IEEE CoG 2026

Conference Schedule

Browse the full CoG 2026 programme below. Each day is laid out by time slot across the venues (Salón de actos Carlos Saura and Rooms 1–4), with parallel paper sessions colour-coded by track (see the legend for the key). Click any session marked with an arrow (▸) to expand its complete list of papers, including titles, types, and lengths, and click again to collapse it. The session with the Best Paper nominees is marked with a star (★).

Keynotes and Plenary sessions are held in Salón de actos Carlos Saura.

Keynote Plenary Panel Doctoral Consortium | Tutorial Competition Industry Talk

AI for Game Playing Game Analytics, Player Experience & HCI Game Design and Technology Serious Games Procedural Content Generation Special Sessions: Games for Health & Wellbeing | Spatial Intelligence

DAY 1

Tuesday, 1 September 2026

Time	Room 1 · Conf.	Room 2 · C006	Room 3 · C007	Room 4 · C008
08:00–09:00	Registration & Badge Pick-up · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón)
09:00–09:30	Opening SessionSalón de actos Carlos Saura
09:30–10:30	Keynote 1 — Magy Seif El-NasrSalón de actos Carlos Saura
10:30–11:00	Coffee Break · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón) Demo Session (1/4) · 30 min #451Gaming Beyond Entertainment: Social Belonging, Loneliness, and Digital Wellbeing in Global Gaming CommunitiesMd Mamunur Rashid #463Using Generative AI to Create Microtools for Tabletop Game Design WorkflowsJoshua Kritz #472Pacing-Aware Procedural Generation and Runtime Control DemoJohn Brazell and Justus Robertson #483Educational Escape Rooms for Chemistry Learning: From the Zombie Attack to the Theft of the Mona LisaMaría del Mar López Guerrero #473AI Doing the "Laundry and Dishes": One-Click Automated Test Generation inside UnityEsdras Silva, Lyrene Silva and Roberta Coelho
11:00–13:00	AI for Game Playing (1/9)7 papers · 100 minChair: Christopher Archibald #43Regular20′A Memory-Driven Action Selection Framework for Scalable Ambient NPC BehaviorEric Buitron-Lopez and Roberto Solis-Oba #125Regular20′Intent-Belief Multi-task Transformer for Behavior Cloning in MahjongHaruki Yokoyama, Ryohei Orihara, Yasuyuki Tahara and Yuichi Sei #208Regular20′Vox Deorum: A Hybrid LLM+X Architecture for Civilization (4X / Grand Strategy Game) AIJohn Chen, Sihan Cheng, Can Gurkan, Ryan Lay and Moez Salahuddin #331Short10′Predicting Drafted Deck Strength for “Magic: the Gathering”Tomas Rigaux and Hisashi Kashima #394Short10′Stack more levels: how to get general and human-like Mario playingShinichi Arimura, Yuchen Li and Julian Togelius #418Short10′An Evaluation of Large Language Models on Before-and-After Trivia CluesOwen Salyer and Chad Mourning #430Short10′The Annoying AI: Impact of Context-Aware LLM Trash-Talking on Player Frustration and EngagementPablo Carrasco Velo, Yifan Geng, Yi Xia, Ibrahim Khan, Mustafa Can Gursesli, Anna Enrica Tosti, Juho Hamari and Ruck Thawonmas	Tutorial T1 — Instrumenting Player Experience: The Body as Interface for Physiological Game Analytics & Biofeedback120 min	Tutorial T2 — Statistical Analysis for Game AI: To the p-value and beyond90 min, ends 12:30	Doctoral Consortium120 min
13:00–14:30	Lunch Break · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón) + IEEE Women in Engineering — Young Researchers meeting (Room 401)
14:30–16:00	AI for Game Playing (2/9)5 papers · 80 minChair: Diego Perez Liebana #34Regular20′Bridging the Generalization Gap in Open-Ended Game Worlds: Multi-Agent LLM Reasoning in Neural MMO 2Olca Orakci and Elif Surer #112Regular20′Preference-Optimized Policies for Realistic Grandmaster ChessJason Carlson, Lincoln Bernard and Brian Carlson #203Regular20′Graph Neural Network Agents for Planet WarsRuizhe Yu Xia, Jeremy Gow and Simon Lucas #325Short10′Evaluating transfer learning for reinforcement learning agents across same-genre video gamesBryan Bachelet, Vincent Devine, Matéo Erbisti, Omaya Lise, Aurélien Lherbier and Aurélien Chambon #386Short10′A Game-Integrated On-Device Gaming AssistantDominik Jeurissen, Duygu Cakmak, Ji-Eun Lee and Ram Rangan	Game Analytics, Player Experience & HCI (1/6)5 papers · 90 minChair: Loutfouz Zaman #37Regular20′Multi-Label Perceptual Bug Detection in Video Games using Deep Learning on Gameplay FootageNahian Rifaat, Felix Morosov and Loutfouz Zaman #131Regular20′Atari Games Challenge: A Pilot Study on Multimodal Player Experience AssessmentOleg Jarma, Erica Manca, Thomas Vase Schultz Volden and Paolo Burelli #198Regular20′When to Switch, Not Just What: Transition Quality Prediction in Clash RoyaleHeeyun Heo and Huy Kang Kim #165Regular20′Nonslop: A Gamified Experiment in Human-AI Collaborative WritingMaria Edwards and Julian Togelius #426Short10′LURK Werewolf: Evaluating Linguistic Bias in Large Language ModelsLisa Liu, Runqi Zou, Shuxuan Kuang, Yuchen Li, Tim Merino and Julian Togelius	Game Design and Technology (1/4)4 papers · 70 minChair: Jaime Sanchez-Hernandez #24Regular20′Analysing the Saturn Loading Screen from the Classic Computer Game: EliteMichael Fairbank