebase to benefit from decades of rich science, and academics don't need to develop "research games" for their research. In the process I'm developing techniques that capture and quantify metrics that aren't traditionally measured quantitatively, or are little understood.
The tools and techniques developed in this research benefit several groups.
Indie Developers, small teams with small budgets. This group has very tight financial constraints which can mean the difference between success and failure. These developers can't afford to hire dedicated data scientists and can benefit from knowledge exchange and tools.
- Quantifying balance efficacy - measuring the effectiveness of patches - can help them to know if design choices are sound earlier.
- Developed tools will reduce their need to hire external play testers by providing AI play testers that provide useful feedback for game designers. This will decrease costs.
Large AAA Developers with high budgets, successful franchises and sophisticated projects. This includes esports which have huge player bases.
- AI play testers can help these companies test large scale changes that would otherwise be dangerous to attempt, and provide confidence in small scale changes before testing on real players.
- Ordinarily, these games can't afford to risk technical investment in bleeding edge machine learning techniques, but may significantly benefit from them due to their large data sets. Tooling that reduces the difficulty of applying machine learning techniques to their data sets can reveal deeper insight into their player bases and potentially improve key metrics.
Game Engine Developers, such as Godot, Unity and Unreal Engine.
- The integration of AI play testers as a built-in tool at the engine level can be a selling point for the game engine, increasing popularity.
- Enhancement of other game engine features due to the integration of new machine learning techniques.
Academics in the Theoretical Stratosphere. Researchers working in Machine Learning and Games Intelligence. This group has a wealth of knowledge that can improve the games industry but may not be in the best position to implement this knowledge due to the aforementioned challenges.
- Allowing researchers to more easily practically demonstrate the impact of their work, improving the confidence of investors and securing funding.
- Reduced friction of integration between academics and game developers can mean improved access to large data sets useful for further machine learning research.
To achieve this I'm using techniques, such as intrinsically motivated AI, to create agents that can play and understand games without access to code - so that developers don't need to change their codebase to benefit from decades of rich science, and academics don't need to develop "research games" for their research. In the process I'm developing techniques that capture and quantify metrics that aren't traditionally measured quantitatively, or are little understood.
The tools and techniques developed in this research benefit several groups.
Indie Developers, small teams with small budgets. This group has very tight financial constraints which can mean the difference between success and failure. These developers can't afford to hire dedicated data scientists and can benefit from knowledge exchange and tools.
- Quantifying balance efficacy - measuring the effectiveness of patches - can help them to know if design choices are sound earlier.
- Developed tools will reduce their need to hire external play testers by providing AI play testers that provide useful feedback for game designers. This will decrease costs.
Large AAA Developers with high budgets, successful franchises and sophisticated projects. This includes esports which have huge player bases.
- AI play testers can help these companies test large scale changes that would otherwise be dangerous to attempt, and provide confidence in small scale changes before testing on real players.
- Ordinarily, these games can't afford to risk technical investment in bleeding edge machine learning techniques, but may significantly benefit from them due to their large data sets. Tooling that reduces the difficulty of applying machine learning techniques to their data sets can reveal deeper insight into their player bases and potentially improve key metrics.
Game Engine Developers, such as Godot, Unity and Unreal Engine.
- The integration of AI play testers as a built-in tool at the engine level can be a selling point for the game engine, increasing popularity.
- Enhancement of other game engine features due to the integration of new machine learning techniques.
Academics in the Theoretical Stratosphere. Researchers working in Machine Learning and Games Intelligence. This group has a wealth of knowledge that can improve the games industry but may not be in the best position to implement this knowledge due to the aforementioned challenges.
- Allowing researchers to more easily practically demonstrate the impact of their work, improving the confidence of investors and securing funding.
- Reduced friction of integration between academics and game developers can mean improved access to large data sets useful for further machine learning research.
Planned Impact
The IGGI Centre for Doctoral Training will impact upon
1. The Digital Games Industry: Answering a national talent shortage, IGGI will inject a cohort of 60+ exceptional PhD graduates into the UK industry, able to translate AI, data, and design research into business value. They will catalyse a deeper industry understanding of the societal and ethical impacts of games, and champion a culture which encourages and supports equality, diversity and inclusion. Industry partners are fully supportive, Sony Interactive Entertainment's letter of support states "In an industry that's moving so fast, IGGI is essential for incubating the next generation of creators and innovators".
Talent flow alone can't satisfy the knowledge and innovation needs of a games industry dominated by small businesses. IGGI offers the opportunity for step change, yielding increased profits through an internationally distinctive UK games industry which is technologically advanced and research-aware. Collaborations and placements will transfer knowledge and skills needed by the industry: GameSparks (acquired by Amazon) found that "bringing in an IGGI student meant we were able to build new machine learning models into our toolset that delivers direct value"; other IGGI students have brought, for example, procedural graffiti to Media Molecule and automated game balancing to MindArk.
