Call for Papers

AIIDE-17

Thirteenth AAAI Conference on

Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment

October 5-9, 2017

Snowbird, UT, USA


Special Topic: "Beyond Games"


Submission deadlines:

May 1, 2017: Workshop/Tutorial Proposals

May 25, 2017: Papers/Demos/DC/Playable Experiences

Update: June 1, 2017: Papers/Demos

Update: June 16, 2017: DC/Playable Experiences

June 30, 2017: Accept/Rejection Notification

August 1, 2017, 5pm PST: Camera Ready Versions


Submissions: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aiide17


The 13th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE-17) is the next in an annual series of conferences showcasing interdisciplinary research on modeling, developing, and evaluating intelligent systems in entertainment. AIIDE-17 provides a meeting place for academic AI researchers and professional software developers to discuss the latest advances in entertainment-focused AI. The conference has a long-standing history of featuring research on artificial intelligence in computer games. We also invite researchers, developers, and digital artists to share ideas on topics at the intersection of all forms of entertainment and artificial intelligence broadly. AIIDE-17 will feature invited speakers, paper sessions, workshops, tutorials, playable experiences, panels, posters, AI competitions, a reception, and a doctoral consortium. AIIDE-17 is sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).


SPECIAL TOPIC: “Beyond Games”

This year, the AIIDE conference will feature a special topic of “Beyond Games.” In addition to general topics of interest in Game AI, we welcome submissions featuring innovative forms of interactive digital entertainment, including but not limited to human-robot interaction, computer music, generative art, AI-based humor, physical computing, procedural animation, and digital improvisation. The special topic will also connect to keynote speakers, panels, paper sessions, and other aspects of the conference program.


TOPICS OF INTEREST

Following is a (non-comprehensive) list of topics that fall within the scope of AIIDE:

  • Adversarial Agents
  • AI, Education, and Entertainment
  • AI and Expressive Motion
  • AI in Games
  • AI-Enabled Authoring Tools
  • AI in Performance
  • AI in Serious Games/Games for Change
  • Believable Virtual Agents
  • Computational Creativity
  • Drama Management/Interactive Narrative
  • Entertainment AI in “Weird Places”
  • Evaluation methodologies and user studies
  • Intelligent Cinematography
  • Interactive Installations and AI
  • Generative Art
  • Narrative Generation/Understanding
  • Natural Language Processing in Games
  • Path Planning
  • Player Modeling/Analytics
  • Procedural Animation
  • Procedural Content Generation
  • Robots in Entertainment
  • Tools for AI in the Arts & Entertainment
  • Virtual/Augmented/Mixed Reality


PAPERS

Research Track

Research track papers describe AI research results that make advances toward solving known entertainment AI problems, enable new forms of interactive digital entertainment, or use AI to improve the game design and development process. The novel technique should be validated in a prototype or test-bed system (e.g., game, robot, generative algorithm), but it need not be tested in a commercial environment. Research track papers are evaluated by the highest standards of academic rigor.

Submissions must be in PDF format and no longer than 7 pages, where page 7 must contain only references. Papers should be formatted in AAAI two-column, camera-ready style (see the AAAI Press Author Kit). All Research Track papers must be formatted for BLIND REVIEW with NO author or affiliation information listed. All research papers will be allocated 7 pages in the proceedings.

Practitioner Track

AIIDE-17 also solicits submissions from practicing game developers, roboticists, and artists on the use of artificial intelligence in games, art, and other cultural artifacts. While these practitioners are also invited to submit to the research track, we recognize that many will have neither the time nor the inclination to prepare full-length papers for archival academic publication. These authors may instead submit a 500-word extended abstract in PDF format to the practitioner track. Practitioner track papers need not describe new technology, but they must describe new ideas relevant to the AIIDE audience and they must be based on experience creating deployed cultural artifacts. Results from academic projects are more appropriate for the research track or demonstration tracks, rather than the practitioner track.