and Mark Moxon #25Regular20′The Rotating Planets in the Classic Game: EliteMichael Fairbank and Mark Moxon #194Regular20′FlashLore: Graph-Structured and Closed-World Grounded Memory for Believable Game NPCsZhaoyou Liu #322Short10′PRISM: Promoted Robust Instance-based Spatial Memory for Real-Time Player Behavioral EncodingJerrin Moore	Serious Games (1/4)5 papers · 90 minChair: Manuel Eberhardinger #30Regular20′TUMSphere: Turning a University Curriculum into Playable VR ChallengesSantiago Berrezueta-Guzman, Nadia Damianova, Andrei Koshelev, Ivan Parmacli and Stefan Wagner #71Regular20′From Individuals to Systems: A Multi-Level Action Framework for Interactive Tools and Systems Addressing Wicked Problems - Case of Serious GamesMennatullah Hendawy, Ola K. Esmail, Jiahong Li, Nouran Azouz, Ulia Zaman, Anagha Kannampilly Janardhanan, Mario Escarce and Magy Seif El Nasr #159Regular20′Generating Serious Game Concepts from Learning Objective SpecificationsFranziska Bönisch, Mounsif Chetitah and Sebastian von Mammen #209Regular20′Co-Developing and Calibrating a Gamified Survey for Player Motivation ProfilingCasper Harteveld, Guillermo Romera and Omid Mohaddesi #379Short10′Enhancing Serious Games through Robotic Embodiment in EducationRares-Ioan Suciu and Isabela Dramnesc
16:00–16:30	Coffee Break · Hall — Lecture rooms building (outside rooms)
16:30–18:00	AI for Game Playing (3/9)5 papers · 90 minChair: James Goodman #315Vision20′“We Must Be Better” A Critical Vision for the Convergence of Software Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction in Generative AI-Driven Video Game DevelopmentStefano Lambiase #59Regular20′How Much Can a Few Engine Moves Help? Quantifying Limited Cheating in ChessDaniel Keren #138Regular20′Introducing the Dominion Learning Environment for Stochastic Long‑Horizon Combinatorial Reinforcement LearningTimo Bertram #235Regular20′Optimising Team Compositions through Large Language Model TheorycraftingGeorge Long, Diego Perez-Liebana and Spryidon Samothrakis #384Short10′Game-Agnostic Value Functions through Automatic JSON Feature ExtractionDien Nguyen and Diego Perez Liebana	Games for Health & Wellbeing (SS) (1/2)4 papers · 60 minChair: Marlene Cristina Neves Rosa #38Regular20′Strength-based Movement Training through a Variability-based Serious GameWilliam Kerstens, Stylianos Grigoriadis, Thomas Nikodelis and Paris Mavromoustakos-Blom #123Regular20′Towards a design framework for game-based interventions in dementia: an umbrella review using the player–game–therapy model (PGT-model)Marlene Rosa, John Henry, Sylvester Arnab and Carolina Reina #383Short10′Designing a Serious Game for Elementary Teachers’ Emotion Regulation: Insights from Teachers and Health ProfessionalsEliana Silva, David Fang, Luís Paulo Reis and Sara A. Silva #407Short10′From Design Principles to Prototype: A Game for Students with ADHD and Learning Disabilities Transitioning to Post-Secondary EducationAvery Keuben, Talaal Irtija, Joseph Tandyo, Stefanie Ng, Amy Wiebe, Samuel Gaudet, Rebekah Leslie, Meadow Schroeder, Lauren Goegan and Richard Zhao	Serious Games (2/4)6 papers · 90 minChair: Micaela Fonseca #50Regular20′Procedural Ocean: Design of Maritime Visualizations using Game TechnologyCarlos Pereira Santos, Phil de Groot, Jens Hagen, Wilco Boode and Igor Mayer #110Regular20′Agentic Knowledge Tracing: A Multi-Agent LLM Architecture for Stealth Assessment of Financial Literacy in Serious GamesGabriel Santos, Rita Julia and Marcelo Nascimento #148Regular20′Feasibility of an eJamar-Based Exergame System Combined with Conventional Therapy in Patients with Rheumatic Hand Conditions: A Preliminary Study.Andrés Cela, Edwin Daniel Oña and Alberto Jardón #398Short10′Orchestrating Engagement: Design and Pilot Evaluation of an RPG for Music Literacy EducationPablo Gutiérrez-Sánchez and Nel Sánchez-Fernández #443Short10′Tone: Evaluating a Minimalist Interactive Music Learning Experience for ChildrenWilli Schorrig, Manuel Danze, Philipp Rapp and Manuel Eberhardinger #374Short10′Towards Intelligent and Adaptive Serious Games for Cognitive Rehabilitation in Acquired Brain InjuryRita Novais, Luís Reis, Brígida Faria and Eliana Silva	Procedural Content Generation (1/5)5 papers · 80 minChair: Britton Horn #54Regular20′The Plot Thickens as the Data Shrinks: Insights into Compression-Based Story SiftingMiguel Belbute and Carlos Martinho #142Regular20′Constraint-Aware Terrain Completion from Sparse Fixed Regions for Game HeightmapsPetr Šimůnek, Oliver Wakeford and David Šosvald #189Regular20′Narrative intervention for prospective story siftingQianwen Lyu, David Millard and Nicholas Gibbins #305Short10′Sudoku-Based Constructive Generation of Constraint-Satisfying Cubes for OCD AssessmentAhmed Alzuhair, Ghala Alqahtani, Yahya Osais and Ahmed Alherz #417Short10′Dance Dance Prompting: Generating Stepfiles with Large Language ModelsMukesh Guntumadugu and Chad Mourning
18:00–18:30	Song CompetitionSalón de actos Carlos Saura
19:00–21:00	Welcome Reception · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón)

