videogames

I received my Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab. There’s a lot to talk about regarding that, but for now I’ll just link to my old site that has a bunch of project descriptions and materials from those years.

During my Ph.D. I started playing online games with remote friends and both developed and sustained several friendships in this manner that would like have withered away otherwise. One of the games we played was Bioware’s original Neverwinter Nights. I had played and loved the first two Baldur’s Gate installments, and this was a sequel that allowed collaborative online play. I was also learning Python at the time, and in my spare time started writing an editor that would allow non-Windows users to produce content for the game as the game only came with an editor in its Windows version....

I had wanted to conduct more research on or at least experimental development of AI in the game industry, but the options to do so in Vanocuver are rather limited. So when a position opened up for a professorship in game research at a local university I had to apply. I thus became a professor at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology. Why did I only stay two terms?...

After my Ph.D. and postdoc, despite having a great experience, I was ready to be done with academia for a while. It was also difficult to accept one of the academic positions on offer in New England because I was waiting for Cydney to be done her Ph.D. and move back to Vancouver. I had met Ian Davis during my time at M.I.T. and started working for his game company Mad Doc Software as an AI programmer, and later as the studio AI head....