Programming by demonstration (PbD) has a straightforward application in the development of the artificial intelligence (AI) for non-player characters (NPCs) in a games: a game designer controls the NPC during a training session in the game, and thus demonstrates the expected behavior for that character in different situations. Afterwards, applying some machine learning technique on the traces recorded during the demonstration, an AI for the NPC can be generated. Nevertheless, with this approach, it is very hard for the game designer to fully control the resulting behavior, which is a key requirement for game designers, who are responsible for putting together a fun experience for the player.

The design of the behavior of non-player characters (NPCs) in a game is a collaborative task between programmers and designers. Nevertheless this collaboration is an open problem since the limits, responsibilities and competences are not well defined. Behavior trees are the technology of choice nowadays for programming the behavior of NPCs, and they are first and foremost a programmers tool. In this paper we describe an experiment that shows that with the right division of labor and a reduced background in Programming, designers can also build behavior trees and thus find a principled way to collaborate with programmers in that task.

Videogames have long been a tool to increase students' interest in different domains. However, its efficiency heavily depends on the players' profile. This paper considers the relationship between two variables: the players' gender and their gaming habits. Specifically, it addresses the question of whether the observed influence of gender on the efficacy of videogames is merely a reflection of the different gaming habits between players of different genders. To this end, the authors carried out an experiment with 198 students between the ages of 9 and 11. The experiment relied on the videogame, Bailando un tesoro [Dancing a Treasure], which aims to increase students' interest in dance. The results show that those accustomed to playing videogames more frequently show an increase in their interest in dance after playing the game. The connection revealed between gender and gaming habits in this study suggests that videogames could be an effective tool to reduce the existing gender gap in terms of interest in dance.