DAY 2

Wednesday, 2 September 2026

★ Best of CoG ★

Time	Room 1 · Conf.	Room 2 · C006	Room 3 · C007	Room 4 · C008
08:00–09:00	Registration · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón)
09:00–10:00	Keynote 2 — Sebastian RisiSalón de actos Carlos Saura
10:00–10:45	Coffee Break · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón) Demo Session (2/4) · 45 min #259Real-Time Neural Data Mapping in Unity: A BCI-Driven Experimental Gameplay SystemChanhee Choi #266Own Your Game: Ethical On-Device AI for DevelopersSam Harris and Ambrose Robinson (Parable Studios) #274GARP Demo: Real-Time Generative Agents on Local Hardware in a Game EnginePiero Molino, Patrick John Chia, Federico Bianchi, Jonathan P. Chen and Paul Szerlip (Studio Atelico) #449“Sincerity or Treasure”: An AI-Native Strategic and Collaborative Deduction Game Exploring Player-AI Reasoning DynamicsTing-Chen Hsu #453A State-Driven Audio Description Tool for Environmental Understanding in 3D GamesLi Lin, Ailin Dong, Corey Ford, Tim Smith and Wenshu Zhang #461Descent: Journeys in the Dark' Computer-Aided Content GenerationToby Best, Raluca Gaina, Simon Lucas, James Goodman and Jamie Harris #466CaféBeans: An Exploratory Serious Game for Deceptive Design AwarenessPaul Riesch, Mary Linke, Florian Rupp, Sabiha Ghellal and Katie Seaborn #474The Plot Thickens: An Interactive Demo of Compression-Based Story Sifting in RimWorldMiguel Belbute and Carlos Martinho
10:45–12:15	AI for Game Playing (4/9)5 papers · 90 minChair: Jakub Kowalski #342Competition20′A Transformer-Based Architecture for Reinforcement Learning in Tales of TributeDominik Budzki and Jakub Kowalski #69Regular20′RePAIR: Predictive Self-Supervised Representation Learning in ChessChristoph Koller, Johannes Fürnkranz and Timo Bertram #150Regular20′Augmentations for Robust and Efficient Imitation Learning in Streamed Video GamesSomjit Nath, Abdelhak Lemkhenter, Pallavi Choudhury, Chris Lovett, Katja Hofmann, Sergio Valcarcel Macua and Lukas Schäfer #244Regular20′Hearing the HASARD: Investigating the Role of Audio for Safe Reinforcement Learning in Partially Observable 3D EnvironmentsSyed Aman Rahaman, Ibrahim Khan, Thai Van Nguyen, Mustafa Can Gursesli, Juho Hamari and Ruck Thawonmas #415Short10′RIDGE: State-Conditioned Reward Blending for Behavioral Coverage in Deep RL Game AgentsAl Muqshith Mohammed Shifan, Kevin Christopher Chua, Ali Neshati, Loutfouz Zaman and Cristiano Politowski	Game Analytics, Player Experience & HCI (2/6)5 papers · 90 minChair: Paolo Burelli #49Regular20′A Taxonomy of Design Quality in Super Mario Maker 2Carlo A. Furia and Andrea Mocci #135Regular20′Playing Against the Clock: A Cross-Platform Taxonomy of Limited-Time EventsTamsin Isaac and Paul Cairns #206Regular20′Quantitative Analysis of Player-Adjusted Hit Feedback in 2D Action GamesShoki Seki and Tomokazu Ishikawa #219Regular20′State-Driven Audio Description for Environmental Understanding in 3D Games for Players with Blindness and Low VisionLi Lin, Ailin Dong, Corey Ford, Tim Smith and Wenshu Zhang #436Short10′Association between Player Perception and AI Disclosure on Steam - An Exploratory StudyFabian Wiesinger, Johanna Pirker and Denis Helic	Game Design and Technology (2/4)5 papers · 80 minChair: Michael Fairbank #106Regular20′LLM-Based Automated Test Generation for Unity Games: An Empirical StudyEsdras Silva, Lyrene Silva and Roberta Coelho #108Regular20′MSED: Engine-Level Multi-Modal Trajectory Recording for MinecraftRafael da Silva Santos, Ana Luiza Bessa de Paula Barros and Gustavo Augusto Lima de Campos #210Regular20′Breaking the Death Spiral: Balancing Authenticity and Feasibility in Parameterized Narrative AIKyle Mitchell, Nicholas Treynor, Halil Ozgur Demir, Nick Toothman, Gina Bloom, Colin Milburn, Michael Neff and Joshua McCoy #347Short10′Towards a Reaper/FMOD Framework for Seamless Horizontal Re-sequencing in Game MusicMiguel Gomez-Zamalloa, María Sachez Carrasco and Jaime Sánchez Hernández #422Short10′Repair-Aware Game AI Agents for Long-Horizon Narrative Design and PlanningMei Si	Procedural Content Generation (2/5)6 papers · 90 minChair: Ahmed Khalifa #55Regular20′Path2Patrol: Path-Conditioned Guard Generation in Stealth Games through MAP-ElitesYiwei Zhang, Kaijie Xu, Richard Zhao and Clark Verbrugge #151Regular20′Procedural Content Generator Generation via Continual Abstraction DiscoveryMatthew Siper, Ahmed Khalifa and Julian Togelius #214Regular20′Multiverse: Language-Conditioned Multi-Game Level Blending via Shared RepresentationIn-Chang Baek, Jiyun Jung, Geum-Hwan Hwang, Sung-Hyun Kim and Kyung-Joong Kim #313Short10′Game Simulacra Construction from Gameplay Video with a Multimodal LLMJustus Robertson #427Short10′A Comparative Study of Multimodal Models on Constraint-Based 2D Game Asset ProductionEdward Johnson, Pedro Elias Engelberg Silva Borges, Arthur Galdino Dangoni, Wilson Maranhão Ramos Filho, Diogo Fernandes and Arlindo Rodrigues Galvão Filho #440Short10′RuleSweeper: Procedurally Generating Gameplay Mechanics In MinesweeperRyan Fleishman, Shresth Kapoor, Teddy Clark, Jan Borowski, Timothy Merino and Julian Togelius
12:15–13:45	Lunch Break · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón) + IEEE Games Technical Committee meeting (Room 401)
13:45–15:15	AI for Game Playing (5/9)5 papers · 80 minChair: Elvis S. Liu #367Competition20′Deep Team Synthesis: Opponent-Conditioned Latent Space Mapping for the Pokémon VGC AI CompetitionSimão Reis and Fernando Alves #86Regular20′Simulating Super Mario Odyssey for Agent Training using DecompilationAdrian Kathagen, Fabian Ostermann and Marco Pleines #163Regular20′Efficient Human-like Aiming in FPS GamesBrian Yang, Toma Allary, Ian Gauk, Romina Abachi, Clark Verbrugge and Joshua Romoff #287Short10′Efficient Multi-Guard Patrol through Extended Composite Potential FieldsKaijie Xu, Yiwei Zhang and Clark Verbrugge #338Short10′Learning integrated strategies for four-player CatanRyuta Noguchi and Tomoyuki Kaneko	Game Analytics, Player Experience & HCI (3/6)6 papers · 90 minChair: Casper Harteveld #84Regular20′Toxicity in Twitch Chats: An LLM-Based Analysis Across Gaming CommunitiesRonja Fuchs, Florian Rupp, Timo Bertram, Kai Eckert and Alexander Dockhorn #186Regular20′The Jingle of Contrasting Constructs: Comparing Measures of Immersion and Challenge