In addition to 500-word extended abstracts, authors should include short bios describing their professional experience (not counted toward the document length). Papers should preferably be formatted in AAAI two-column, camera-ready style as above; however, Practitioner Track authors may submit their content in any reasonable format for review, and the AIIDE organizers will assign an editor to help meet publication formatting requirements for accepted work.

Doctoral Consortium

AIIDE-17 invites paper submissions from early- to mid-stage graduate students to the doctoral consortium. Submissions should provide an overview of the author’s research to date, as well as outline directions for future research. Submissions will be reviewed for their relevance to AIIDE, technical quality, research promise, and prospective benefits yielded by the student’s participation in the doctoral consortium (both to the student and conference). The doctoral consortium will pair students with senior members of the AIIDE community to provide mentorship and feedback on research and related topics. In addition, participants in the doctoral consortium will have the opportunity to give oral presentations on their work to the broader AIIDE community.

Submissions to the doctoral consortium should consist of a 2-page abstract describing the student’s proposed doctoral research (plus 1 page of references) in PDF format, and they should follow AAAI two-column, camera-ready style (see the AAAI Press Author Kit). Authors should also provide an academic CV, which will be used to assess the candidate’s prior research activity and facilitate matching with a senior mentor. Submissions will be published as technical reports and they will be archived in the AAAI digital library.


DEMONSTRATIONS

As many aspects of AI and interactive digital entertainment are fundamentally interactive, two tracks are offered to allow the demonstration of such systems.

Demo Track

We invite researchers and practitioners to share demonstrations of (a) research systems in the context of existing commercial entertainment media, (b) contributions demonstrating the adoption and/or extension of AI research results in published entertainment media, (c) completely new forms of interactive digital entertainment made possible by AI research, and (d) other relevant work.

An electronic submission of a 2-page abstract (plus 1 page of references) and demonstration materials is required. Papers should be in PDF format and follow AAAI two-column, camera-ready style (see the AAAI Press Author Kit). Demo Track papers should contain author and affiliation information. Demonstration abstract review is not blind. Submissions should contain a link to the demonstration materials, which can take the form of a recorded demonstration session, an executable version of the demonstration with written instructions, or a detailed description of the demonstration heavily illustrated with screenshots. The abstract will be published in the AIIDE proceedings, but all demonstrations must be conducted live at AIIDE-17. Submissions will be judged on technical merit, accessibility to developers and researchers, originality, presentation, and significance. Complete games or other playable experiences are best suited for the playable experience track.

Playable Experience Track

Indie developers, industry professionals, and researchers who are developing innovative games or other interactive media (“playable experiences”) with AI are invited to submit their work to the playable experiences track. We welcome playable experiences that involve some articulable innovation in the use of AI that directly affects the user's experience. This includes novel game designs that leverage existing AI techniques, as well as innovations in the techniques themselves that lead to new kinds of playable experiences. Playable experience submissions should be sufficiently complete and polished enough for new users to play them.

Authors should submit a 500-word extended abstract describing the impetus behind the playable experience, how AI has motivated its design (or vice versa), and what they see as its primary innovation(s). Submissions should be in PDF format and preferably follow AAAI two-column, camera-ready style as above; however, Playable Experience authors may submit their content in any reasonable format for review, and AIIDE will assign an editor to help meet publication formatting requirements for accepted work. It should also include a publicly accessible link to a web-based, mobile, or downloadable player experience, as well as instructions for how to play it. This link must remain live at least through the end of the conference. The peer review process for playable experiences is not blind. The abstract will be published in the conference proceedings. Authors will have the opportunity to show their playable experience during the evening reception of the AIIDE-17 conference. Playable experience authors are expected to attend the conference in-person to showcase their work. The conference organizers are currently exploring opportunities for providing travel support to facilitate participation of authors with financial need. Research prototypes, AI-based software tools, and non-interactive systems are best suited for the demo track.


WORKSHOPS

AIIDE-17 invites proposals for one- to two-day workshops. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to meet and discuss issues with a selected focus, providing an informal setting for exchange among researchers, developers, and users. The format of workshops will be determined by their organizers. Organizers are encouraged to propose alternative formats beyond paper/poster presentations —formats such as game jams, “proposal jams,” and AI competitions are particularly encouraged. Workshop papers will be published as technical reports and will be archived in the AAAI digital library. Proposals for workshops should be about two (2) to three (3) pages in length. AAAI two-column, camera-ready style formatting is not required, but suggested.

