Exploring the Gamification of Imaginative Play and its Application to Video Game Development

Proposed research questions: 1) What is imaginative play? 2) What are the ways in which generative art, faces, and text in deep learning can be used to stimulate imaginative play? 3) How can deep learning help exercise the imagination via ludic experience? 4) What playful experiences are possible when using generative model outputs to provoke the imagination?

An initial approach will involve the development of hyper casual games, that are designed to expose the extent to which it is possible to use deep learning outputs to provoke and exercise the imagination via ludic experience. User interaction with the games will be evaluated to reveal if imaginative play is occurring, and whether this is being provoked by the machine learning output. It will be poignant to observe whether or not the lack of gamified elements in hyper casual games is useful, or detrimental to, the goals of the project. Gamification techniques such as competition, exploration and rewards (McGonigal, 2015) may in fact hinder imaginative play.

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.