from the PXI and IEQ-SF.Lauren Winter and Paul Cairns #246Regular20′Game AI Not Fun? A Scoping Review and Meta-Analysis on the Differences in Enjoyment between Human and Computer OpponentsRay Ito #307Short10′Who embraces AI in play? Exploratory modeling of player preference profiles toward game AITing-Chen Hsu, Jiangxu Lin, Wenran Chen, Zheyuan Zhang and Fei Qin #349Short10′YGO-Turns: A Large-Scale Tournament Dataset of Expert Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel StatesRafael Da Silva Santos, Leonardo Ferreira da Costa, Ana Luiza Bessa de Paula Barros and Gustavo Augusto Lima de Campos #444Short10′Dual-Stage Label-Isomorphic State Validation in Grid Logic GamesDenise Angilica, Emanuele Galardo and Giovambattista Ianni	Competition Session (1/2)7 competitions · 63 minChair: Christoph Salge Competition9′BotPrize Unity Human-Like AI ChallengeJuan Dorante Competition9′DareFightingICE LLM AI CompetitionSyed Aman Rahaman Competition9′DareFightingICE Sound Design CompetitionSyed Aman Rahaman Competition9′Planet Wars RTS AISimon Lucas Competition9′GDMC AI Settlement Generation Challenge in MinecraftChristoph Salge Competition9′CoG Starcraft AI CompetitionDavid Churchill Competition9′Codenames AI CompetitionMatthew Stephenson	Procedural Content Generation (3/5)6 papers · 90 minChair: Florian Rupp #412Vision20′Beyond Playability: A Design-Space Perspective on Persistent Spatial Intent in Co-Creative PCGRLMin-Sung Park, Dae-Wook Kim, Shinjin Kang and Si-Hwan Jang #127Regular20′Pre-processing Enhancement for Recovering Editable Window Instances from AIGC Building MeshesMeiyi Liu and Chun Yuen #184Regular20′Generative Remastering: Token- versus Diffusion-Based Level Generation, Target Style Realization, and Autonomous AugmentationJohannes Pfau, Ian Baverstock, Martin de Ronde, Michiel Mol and Jasper Vis #299Short10′Real-time Procedural Generation of Coherent Infinite Multi-biome 2D LandscapesJosé Martins, Francisco Cardoso, Cedric Hartz, Kinga Skorupska and Jakub Kowalski #359Short10′PCG.ME: Procedural Content Generation with Multiple ExpertsYunlong Zhao, Yi Yuan, Qingquan Zhang, Ziqi Wang, Jian Yang, Bo Yuan, Jichen Zhu, Georgios Yannakakis and Jialin Liu #445Short10′Puzzle Anything: An Assembly-Graph Representation for 3D Puzzle AuthoringAnne Vetter, Elias Kühne, Mael Geißler, Keram Pfeiffer and Sebastian von Mammen
15:15–15:45	Coffee Break · Hall — Lecture rooms building (outside rooms)
15:45–16:45	AI for Game Playing (6/9)4 papers · 60 minChair: Pablo Gutierrez Sanchez #90Regular20′Phase-Guided Real-Time Motion In-Betweening for Arbitrary-to-Periodic TransitionsBowen Lyu, David Mao San Wei, Ruochen Liu and Elvis S. Liu #166Regular20′Ally-Conscious Area of Effect TargetingAnthony Gagliano and Clark Verbrugge #310Short10′Combining Spatial and Entity-Based Reasoning for Competitive MicroRTS via U-Net and TransformersMathis Delsart, Achille Morenville and Éric Piette #339Short10′Action Selection in Multiplayer Hidden-Information Games with Expected Target EntropyKaijie Xu, Fandi Meng, Clark Verbrugge and Simon Lucas	Game Analytics, Player Experience & HCI (4/6)3 papers · 50 minChair: Laurissa Tokarchuk #65Regular20′Trick-Potential Fingerprints for Analyzing BridgeStefan Freyr Gudmundsson #239Regular20′Perceived Intelligence, Trust, and Engagement in Prompt-Conditioned Conversational Game Characters: A Within-Subject StudyAfshin Gholami and Seyedsadegh Yousefzadeh #437Short10′BehaviorFormer: Discovering Behavioral Patterns via Clusterable Next-Token PredictionTobias Schneider, Danial Fahrner, Soren Antebi, Daniel Uedelhoven, Lennard Bodden, Sandra Halscheidt and Rafet Sifa	Serious Games (3/4)4 papers · 60 minChair: Bradford Mott #53Regular20′Jump-and-Learn: Exploring the Potential of Platformer Games for Knowledge Acquisition in Higher EducationMichael Schuricht, Ahsanullah Mohsen and Duc Hung Pham #143Regular20′Pathfinding Showdown: Understanding Algorithmic Search Through Competitive PlayClaire Aguiar, Jessica Vandenberg, Dan Carpenter, Veronica Catete, Wookhee Min and Bradford Mott #333Short10′Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Environmental Game in Encouraging Eco-Friendly BehaviorFlorian Glawogger, Johanna Pirker and Michael Holly #345Short10′Prompted: a puzzle game on LLM promptingGijs van der Heide, Jordy del Castilho, Leonardo Lago, Pavel Verigo, Teodor Stănilă, Zeyu Fan, Tzu-Hsin Hsieh, Amir Zaidi, Giulio Barbero, Mike Preuss and Rafael Bidarra	Procedural Content Generation (4/5)3 papers · 50 minChair: Julian Togelius #97Regular20′From Tiles to Jumps: Optimizing Wave Function Collapse Window Size for Playable Platformer GenerationTrevor Truesdell, Erik Rankin and Britton Horn #155Regular20′Improving Collaborative Storytelling with a Multi-Agent Framework Based on Large Language ModelsArturo Valdivia and Paolo Burelli #432Short10′Evolutionary Wave Function CollapseDipika Rajesh, Ahmed Khalifa and Julian Togelius
16:45–17:00	Coffee Break · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón)
17:00–19:00	★ Best of CoG — Best Paper Award Nominees 6 papers · Salón de actos Carlos SauraChair: Diego Perez Liebana #129Regular20′MAPLE: Multi-State Aggregated Policy Evaluation for AlphaZero in Imperfect-Information GamesQian-Rong Li, Hung Guei, I-Chen Wu and Ti-Rong Wu · from AI for Game Playing #179Regular20′Categorizing Experience Management Problem Difficulty Using Graph AnalysisValentina Genoese-Zerbi, Justus Robertson and Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera · from Game Analytics and Player Experience #217Regular20′Multi-Objective Instruction-Aware Representation Learning in Procedural Content Generation Reinforcement LearningSung-Hyun Kim, Geum-Hwan Hwang, In-Chang Baek, Seo-Young Lee and Kyung-Joong Kim · from Procedural Content Generation #245Regular20′Segment-Based Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment for Motor Learning in VR Rhythm GamesFilip Sroka and Laurissa Tokarchuk · from Game HCI #252Regular20′Designing Reflective Mobile Game Systems for Mental Health Literacy Through Emotional GranularityTania Olarte Avila · from Games for Health & Wellbeing (SS) #425Competition20′A Hybrid Codenames AI Team: Combining Static Word Embeddings and LLMsJoseph Dalhke, Thomas Esplin, Matthew Sheppard and Christopher Archibald · from AI for Game Playing