Workshop proposals should contain a brief technical description of the workshop, including the workshop’s goals and the issues that will be its focus. It should be made clear whether the proposed workshop is new or a continuation of a previous series of meetings. A preliminary description of the workshop’s format and rough schedule, including desired length, should be provided. The names, affiliation, and contact information of the workshop’s organizing committee should be included, as well as a primary contact. Workshop proposals will not be published as technical reports and they will not be archived in the AAAI digital library.

Proposals should be submit directly to the Workshops Co-Chairs via email:

Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera <recardon@ncsu.edu>, Brent Harrison <brent.harrison@cc.gatech.edu>


TUTORIALS

AIIDE-17 invites proposals for tutorials about current methods, tools, and/or technologies relevant to AI and interactive digital entertainment. A tutorial should be 2 to 4 hours in length. We strongly encourage tutorial presenters to provide opportunities for significant hands-on experience using current or emerging AI techniques. Members of all segments of the AIIDE community including industry researchers are encouraged to submit proposals. The format of tutorials will be determined by their organizers. Proposals for tutorials should be about two (2) to three (3) pages in length.

Tutorial proposals should be submit directly to the Tutorials Chair via email:

Albert Li <albert.li@disneyresearch.com>


STARCRAFT AI COMPETITION

AIIDE-17 will host the Eighth Annual Starcraft AI Competition. Participants are given the task of building the best performing AI system for the popular real-time strategy game StarCraft Brood War (Blizzard Entertainment). The goals of the competition are to provide a testbed for real-time AI systems and to promote game AI research by exhibiting AI techniques such as scripting, planning, optimization, spatial reasoning, and opponent modeling in a fast-paced popular video game. The competition will be held prior to the conference (registration deadline is August 1). Results will be announced at AIIDE-17. For additional information, please see: http://www.cs.mun.ca/~dchurchill/starcraftaicomp/


EXHIBITS/BOOTHS

AIIDE-17 will have exhibit space available. Companies, publishers and related organizations are encouraged to consider purchasing either a tabletop display or exhibit booth. Exhibit space is limited and will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.


SUBMISSION

Authors must register at the AIIDE-17 paper submission site before they submit their papers. Abstracts and papers must be submitted through the submission website; we cannot accept submissions by e-mail or fax. Authors will have the option at the time of submission on Easychair to indicate whether their work is associated with this year’s special theme of "Beyond Games.”

Please submit papers at: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aiide17

Workshops and tutorial proposals should be submitted directly to the respective chairs via email.

SPECIAL STATEMENT TO ATTENDEES AFFECTED BY U.S. TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS:

A recent Presidential Executive Order in the United States sought to temporarily suspend entry into the U.S. of individuals with passports from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. The organizers of AIIDE-17 are committed to providing opportunities for remote participation to anyone directly affected by the immigration ban or related U.S. governmental policies. We are exploring options for remote participation such as telepresence, and we welcome suggestions and questions about ways to ensure prospective attendees from affected countries can participate in AIIDE-17.

To discuss this topic, please contact the organizers at aiide17@aaai.org.


ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

GENERAL CHAIR

Brian Magerko (Georgia Institute of Technology)

PROGRAM CHAIR

Jonathan Rowe (North Carolina State University)

WORKSHOPS CO-CHAIRS

Brent Harrison (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Rogelio Cardona-Rivera (University of Utah)

DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM CO-CHAIRS

Gillian Smith (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)

Anne Sullivan (University of Central Florida)

PLAYABLE EXPERIENCES CHAIR

Mike Treanor (American University)

TUTORIALS CHAIR

Boyang “Albert” Li (Disney Research)

PUBLICITY CHAIR

Adam Smith (University of California, Santa Cruz)

LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS CHAIR

R. Michael Young (University of Utah)