Previous Research Blog Posts

This is my research blog. I started my PhD at the University of Brighton in October 2007.

Topics in my project include videogames, interaction-gameplay/flow, artificial life and animation.

18. March 2008

Finally getting to grips with honing in on my thesis title/question. The problem was the wide
range of fields that effect my topic – ranging from evolution/biology over cognitive psychology
to AI and computer graphics.

I am currently reading papers by Steve Grand (developed
“Creatures” game series), Dave Cliff (Uo Bristol, Uo Southhampton)
and Pattie Maes (MIT Media Lab) on integrating Alife agents into
interactive entertainment.

I am also still keeping Valentino Braitenberg’s (Max-Planck Institute Thueringen) Vehicle designs in mind.
A summary of Alife papers (more on the definition of the field) collected by Margaret Boden (Uo Sussex) provides a
sound background.

I have found several papers about emotional modelling, interactive narrative (novel gameplay) and actor performance
by Michael Mateas (Uo California) and Andrews Stern (Creator of the “dogz” desktop
pet), who both made large strides in terms of emotional agents, even before their game Facade.