DAY 3

Thursday, 3 September 2026

Time	Room 1 · Conf.	Room 2 · C006	Room 3 · C007	Room 4 · C008
08:00–09:00	Registration · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón)
09:00–10:00	Keynote 3 — Carina S. González GonzálezSalón de actos Carlos Saura
10:00–10:45	Coffee Break · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón) Demo Session (3/4) · 45 min #264TRACE: Temporal Representation Alignment for non-player Character EvolutionMathias Babin #448Proposal of a Play Style Imitation Method Using a Finite State Machine with Deep Neural Network in Fighting GamesMasayuki Ono, Hayato Iwai, Onur Alparslan and Kenya Sato #450“Pharos Night: Crown Pursuit”: An AI-Native Deck-building and Tactical Arena Game DesignTing-Chen Hsu, Jueyao Liu, Yanzi Zhou, Jiangxu Lin, Haoyu Xu, Yuwen Liu, Yanjia Liu and Bangjing Xu #454Impact Trial: Hyperchaos — An Arcade Shoot ’Em Up Featuring a Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment SystemManuel Bacallado #456Deconstruction of the Hero Archetype in Indie Games: Overcoming Social Stigmatization and Bullying Through Gameplay MechanicsTymofii Kopylov #457Forgotten Tides: A Serious Game Demo to inform and raise awareness about dysthymia and panic disorder.Andrés Felipe Alcázar Silva, Anyka Isabela Corredor Jirsa, Carolina Castro Celis, Diego Fernando Poveda Rojas, Heidy Natalia Garzón González and Andrés Felipe Echeverri Riaño #459Dispose IT: An anti-littering game to promote correct waste disposalMd Zarif Kaisar, Md Raad Sharar, Samin Yasar, Serena Azam, Arefin Alam, Md Minhazul Islam, Noor A Aysha, Md Shariar Rahman Shawon, Sheroshee Sardar and Rodoshee Sardar #475An Interactive Maze-Based Tool for Visualizing Human-Likeness Metrics from Gameplay LogsYuki Hriai, Onur Alparslan and Kenya Sato #476Simulating Super Mario Odyssey for Agent TrainingAdrian Kathagen, Fabian Ostermann and Marco Pleines
10:45–12:15	AI for Game Playing (7/9)5 papers · 80 minChair: Mike Preuss #8Regular20′Training Compact Language Models for Strategic Reasoning in Social Deduction GamesChristian Poglitsch and Johanna Pirker #101Regular20′Oops, Not Now: PEARL, a RAG-Based Support Agent for Gameplay and What Players Want from AI HelpJiahong Li, Sai Siddartha Maram, Atieh Kashani, Ulia Zaman, Zhiyu Lin, Cameron Marano, Roger Azevedo, Jichen Zhu and Magy Seif El Nasr #171Regular20′IRumAI: Reinforcement Learning for Indian RummyVignesh Mohan #320Short10′Compiling VGDL into Causal ModelsMohit Jiwatode, Bodo Rosenhahn and Alexander Dockhorn #366Short10′Evaluation of Perfect‑Information Monte Carlo Tree Search in Imperfect‑Information GamesVarun Adithiyan Ravichandran, James Goodman and Simon Lucas	Game Analytics, Player Experience & HCI (5/6)6 papers · 90 minChair: Samuel Shields #89Regular20′Accelerating Skill Assessment in Chess: A Drift-Diffusion-Enhanced Elo Rating SystemTianyuan Zhou, Zhizheng Fu and Tianming Yang #192Regular20′Personality Traits, Perceived Mental Workload and Game Difficulty: An Exploratory StudyLinqi Zhao, Aleksandra Landowska, Johann Benerradi, Horia Maior, Max Wilson and Patrick Dickinson #147Regular20′Proactive or Reactive? Comparison of Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment Effects on Player Experience and Physical Effort in a Running ExergameSittikrai Chorrojprasert, Ben Kirman, Myat Thura Aung and Alena Denisova #308Short10′Kill-Conditioned Engagement Outcome Prediction in League of Legends Under Minute-Resolution Public TelemetrySeongeun Baek and Joonho Kwon #372Short10′Playstyle Classification using Player MetricsEmil Wallraff, Johannes Büttner and Sebastian von Mammen #330Short10′Game Mechanics as HCI Research Tools: A Crosswalk and Equivalence Protocol for Card SortingJose Barambones, Florian Richoux, Angélica de Antonio, Cristian Moral, Elena Villalba-Mora, Ricardo Imbert and Loïc Martínez-Normand	Game Design and Technology (3/4)5 papers · 80 minChair: Elif Surer #28Regular20′A Systematic Mapping of Elements of Fun in Digital GamesDiego Tondorf, Fabio Petrillo and Alexandra Nemery #136Regular20′QUIC as a Unified Transport Layer for Real-Time Multiplayer Games: A Formal Analysis and Empirical EvaluationValère Plantevin and Yannick Francillette #228Regular20′Evaluating the Benefits of External Observations for Adaptive Music SystemsLuca Roes, Fabian Ostermann