PhD Studentship: Building 3D Games and Procedural Worlds with Agentic AI

Primary Supervisor: Dr Cheng Wang

We are seeking an outstanding PhD candidate to join our research group, working at the intersection of computer graphics and generative AI. This project aims to advance how AI systems design, build, and refine interactive 3D games and virtual worlds, transforming high-level creative ideas into coherent, playable experiences.

Research Focus 

The PhD will investigate agentic AI systems that can plan complex creative tasks, use game development tools, and iteratively evaluate and improve their outputs. Moving beyond the generation of individual assets, the project will explore how AI can integrate 3D content, spatial layouts, game logic, and interactive behaviours into complete virtual environments. Specific objectives may include: 

• Developing AI agents that translate natural-language descriptions, visual references, and design constraints into structured 3D worlds and playable game prototypes.
• Combining procedural content generation with multimodal generative models to create diverse, editable environments with consistent geometry, semantics, and visual style.
• Investigating tool use and multi-agent collaboration for coordinating asset creation, scene assembly, scripting, and simulation within game engines.
• Developing automated playtesting and feedback mechanisms to assess and improve navigability, gameplay functionality, and alignment with creative intent.
• Exploring human-AI collaboration methods that give designers meaningful control over world generation and iterative refinement.

The project combines fundamental research in planning, spatial reasoning, and generative modelling with practical innovation in game development and interactive world creation. A central challenge is ensuring that generated worlds are not only visually compelling, but also functional, coherent, and responsive to player interaction. The research will target leading venues in computer graphics, computer vision, and AI, including SIGGRAPH, CVPR, and NeurIPS.

Environment and Supervision

You will join a vibrant research lab, collaborating with researchers in computer vision, computer graphics, and AI. The supervisor will support the student in pursuing industrial internships and collaborations relevant to AI, graphics, and game development.

Entry Requirements

The minimum entry requirement is 2:1 in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Applied Maths or Physics.

Start date: 1^st October 2027

Funding Details 

This PhD project is in a competition for a Faculty of Science funded studentship. Funding is available to UK applicants and comprises ‘home’ tuition fees and an annual stipend for 3 years. The current UEA / institutional PhD stipend rate is £20,409 and will be subject to any agreed inflationary uplift for 2027/28.

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