LUDIC PSY AI ENGINE

A playable level generator from The Psycholudic Approach (FWF/PEEK AR787, project lead Prof. Margarete Jahrmann). I built the AI engine, at Experimental Game Cultures, University of Applied Arts Vienna. Players use my wooden controller.

2025 Professional Table Visit live ↗

A green spiral creature grows out of the grass in a generated level of wooden block buildings, with the game’s task list in the corner

Looking closely is the price of entry. A face classifier types the player, and a changed expression can change the type. From that reading the engine writes a level: mechanics, creatures, objects. Worlds are generated in Godot. Wave Function Collapse keeps the architecture and terrain coherent. A language model (GPT-4) turns the face-derived prompt into live script.

Shown at TEDAI Vienna, in the Hofburg’s Marmorsaal, October 2025, next to a ROBOPSY installation. The question in the room: is conventional play mostly surveillance, harvesting a face so a machine can build the next world?

Project page

Paper: A Ludic PSY AI-Game-Engine for Utopia (DiGRA 2026).

How it was made

LUDIC PSY AI ENGINEpsycholudic.uni-ak.ac.at ↗
The research group’s page for the engine.
A Ludic PSY AI-Game-Engine for Utopiadl.digra.org ↗
DiGRA 2026.
  • A dense lattice of red and white beams fills the view, a structure the level generator grew
  • A green spiral creature grows out of the grass in a generated level of wooden block buildings, with the game’s task list in the corner
  • Soft purple, green and cream creatures gather among the blocks while music notes float over them
  • A grey overhead render of a whole generated level, packed edge to edge with stacked block buildings
  • A tangled blue creature stands in a courtyard of brown block walls, sparkles marking it as something to investigate