Mike Cook writes:

The Experimental AI in Games workshop, EXAG, is returning to AIIDE this
year. We’ve evolved into a two-day workshop, with lots of plans for
additional sessions including a games night, optional jams/hacking, mini
tool tutorials, demonstrations, a wide variety of paper topics and more.

Don’t stress! The deadline is over a month away. But do start planning
for the workshop – we’re going to make it an incredible event, and we
want you all to come to lovely Santa Cruz and enjoy it with us. We’re
going to make it fresh and exciting, so get writing for it now!

Need more info? Feel free to contact any of the organisers, or check our
website: www.exag.org

All the best,

Alex, Antonios & Mike
EXAG Organisers

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—————
CALL FOR PAPERS
—————

Experimental AI in Games Workshop 2
http://www.exag.org

November 14-15, 2015
Located at AIIDE 2015 in Santa Cruz, California

———
DEADLINES
———

Submission deadline: July 6
Acceptance notification: July 24
AIIDE early registration: August 7
Camera-ready deadline: August 12
AIIDE late registration: September 4
EXAG 2: November 14-15

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ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
——————

The Experimental AI in Games (EXAG) workshop aims to foster
experimentation at the interface of AI (broadly construed) and all
aspects of games and game development. EXAG solicits submissions in
three tracks:

+ Papers arguing for new roles of AI in games and game development or
presenting prototypes of experimental applications of AI in games and
game creation
+ Tutorials on sharable tools and resources for experimental AI in games
+ Demonstrations of innovative tools or games in this space

EXAG will also include a games night, the DAGGER 2.0 event, and a
hackathon / game jam in the evenings around the workshop!

EXAG will be held on November 14-15, 2015 and be co-located with the
Artificial Intelligence in Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE)
2015 conference located in Santa Cruz, CA, USA.

To support experimentation, EXAG will include a number of socializing,
demonstration, and (optional) coding/hackathon events. DAGGER is an
evening event where local game developers and AIIDE attendees meet up to
play and share their games and demos with each other, eat some food, and
get to know each other. EXAG is running a demonstration track alongside
its main track for games or tools which may be of interest to EXAG
attendees. Demonstration submissions will be considered for inclusion in
both DAGGER and the main event itself, schedule permitting. If you are
submitting a paper to the main track which includes or refers to a game
or tool that you wish to demonstrate, you should still submit a separate
demonstration abstract of roughly 500 words, at least 1 image of the
system, and a link to the game/system.

—————
WORKSHOP TOPICS
—————

EXAG 2 will touch on a variety of experimental topics. Workshop topics
include, but are by no means limited to:

+ Full or prototype games demonstrating novel or experimental
applications of AI
+ Procedural content generation in game development or as a game mechanic
+ New applications of AI to game design problems or game mechanics
+ Automated game generation
+ Computational Creativity in Games
+ Formal and computational models of game design and aesthetics
+ AI-powered tools for expert and novice game design
+ New approaches to traditional game AI problems, e.g. agents,
planning, narrative
+ Oops! Research (games, experiments, theories) that didn’t quite work
and an explanation about the failure and lessons learned

We welcome submissions that push our understanding how AI can be applied
to or influence game design. The above topics are suggestive only!

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SUBMIT!
——-

EXAG 2 will be accepting three types of submissions, all in AAAI format.

Submission of papers takes place via our EasyChair site:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=exag2015

—————-
SUBMISSION TYPES
—————-

<Papers>

Papers of up to 6 pages of text and unlimited space for references and
acknowledgments. Papers may address any of the workshop topics (or other
topics authors consider of interest to the community). Papers should
support new topics through arguments spanning prototypes, thought
experiments, or other forms of evidence.

Not sure a topic is relevant? Reach out to the organizers and we can help!
Are you an indie or games industry person and not sure? Contact us and
we’ll help sort things out!

Papers will be presented at the workshop; presentation lengths will
depend on the total number of acceptances. Reviewing will use a double
blind process: reviewers will not know the identity of authors and
authors will not know the identity of reviewers.

<Tool Tutorials>

Tutorials will allow for a presentation to demonstrate the use of a
specific tool, technique, system, etc. Submissions should be an abstract
of up to 500 words, including at least 1 image of the what will be
presented and a link to a website for others to access that
tool/technique/system.

Tutorial presentations will be given 15 minutes and an additional
(optional) hands-on session to help attendees set up and try the tool
during the workshop. Example tutorials include everything from creating
types of Twitterbots to using software to create sprites from web
content to using specialized research tools and systems.

Tutorial submissions do not need to be anonymised, but can be if the
authors wish.

<Game/Experiment Demos>

Demos will emphasize a presentation of a game or experimental research
system (procedural content generator, AI director, interactive dance
installation, etc.). Submission requirements mirror tutorials: up to 500
words in an abstract, at least one image of what will be demonstrated,
and a link for web access to that thing.*

Demo presentations will be allocated time based on the total number of
acceptances (expect at least 10 minutes) and an (optional) showcase
session where workshop participants can try the demos. Demos are perfect
to show research systems, innovative game designs (even those that
aren’t quite mature or don’t yet work!), or novel experiments at the
intersection of AI and games (interpreted broadly).

Demo submissions do not need to be anonymised, but can be if the authors
wish.

————
ORGANISATION
————

Alex Zook – @zookae – zook.ae@gmail.com
School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

Mike Cook – @mtrc – mike@gamesbyangelina.org
Computational Creativity Group, Goldsmiths, University of London

Antonios Liapis – @SentientDesigns – an.liapis@gmail.com
Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta

Program Committee announcements coming soon:
http://www.exag.org