About me

Hello! I'm Michael Cook, a Research Associate in Goldsmiths' Department of Computing. I'm also finishing the tail end of a PhD with the Department of Computing at Imperial College. Here's some info about things I get up to:

• I research ways in which software can design meaningful, intelligent and enjoyable games completely autonomously. Most of my research in this area is focused on a system I've designed called ANGELINA. In particular, I'm interested in how software can conceive of, apply and evaluate meaning in games, and how it can invent new systems and mechanics for games.
• I'm also learning to design games myself. I started around the same time that ANGELINA did - if you want to compare our progress, you can see some of my work over at Cut Garnet Games.
• I'm very interested in connecting the game development community and academia, in ways that go beyond 'more and faster, please'. Every fortnight I write The Saturday Paper, a summary of an academic games paper for a developer audience. You can catch up with the archive here.
• I am currently working on the EPSRC grant "Creative Code Generation". You can find out more on the EPSRC website here.

Papers

Talks