Nathan Partlan

(he/him/his)

PhD Student

Nathan Partlan
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Games Research
  • Human-Centered Computing
  • BS in Computer Science, Brown University

Nathan Partlan is a PhD candidate studying game AI and procedural content generation at Northeastern University's Khoury College of Computer and Information Sciences, advised by Dr. Magy Seif El-Nasr and Dr. Stacy Marsella. He is developing practical and designer-focused methods to expand the possibilities for artificial agents and games through computationally co-creative tools.

Before returning to academia, and after completing his Bachelor of Science degree in computer science at Brown University, Nathan enjoyed several years of implementing AI, procedural content generation, and gameplay systems as an engineer at Turbine, Inc. He has worked on six commercial game titles, including Game of Thrones: Conquest, Infinite Crisis, and two expansions for The Lord of the Rings Online (at Turbine), and The Nightworld (at Demiurge Studios). He has also contributed to several released open-source games. Nathan wants to help you bring your unique vision to life.

So far, I have been primarily working on three collaborative research projects. They each explore separate facets of the game AI and PCG research space, from computational interactive narrative modeling and generation, to behavior trees and genetic algorithms, to player modeling and imitation learning. These projects are leading to publications and to open-source tools that you can find on my website. I am also seeking new collaborations  with other researchers, game designers, and developers with both practitioner and academic perspectives - feel free to reach out!

I want to expand the possibility space for game mechanics, for interactive NPCs, and more. Imagine a game that asks you to interact with its world and characters as living, fully-realized beings - not as objects to be discarded or destroyed; or that guides you just out of comfortable territory and helps you to consider new perspectives; a game that feels tailor-made for you, and yet continually surprises you. I believe that adaptive, intelligent artificial agents and player- and designer-responsive procedural content generation are integral to a playful, diverse future.

With my research, I hope to help creators in the indie and experimental game space, and especially those from historically underrepresented backgrounds in the games industry, to realize their visions. The democratization of game development, due to more accessible tools and distribution platforms, is already in progress. As part of this trend, we have seen a resurgence of interest in games that focus on social interactions, puzzle mechanics, and immersive worlds that require interactions beyond combat. I aim to expand the affordances for AI agents and generated content to enable these mechanics while maintaining authorial intent.

Every time I see one of my ideas come to life on the screen, I am amazed. Bringing new life to a game world is like being a modern-day wizard! Then, when I see other people delighting in interacting with those things that I have had a hand in creating - that's the real payoff.

I want to work with designers and artists who have unique ideas, to help them bring those ideas to life. I want to make weird art and empower others to make their own weird art. I want to contribute to projects that challenge and inspire their audiences, that center ethics and expand our conception of what games can be and achieve. In my research and future work, I want the computational to empower the human, and especially minority, LGBTQIA+, and non-cis-male developers and players, and also especially people with disabilities.