2. Game Players and Wider society: Large and growing numbers of people are playing digital games with unprecedented enthusiasm. Developing games which engage a wider range of players and which increase the social value obtained through playing games can have massive benefits: both economic ones and ones which harness the massive "cognitive surplus" implied by game players who are clocking up thousands of game hours. Potential benefits here are educational (e.g. teaching data literacy), therapeutic (e.g. detecting mental health issues), and cultural (e.g. through new interactive festival installations).
3. Creatives: Games provide new forms of interactive engagement, challenging traditional approaches to media and art, and technology developed for games provide creative opportunity for a wider and more diverse group of stakeholders. The BBC believes that "Convergence of the broadcasting, film and games industries will play a significant part in shaping the future of public service delivery." New human-like AI agents will lead to creative new gameplay genres; AI-supported design tools empower professional creatives and make creative expression more accessible for novices and people with disabilities.
4. Scientists: IGGI research shows that gameplay data provides population-scale insight into traits like fluid intelligence, and gamified citizen science platforms like Zooniverse are already engaging millions of volunteer players in scientific data collection. IGGI will make game data mining and gamified citizen science readily accessible with validated methods and tools and will develop a game-specific responsible innovation framework, enabling scientists to harness this massive opportunity and ensure their work has socially desirable consequences.
5. IGGI graduates: IGGI provides a beacon for innovation in digital games, with heavy competition for PhD places allowing recruitment of top students. For each IGGI graduate, learning and conducting research alongside a strong cohort of students having related but different interests and expertise, with extensive interaction with industry, will give rise to a highly rounded and employable PhD graduate, sought by both UK games industry and the growing games research community.
IGGI investigators, supervisors and students will develop a long-term understanding of the digital games industry, which will result in a stronger industry, a wealth of fascinating new research questions, and real benefits for wider society through the now-ubiquitous medium of digital games.
1. The Digital Games Industry: Answering a national talent shortage, IGGI will inject a cohort of 60+ exceptional PhD graduates into the UK industry, able to translate AI, data, and design research into business value. They will catalyse a deeper industry understanding of the societal and ethical impacts of games, and champion a culture which encourages and supports equality, diversity and inclusion. Industry partners are fully supportive, Sony Interactive Entertainment's letter of support states "In an industry that's moving so fast, IGGI is essential for incubating the next generation of creators and innovators".
Talent flow alone can't satisfy the knowledge and innovation needs of a games industry dominated by small businesses. IGGI offers the opportunity for step change, yielding increased profits through an internationally distinctive UK games industry which is technologically advanced and research-aware. Collaborations and placements will transfer knowledge and skills needed by the industry: GameSparks (acquired by Amazon) found that "bringing in an IGGI student meant we were able to build new machine learning models into our toolset that delivers direct value"; other IGGI students have brought, for example, procedural graffiti to Media Molecule and automated game balancing to MindArk.
2. Game Players and Wider society: Large and growing numbers of people are playing digital games with unprecedented enthusiasm. Developing games which engage a wider range of players and which increase the social value obtained through playing games can have massive benefits: both economic ones and ones which harness the massive "cognitive surplus" implied by game players who are clocking up thousands of game hours. Potential benefits here are educational (e.g. teaching data literacy), therapeutic (e.g. detecting mental health issues), and cultural (e.g. through new interactive festival installations).
3. Creatives: Games provide new forms of interactive engagement, challenging traditional approaches to media and art, and technology developed for games provide creative opportunity for a wider and more diverse group of stakeholders. The BBC believes that "Convergence of the broadcasting, film and games industries will play a significant part in shaping the future of public service delivery." New human-like AI agents will lead to creative new gameplay genres; AI-supported design tools empower professional creatives and make creative expression more accessible for novices and people with disabilities.
4. Scientists: IGGI research shows that gameplay data provides population-scale insight into traits like fluid intelligence, and gamified citizen science platforms like Zooniverse are already engaging millions of volunteer players in scientific data collection. IGGI will make game data mining and gamified citizen science readily accessible with validated methods and tools and will develop a game-specific responsible innovation framework, enabling scientists to harness this massive opportunity and ensure their work has socially desirable consequences.
5. IGGI graduates: IGGI provides a beacon for innovation in digital games, with heavy competition for PhD places allowing recruitment of top students. For each IGGI graduate, learning and conducting research alongside a strong cohort of students having related but different interests and expertise, with extensive interaction with industry, will give rise to a highly rounded and employable PhD graduate, sought by both UK games industry and the growing games research community.
IGGI investigators, supervisors and students will develop a long-term understanding of the digital games industry, which will result in a stronger industry, a wealth of fascinating new research questions, and real benefits for wider society through the now-ubiquitous medium of digital games.