and Günter Rudolph #353Short10′ConstructRL: A Reinforcement Learning Framework for the Construct Game EngineJerry Wexler, Carmine Guida and Lauren DeMaio #439Short10′Architecting Meta-Game Diversity: Novel Objective Formalizations for the VGC AI BenchmarkSimão Reis, A. Lucas Martins, Rita Novais and Fernando Alves	Procedural Content Generation (5/5)5 papers · 70 minChair: Justus Robertson #116Regular20′Puzzle Level Generation with Designer-intended Gimmick Usage and Verified Solvability in Hexa AwayNozomu Karai, Mitsuki Sakamoto, Kenshi Abe, Keisuke Niimi and Koya Ihara #170Regular20′Analysis of Overfitting, Prompt Impact and Model Choice in Video Game Level Generation with Fine-Tuned LLMsFilip Natanael Josefsson, Aseel Berglund, Christoph Kessler and Erik Berglund #286Short10′Scene-Modular LLM-Driven Procedural Level Generation for Anomaly-Detection GamesKaijie Xu, Fandi Meng and Clark Verbrugge #298Short10′Boss Fights as Spatio-Temporal Level GenerationKaijie Xu and Clark Verbrugge #356Short10′Pacing-Aware Procedural Generation and Runtime ControlJohn Brazell and Justus Robertson
12:15–13:45	Lunch Break · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón) + IEEE Transactions on Games — Associate Editors meeting (Room C006)
13:45–15:15	AI for Game Playing (8/9)6 papers · 90 minChair: Simon M. Lucas #23Regular20′Characterizing Game Difficulty Using Monte Carlo Tree Search Convergence MetricsLukas Grassauer #105Regular20′Comparing Scripted and LLM-Guided Driver Instruction in Virtual RealityStrahinja Jankovic, Sven Liedtke, Jonas Weigand, Himangshu Sarma, David A. Plecher, Johanna Pirker and Christian Eichhorn #180Regular20′Multi-Task Learning for Heterogeneous Prediction from Video Game State with Transfer LearningJonas Peche, Aliaksei Tsishurou, Alexander Zap and Guenter Wallner #321Short10′A Hybrid Assessment Method for Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment in Adversarial GamesHan Cheng, Wuzhou Sun and Ji Zhang #411Short10′Privileged Critics Improve Bridge Bidding Agents Trained with PPO and Self‑PlayBotao Hu and Qi Zhang #400Short10′Playing the Rebus Game: DR.DENKER Measures Visual Lateral Reasoning in Language ModelsMichiel Pronk, Rik van Noord and Malvina Nissim	Game Analytics, Player Experience & HCI (6/6)5 papers · 80 minChair: Carlos Pereira Santos #117Regular20′Aha! in Chess Puzzles: Connections to Chess Engine Outputs and EnjoymentEren Karan, Anan Schütt, Ruben Schlagowski and Elisabeth André #193Regular20′Beyond Detection: Full Minimap State Reconstruction in MOBA GamesYounsung Lee, Yujin Kim and Kyung-Joong Kim #161Regular20′Progressive Crowd Densification to Support Narrative Engagement in VRGwendal Paton, Anne-Gwenn Bosser, Nathalie Le Bigot and Brian Ravenet #323Short10′A Space-Agnostic Visual Game Analytics Tool with Adaptive Spatial Reconstruction for Mixed Reality Game DevelopmentNahian Rifaat, Fedir Skliar, Parisa Sargolzaei and Loutfouz Zaman #399Short10′Judging the Imitation Game: Exploring Creator Bias in VLM-Based PCG Level EvaluationYucheon Park, Geum-Hwan Hwang and Kyung-Joong Kim	Game Design and Technology (4/4)5 papers · 70 minChair: Mustafa Can Gursesli #73Regular20′Splat, Click, Asset: An Artist-Centric Segmentation Pipeline for Gaussian SplatsDanial Barazandeh, Alireza Dehghanpour and Gabriel Zachmann #187Regular20′Balance Equalization: A Framework for the Development of Game Balance Across Audience, Designer, and Game ContextsSamuel Shields and Edward Melcer #312Short10′Evaluating Game Difficulty: A Static Approach via Spatial Queries and Influence FieldsLucas Gonzalez, Yannick Francillette, Valère Plantevin and Sylvain Hallé #316Short10′Agency and Creativity in GenAI-based Game Development and Design EducationGaole Huang, Jian Tan and Max Chen #371Short10′Text2BT: A Baseline Study on LLM-Agent-Based Behavior Tree Generation for Game Character AIRay Ito, Naoyuki Jimbo and Koya Ihara	Games for Health & Wellbeing (SS) (2/2)5 papers · 70 minChair: Rafa Bidarra #67Regular20′Cultivating Connections: A Tangible Tabletop Game for Older Adults’ Social EngagementYirui Zuo, Yaxin Zhu, Wen Chen, Ziqiang Yan, Jiachen Du, Longtao Gai and Xinyi Fu #126Regular20′Beyond Play: Predictors of Performance in an Analogue Tabletop Activity Among Older Adults With and Without DementiaCarolina