COIT23003 Games Development Research Directions

References C. Fairclough, M. Fagan, B. Mac Namee and P. Cunningham, "Research Directions for AI in Computer Games", In Proceedings of the 12th Irish Conference on AI and Cognitive Science M. Sbert and J. Palau: GameTools: Advanced Tools for Developing Highly Realistic Computer Games IVth ITRA World Conference, Alicante, July 2005.GameTools: Advanced Tools for Developing Highly Realistic Computer Games A. Stapleton, “Serious Games: Serious Opportunities”. Presented at the Australian Game Developers Conference, Academic Summit, Melbourne, Victoria, 2004.

References B.Thomas, “Challenges of Making Outdoor Augmented Reality Games Playable”, In the 2nd CREST Workshop on Advanced Computing and Communicating Techniques for Wearable Information Playing, Nara, Japan, May J. Laird and M. van Lent, Human Level AI’s Killer Application Interactive Computer Games, AI Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 2, , G. Squires, Interdisciplinarity in Higher Education in the United Kingdom, European journal of Education, Vol. 27, , 1992.

Preliminaries Is there a discipline of Computer Games or is Computer Games a sandpit for R&D for people in other disciplines (AI, Computer Graphics, Multimedia, Software Engineering, …)?

What is an Academic Discipline? An academic discipline is an area of study “with its own theories, methods and content … distinctiveness being recognised institutionally by the existence of distinct departments, chairs, courses and so on” (Squires, 1992) Do Computer Games meet these criteria?

Computer Games as an Academic Discipline Theories There are the beginnings of a theoretical foundation – ludology, design research (Rabin, 2005). (Refer to Section 1.3 in Critical Game Studies) Method There are books on design methods, but there is as yet no detailed consensus on lifecycles, phases etc Content There is general agreement on content – graphics, animation, AI, audio, networking, programming, project management, design, …

Computer Games as an Academic Discipline Departments Not yet Chairs Yes Courses Yes

Summary Computer games is emerging as an academic and research discipline in its own right, but there is still a lingering suspicion that games and serious research are incompatible (my assessment). Computer games is (and will continue to be used) as an application area for other disciplines. (Laird and van Lent, 2001) provides an interesting example (AI).

Research Directions: A (Biased) Sampling Intelligent behaviour – (Fairclough et al, 2001), (Laird, 2001) Visualisation – (Sbert and Palau, 2005) Augmented Reality – (Thomas, 2003) Serious Games – (Stapleton, 2004)

Conclusion & Questions And there’s lots more … Class discussion: – In what way is the previous sampling biased? – What research direction do you think will have the most impact on the computer games industry?