Exploring immersive storytelling for avatars in Realtime gaming

Human data capture for AI-driven non-playable character engagement in games.

UCA Farnham is positioned at the heart of the UK’s largest creative technology conurbation with a major UK Games Hub ecosystem and 15,000+ creative and digital companies. This collaborative project with SKC Games explored immersive content creation and created state-of-the-art AI algorithms to develop a system producing real-time performance for both in-game player and AI-driven NPC (non-player character) avatars.

Start date: September 2023
End date: February 2024

Find out more about the project here.

Actor with Asa Burrows, CEO and founder of SKC Games and 1956 Individuals.

Project team

Project lead: Andy Bossom

Andrew Bossom is Industry Engagement Lead for Games and Creative Technology at UCA, playing a pivotal role in developing and delivering key collaborative partnerships with the games industry both regionally and nationally. Andrew joined UCA in 2015, having previously worked in the Games and Postproduction industries. Andrew is also Director of the UCA Games Incubator Studio nurturing next-generation talent at UCA’s Farnham campus.

Co-investigators: Professor Daming Shi and Gavin Lewis.

Partners

SKC Games Studio are an independent video game development studio with a mission to revolutionise the gaming industry by delivering unparalleled entertainment that utilises cutting-edge technologies and immerses players in new and exciting environments and worlds.

Funders

XR Network+ provides funding and support to researchers working in virtual production technologies. Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Led by The University of York and conducted in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, University of the Arts London, Cardiff University and Ulster University.

Funding allocated to UCA: £47,650

Outcomes & outputs

The collaboration brought together SKC games programmers and UCA researchers and students to build links between academia and industry and develop a knowledge-transfer model. UCA students developed performance capture and games production skills in a real-world setting and SKC programmers gained access to world-leading research on AI algorithms.

The outputs from the project were used to create real-time virtual characters for a chapter of SKC’s interactive role-playing video game, Project UN – Taradene.

Impact

UCA is establishing itself as a leading local and national partner in virtual production (VP) related content creation by investing in the UCA Games and Business Accelerator to foster innovation, drive economic development and train skilled professionals for the sector.