Reina, Clara Neves, Alexandre Cavaleiro, Susana Lopes and Marlene Rosa #303Short10′Employing Personalized Avatars in Virtual Reality Environments to Support Stroke RehabilitationFernanda Lima, Sérgio Oliveira, Manuel Graça, Bernardo Marques, Samuel Silva, Miguel Pais-Vieira and Beatriz Sousa Santos #377Short10′Cogni Party: A Multiplayer Party Game with Adaptive AI Agents for Cognitive Rehabilitation of Acquired Brain Injury PatientsDavid Pinto, Luís Paulo Reis, Catarina Fernandes, Marta Parreira and Eliana Silva #389Short10′COGITO: A Dynamic LLM-Driven Virtual Patient Simulation for Speech-language Pathology TrainingLoïc Braud, Alexandra Plonka, Olivier Cavadenti and Maël Addoum
15:15–15:45	Coffee Break · Hall — Lecture rooms building (outside rooms)
15:45–16:45	AI for Game Playing (9/9)3 papers · 60 minChair: Alexander Dockhorn #294Vision20′Augmenting Game AI with Deep Reinforcement LearningAlessandro Sestini, Joakim Bergdahl, Amir Masood Baghi, Jean-Philippe Barrette-LaPierre, Florian Fuchs and Linus Gisslen #46Regular20′Foundation Models as World Models: A Foundational Study in Text-Based GridworldsRemo Sasso, Michelangelo Conserva, Dominik Jeurissen and Paulo Rauber #221Regular20′PuzzleJAX: A Benchmark for Learning and ReasoningSam Earle, Yuchen Li, Graham Todd, Ahmed Khalifa, Zehua Jiang, Muhammad Umair Nasir, Andrzej Banburski-Fahey and Julian Togelius	Serious Games (4/4)3 papers · 60 minChair: Antonio Mora Garcia #62Regular20′Enhancing AI Literacy Through Narrative-Centered Gameplay: A Multi-Classroom EvaluationBradford Mott, Jessica Vandenberg, Carlos Penilla, Anthony Amaro, Donald Woodson, James Lester and Elizabeth Ozer #195Regular20′CVshredder: A Telemetry-Rich Paradigm for Sequential Stopping Under Time Pressure, Partial Observability, and Costly Information AcquisitionDavid Abián and Pablo Gutiérrez-Sánchez #247Regular20′A Mixed-Methods Exploration of Player Experiences in Static and Dynamic Educational Interactive NarrativesEdward Melcer, Samuel Shields, Daeun Hwang, Alex Calderwood, Shi Johnson-Bey, Michael Mateas and Noah Wardrip-Fruin	Spatial Intelligence (SS) (1/1)3 papers · 40 minChair: Adrian Barahona-Rios #63Regular20′Spatial Reasoning in LLM Game Agents: Impact of Causal Context and Multi-Step PlanningMohit Jiwatode, Ronja Fuchs, Robin Schmöcker, Alexander Dockhorn and Bodo Rosenhahn #408Short10′Parabellum: A Vectorized Hierarchical Game Environment for Evaluating Spatial Intelligence in Vision-Language-Action ModelsNoah Syrkis, Timothée Anne, Meriem Elhosni, Florian Turati, Alexandre Manai, Franck Legendre, Alain Jaquier and Sebastian Risi #380Short10′Evaluating VLMs for Autonomous Agent-Driven Geometry Clipping Detection in Video Game QACarlos Celemin, Benedict Wilkins, Adrián Barahona-Ríos, Saman Zadtootaghaj and Nabajeet Barman	Competition Session (2/2)5 competitions · 45 minChair: Christoph Salge Competition9′COG Neurojam GamesDiego Saldivar Competition9′Battlesnake BlackoutTristan Gottwald, Maximilian Schier, Yannik Mahlau and Ronja Fuchs Competition9′VCG AI CompetitionSimao Reis Competition9′The Tabletop Games Balancing CompetitionGeorge Long Competition9′Tales of Tribute AI CompetitionJakub Kowalski
16:45–17:00	Coffee Break · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón)
17:00–18:30	Best of IEEE Transactions on Games invited · 5 papers · 90 min · Salón de actos Carlos SauraChair: Magy Seif El-Nasr TOG PaperAutomated Gameplay Testing and Validation With Curiosity-Conditioned Proximal TrajectoriesAlessandro Sestini, Linus Gisslén, Joakim Bergdahl, Konrad Tollmar and Andrew David Bagdanov TOG PaperA Novel Evolutionary Algorithm With Column and Sub-Block Local Search for Sudoku PuzzlesChuan Wang, Bing Sun, Ke-Jing Du, Jian-Yu Li, Zhi-Hui Zhan, Sang-Woon Jeon, Hua Wang and Jun Zhang TOG PaperA Dive Into the State of the Practice of the Brazilian Game Software EcosystemBruno Xavier, Davi Viana and Rodrigo Santos TOG PaperMCMARL: Parameterizing Value Function via Mixture of Categorical Distributions for Multi-Agent Reinforcement LearningJian Zhao, Mingyu Yang, Youpeng Zhao, Xunhan Hu, Wengang Zhou and Houqiang Li TOG PaperConsiderations and Concerns of Professional Game Composers Regarding Artificially Intelligent Music TechnologyKyle Worrall and Tom Collins
20:00–23:00	Conference Banquet & Awards

