One Last Round of AI and Games Conference Talks | 17/10/25
What do you mean you need more convincing to book your tickets???
Creative Assembly take the stage to talk about new AI for Total War
Presentations exploring on-device AI models from Arm and Studio Atelico
Practical insights on Reinforcement Learning from Databricks and Riot
Plus more Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, and talks on AI pathfinding!
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Hello all, welcome to another bonus Friday issue where we’re going to announce the very last batch of talks for this year’s AI and Games Conference. Tickets are selling out fast, and we’re already expecting a larger crowd that last year, with just over two weeks to go until the event kicks off live in London.
As a reminder, here’s what to expect:
A two day event on November 3rd and 4th 2025.
The experts in AI for game development converging at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Talks focussed on traditional game AI, applying machine learning in game productions, emerging practice in generative AI for gameplay and production, and broader topics in legal and regulatory, accessibility and financing.
As discussed in recent issues, expect talks from the likes of CD Projekt RED, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Warhorse Studios, Ubisoft, Unknown Worlds, Avalanche Studios and PlayerUnknown Productions.
The full schedule across the two days is now live on the website.
Tickets are on sale with discounts for emerging and independent talent, with student prices capped at £99.
Group discounts for 5 or more (see conference website for details).
Join us for a reception on the Monday evening exclusive to conference attendees.
If you missed it, be sure to catch the big talk breakdown issue from end of September which got you up to speed on the first 50% of the programme.
Now, let’s cover the rest!
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Recently Announced Talks
A quick reminder of the talks we have announced in the past couple of weeks in the main issues of the newsletter:
How to Bully AI into Delivering Meaningful Gameplay /
Ben Ackland, Thomas Keane / Meaning MachineMeaning Machine have been one of the first indie studios to really get to grips with LLMs. So much so, that they’re bullying them now. That’s allowed, right?
No API. No Problem: Deploying Tiny, Fast, Fine-Tuned Models Offline /
Keith Lia, Kristian Dam Pedersen, Raw Power LabsOur associate sponsors Raw Power Labs take to the stage to discuss how to deploy ML and generative models offline in a fast and effective way.
Supporting Thousands of Simulated NPCs in the Open World of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 /
Petr Smrček, Warhorse StudiosIn our first of two talks on Warhorse’s 2025 RPG, we get into how the developers are capable of simulating thousands of NPCs at any one time.
But Why Is It Saying That?? Making LLM Powered AI Bots a Bit More Reliable /
Batu Atyemiz, Fundamental LabsBatu Atyemiz dives into his experiences of shipping LLM powered bots on Roblox!
Debugging Across Time and Platforms: The Power of Determinism /
Richard Kogelnig, HavokJoining us courtesy of our partner sponsor Havok, Richard will dig into how the company has built a cross-platform determinism pipeline for ease of AI debugging on different hardware.
Good Enough AI: Pragmatic Approaches for Creating Compelling Player Experiences in Games /
Gaetan Soppe Drenjanin, Sports InteractiveLeaning on his experiences across AAA game development, Gaetan Drenjanin discusses how sometimes ‘good enough’ is all you need.
Gemini in Unreal Engine: Enhancing Game Development with Multimodal AI /
Gabriel Ware, Juan David Hincapie-Ramos, GoogleUtilising generative models as a means to create useful tools for game development is an ongoing body of research. Let’s find out how Google have fared as they collaborate with Epic Games on tools for Unreal Engine.
Simulation-Based AI with LLMs for Game Agents /
Simon Lucas, Queen Mary University of LondonProfessor Simon Lucas of QMU joins us to discuss how LLMs can be integrated into existing decision making systems and the pros and cons it brings!
AI Planning Analytics - From F.E.A.R. (2005) to Assassin’s Creed: Shadows (2025) /
Eric Jacopin, HawkswellAs we celebrate 20 years of planning in games, Eric Jacopin returns to present for a second year running as he looks back on the evolution of AI planners up to their more recent adoption in Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise.
And so without further ado, let’s announce the last wave of talks coming to the show next month!
Obligatory Navigation Segment
You can’t run a game AI conference without a segment on pathfinding and navigation can you?
No, no you can not.
Build Your Own Navigation Stack!
Bram Ridder, Kythera
It’s great to have a nice and meaty navmesh talk from Bram Ridder and the good folks at Kythera AI at this year’s event. Navigation is an evergreen topic in this space, and for good reason - it’s blood hard to get right! Very excited for this one. I suspect it’s going to be a packed crowd!
