IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games (T-CIAIG)

Special issue: Computational Aesthetics in Games

Special issue editors:
Cameron Browne, Georgios N. Yannakakis and Simon Colton

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AI research seeks to optimise the performance of artificial agents in
their given domains, and in the area of games this does not mean
simply making stronger opponents. We do not increase the playerʼs
enjoyment of a game by beating them as quickly as possible, but by
matching them at their level of expertise to engage them and provide
an entertaining experience. While such aesthetic considerations are
more difficult to quantify and measure than playing strength, they are
becoming increasingly important as more consumer content becomes
digitally created and tested.

Computational aesthetics in games covers a range of aspects from
visual presentation and the elegance of the underlying mechanics, to
less tangible aspects such as player engagement and enjoyment; a good
game will provide a rich player experience and afford sensual,
visceral and/or intellectual stimulation. We are seeing the emergence
of game telemetry as a growing research area and the development of
increasingly sophisticated tools such as biostatistical indicators of
user engagement, yet much work remains to be done to maximise the true
entertainment potential that is now available to game and AI
designers.

The purpose of this special issue is to draw together the various
aspects of computational aesthetics as they relate to AI in games, and
to shed light on the relationship between game aesthetics and player
satisfaction. It will explore questions such as: What exactly is
beauty in a game? How do we measure this and use it to best effect?
How do we make AIs more entertaining? We invite high quality work on
any aspect of computational aesthetics in any genre of game,
electronic or physical. Papers should be of a technical nature with
claims backed up by experimental results or case studies. Topics
include but are not limited to:

* Modeling game aesthetics
* Notions of creativity and beauty in game design and AI behaviour
* Agent-based game aesthetics
* Self-adaptation/tailoring of aesthetic models
* Fitness (entertainment) functions for procedural content generation
* Player experience/affect and adaptive AI response
* Methods for verifying and interpreting aesthetic measurements and
quality assurance
* Player biases and the perceived value of automated vs handmade
content
* Game telemetry, user engagement, player immersion
* Culture-driven aesthetics modelling
* The relationship between games and art
* Other aspects of AI in game playing contexts, e.g. generative mood
music
* Nonlinear game story scripting

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Authors should follow normal T-CIAIG guidelines for their submissions,
but clearly identify their papers for this special issue during the
submission process. Seehttp://www.ieee-cis.org/pubs/tciaig/ for
author information. Submissions should be between 8 and 12 pages long,
but may exceed these limits in special cases. Extended versions of
previously published conference/ workshop papers are welcome, but must
be accompanied by a covering letter that explains the novel and
significant contribution of the extended work.

Deadline for submissions: October 28, 2011
Notification of Acceptance: December 16, 2011
Final copy due: March 9, 2012
Publication: June 2012