DAY 4

Friday, 4 September 2026

Industry Day

Time	Salón de actos Carlos Saura	Room 1 · Conf.	Room 2 · C006	Room 3 · C007
08:00–09:00	Registration · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón)
09:00–10:00	Keynote 4 — Konrad TollmarSalón de actos Carlos Saura
10:00–10:45	Coffee Break · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón) Demo Session (4/4) · 45 min #462Narrative Superposition & Storylets for Better Story GenerationNicholas Treynor and Joshua McCoy #477From AIGC Building Meshes to Editable Window Instances: An Interactive Blender DemonstrationMeiyi Liu and Chun Yuen #478Evaluating Threat Zones in a Dynamic Scene EditorAnthony Gagliano #479The Annoying AI: Impact of Context-Aware LLM Trash-Talking on Player Frustration and Engagement - DemoPablo Carrasco Velo, Yifan Geng, Yi Xia, Ibrahim Khan, Mustafa Can Gursesli, Anna Enrica Tosti, Juho Hamari and Ruck Thawonmas #481A Reaper/FMOD Framework for Seamless Horizontal Re-sequencing in Game Music in ActionMiguel Gomez-Zamalloa, María Sachez Carrasco and Jaime Sánchez Hernández #482PromptedGijs van der Heide, Jordy del Castilho, Leonardo Lago, Pavel Verigo, Teodor Stănilă, Zeyu Fan, Tzu-Hsin Hsieh, Amir Zaidi, Giulio Barbero, Mike Preuss and Rafael Bidarra Competition C1Battlesnake BlackoutTristan Gottwald, Maximilian Schier, Yannik Mahlau and Ronja Fuchs Competition C2Planet Wars RTS AISimon M. Lucas Competition C3GDMC AI Settlement Generation Challenge in MinecraftChristoph Salge
10:45–12:15	Tutorial T3 — From Zero to Platformer Game with Godot 90 min	Tutorial T4 — Neurogame Development Tutorial 90 min	Industry Talks Session A 4 talks · 80 min Chair: Pedro Pablo Gomez Martin #273 20′ GARP: Real-Time Generative Agents on Local Hardware in a Game Engine Piero Molino, Patrick John Chia, Federico Bianchi, Jonathan P. Chen and Paul Szerlip (Studio Atelico) #275 20′ From Rules to Rulings: How Agentic AI Restores the Board Game Advantage to Digital Games Alex Kearney (Artificial.Agency) #272 20′ Climbing Up The Walls: Building a Navigation System for Characters That Defy Gravity Chris Brown (Kythera AI) #271 20′ From Scripted Content to Systemic Narrative: Building On-Device Emergent Narrative with LoreWeaver Director John Lewis and Rijk Groenewoud (LoreWeaver)	Industry Talks Session B 4 talks · 80 min Chair: Linus Gisslen #263 20′ Prompt-to-Prototype: LLM-Driven Authoring of Enemy Behaviors in Unreal Engine Paolo Maninetti (Reply) #270 20′ What should I do? An Experimental Onboarding Advisor for Total War: Pharaoh Dominik Jeurissen and Ji-Eun Lee (Creative Assembly, NVIDIA) #471 20′ Teaching tanks to behave - How to use Reinforcement Learning and get better every day Alexander Zap (Wargaming Group Limited) #260 20′ Teaching Game Design Through Hybrid Play Nathaly Kalantar (Replay Masters EU)
12:15–13:15	Plenary Panel — Publishing Industry ResearchSalón de actos Carlos Saura
13:15–14:15	Lunch Break · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón)
14:15–15:15	Plenary Panel — Open Problems & OpportunitiesSalón de actos Carlos Saura
15:15–16:15	Women in Gamesplenary · Salón de actos Carlos Saura
16:15–16:45	Coffee Break · Hall — Main Building (outside Salón)
16:45–17:45	Keynote 5 — Martin WalfiszSalón de actos Carlos Saura
17:45–18:00	Closing SessionSalón de actos Carlos Saura