From Metrics to Meaning: Effort-Aware and Explainable AI for Game Pathfinding
Yetunde Longe-Folajimi, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Building procedurally generating level pipelines for games always has that additional headache of building a model - often an implicit one in your head - of what makes that content ‘easy’ or ‘hard’ for players. But of course what is conceptually challenging for a human might not be the case for an algorithm, and vice versa, and how do you express that?
Yetunde Long-Folajimi join us at this year’s conference to showcase research in using AI methods to build a practical, explainable framework for human-centred design in games, and what all that pathfinding data really means in context!
More On-Device AI Models
I said it in my predictions for the start of the year: on-device machine learning (and notably generative) AI models is going to be a big topic in 2025.
As someone who blabs a lot on the internet, it’s great to see our programme reinforce my own suspicions - and ultimately prove me right! Some amazing stuff lined up for you this year.
On‑Device Generative Agents for Lifelike NPCs
Piero Molino, Studio Atelico
I had the pleasure of seeing Piero Molino present when I attended /Dev/Games/ in Rome earlier this year, and we hit it off straight away. Studio Atelico are doing really interesting work in what can be achieved using LLMs in a hype-free fashion. Piero will be detailing the work of the studio on their Generative Agents Relatime Playground (GARP) and how you can build small LLMs that still deliver without bankrupting the studio, or compromising your ethics!
Elevating Mobile Game Experiences With On-Device ML Inference
Yusuf Duman, Arm
I’m pleased to welcome Yusuf Duman from our associate sponsors Arm, who are tackling on-device AI conversation from the perspective of mobile platforms. Mobile is arguably one of the fastest moving commercially facing sectors in brining on-device AI capabilities, and Arm is ramping up with a lot of development in this space. So we’re going to hear a little bit from the company themselves on the hardware and software being developed to make that happen!
I Heard You Like Reinforcement Learning?
Reinforcement Learning (RL) in the past 15 years has emerged from a niche academic idea, to a methodology that carries real value in specific sectors. We’re going to hear from two of the biggest players in the business of what that looks like in practice!
Use Cases and Practical Methodologies for Reinforcement Learning for Learning at Agents at Scale
Kyra Wulffert, Duncan Davis and Huntting Buckley, Databricks
I was thrilled that we Databricks have joined us as an associate sponsor this year. Databricks have been in the business of building machine learning AI in the games industry for years, and now how important it is to build scalable, and reliable product and not feed into the hype. So to have them Kyra, Duncan, and Huntting join us this year is a real treat. I’m looking forward to this one a lot.
When Research Meets Release Dates: Production-Grade RL for Games
Wes Kerr, Riot Games
Our partner sponsors Riot Games return for 2025 with another really exciting presentation. This year we have Wesley Kerr, who is director Riot’s research division, who will give insight into how the studio - famous for the likes of League of Legends and Valorant - have embraced reinforcement learning as part of their development processes. I’ve seen an early draft of this presentation and it looks fantastic. I guarantee this is going to be one of the most talked about sessions of the event.
The Art of War
I coudn’’t think of a pithy title for this last segment, except both of these franchises are really invested in period conflict. So yeah.
Look, I’m no poet. You get what you paid for…
Design for Everything in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Vadim Petrov, Warhorse Studios
In our second presentation on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Vadim will be giving us an insight into the challenges faced in building NPCs that can react to and engage with anything and everything around them in a vast open world. Ensuring both tightly scripted and emergent gameplay all comes together, and ensuring it runs in under 3ms per frame - which is freaking insane!
Predicting Combat Outcomes in Total War
Miguel López-Bachiller Rey, and James Kwan, Creative Assembly
Last but most certainly not least, we welcome Miguel López-Bachiller Rey and James Kwan from our partner sponsors Creative Assembly who will be talking about a new system designed to predict one-on-one unit combat outcomes in the Total War franchise. Existing as part of a broader system to help the battle AI systems in the game know when to engage with an opposing faction, or fall back.
Sounds super interesting to me, and personally having attended many a conference to watch a Total War presentation on AI, I am so chuffed we have one right here in the schedule.
Wrapping Up
There are still some surprises to announce for the event itself, but every single one of our speakers and their presentations has had a moment in the spotlight right here in the newsletter.
I’ll be back next week with a regular issue, and in the meantime be sure to head over to the conference website where the full schedule is published, tickets are broken down, plus we have details on discount accommodation in the local area.
Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you next week!