Featuring

Wuxia
The ultimate martial arts board game.

Zihan Feng

Game Researcher & Designer · Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute · fengz5@rpi.edu

I am currently a Ph.D. student in the critical game design program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The main theme of my research is to promote cross-cultural and inclusive game design. Under this theme, I work on specific research topics including serious games, interactive storytelling, and user experience design. My creations and studies are deeply inspired by my global experiences, which also offer me a diversified perspective on game research.

Hope you enjoy your stay here.


Employment

Technical Game Designer

Lilith Games

· Focused on the narrative design of a metaverse project and finished scripts for 10+ scenes.
· Tested the company's own game engine and configured game assets.
· Worked with musicians to iterate the game music design and finalized 20+ new tracks.

2022

Game Designer

Upup Career Education Technology

· Successfully designed and developed a complete prototype for a enterprise training sandplay game.
· Collaboratively conducted user behavior analysis for data-driven design.
· Provided field support for 10+ online and offline game test sessions.

2021 - 2022

Interactive Music Designer

Netease Games

· Designed and produced 10+ music tracks for two game projects.
· Used audio middlewares including Wwise to realize interactive sound designs.
· Tested musical assets in games and optimized musical segments and tracks.
· conducted research on competitive products and finished reports with 10000+ words on sound designs.

2021

User Experience Designer

Xavor Corporation

· Conducted marketing research and data analysis for 5+ projects.
· Planned and organized 2 monthly workshops on smart-tech innovation.
· Managed the company's public social media accounts and maintained communication with local tech communities.
· Led the user research and prototype design for one project and accomplished a MVP.

2019

Education

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Critical Game Design, Ph.D.
August 2022 - Present

New York University Shanghai

Interactive Media Arts, B.S.
August 2016 - December 2021

Publications

Peer-review Journal Articles

Feng, Z. (2024). How Game Ecology Drives Player Choices in Strategy Video Games: An Environmental Determinism Perspective. Simulation and GamingAccepted. [Web]

Book Chapters

Feng, Z. (2024). From Simulation to Repurposing: The Evolving Historical Designs in Chinese Digital Games. In Asian Histories and Heritages in Video Games.Accepted.

Peer-review Conference Papers / Extended Abstracts

Feng, Z. (2024). Demystify the Concept of Beginner Village in Chinese Role-playing Games: A Discourse Analysis. In Proceedings of the 2024 DiGRA International ConferenceAccepted.

Feng, Z. (2023). Heuristics for Board Game Usability Testing. In 2023 IEEE Conference on Games, Boston, MA, USA, August 21-24, 2023. [Web]

Feng, Z. (2023). Learning Cultural Heritage through Emergent In-game Dialogues. In Proceedings of the 2023 DiGRA International Conference, Seville, Spain, June 19-23, 2023. [PDF]


Selected Work


Awards & Certifications

  • Scholarship Facilitation Fund ($2000, Co-PI) - University of Connecticut
  • 2023 Certificate of Completing the Reflective Practitioner Pedagogical Learning Series - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • 2023 Professional Certificate in Writing for Video Games - University of British Columbia
  • 2023 NYU Tandon Bridge (CS program) Completed with Distinction - New York University Tandon
  • 2021 Pro Tools Certified User - Avid Technology
  • 2017 Global Excellence Scholarship - New York University Shanghai

Featuring: Wuxia

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