ALICIA ZHEN

producer • 2D / 3D artist • game designer

Game Projects

2D ART

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Character Design

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Graphic Design

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3D ART

Yuna

"a journey into the forest"

A 3D animated short I made as a final project for the course, CMPM-26: 3D Animation, at UC Santa Cruz.
Inspired by Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Made in Blender v3.0.1

Clothing a Character

A 3D animated short I made as a final project for the course, CMPM-26: 3D Animation, at UC Santa Cruz.
Inspired by Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Made in Blender v3.0.1

For this assignment, we learned how to implement Physical Properties such as:

  • Cloth (for the coat)

  • Soft Body (for the hat)

  • Collision

Driving Around the World

A 3D demo reel demonstrating the implementation of object Constraints for the course, CMPM-26: 3D Animation, at UC Santa Cruz.
Made in Blender v2.93.4

Loot Box: "A Dreamy Delight"

A final project made for the course, ARTG-131: 3D Game Production, at UC Santa Cruz.
Made in Autodesk Maya • Textured in Substance Painter & Photoshop • Imported into Unity

ABOUT ME

I'm a Producer & Game Artist based in San Francisco, CA (currently looking for the next project to embark on)!I strive to create quality, emotional, and heartfelt games. What I enjoy the most is supporting the unique visions of my teams by helping to establish effective forms of communication, streamlining workflows, and fostering a safe and comfortable environment for them!

All Time Faves

(currently waiting for a multiplayer release of
Don't Starve Together: Shipwrecked...)

Fun Facts

  • I love dabbling with photography & video editing as a way to celebrate the people around me, and to preserve memories in an engaging way!

  • Currently learning to video edit a sick VALORANT montage...

Tools

Project Management

2D Art

3D Art

Video Editing

Game Engines

Prototyping & Wireframing

LOVE & OTHER MONSTERS

Producer, Character Designer & UI/UX Artist

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About the Game

A gothic sapphic love novel & dating sim!Synopsis: Upon the death of her father, “Victoria Morgan” is summoned back to their family’s illustrious mansion in Castelonia, in order to claim her inheritance. When she arrives, she discovers that her father had died more than a year ago.Embark on a mystery to uncover the truth of what happened on the night of your father’s death, and discover the secrets you’ve inherited…

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Game Screenshots

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ROLE: Producer, Character Designer & UI Artist
DURATION: 10 Weeks
TEAM SIZE: 8
TOOLS:

  • Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects)

  • Procreate

  • CLIP STUDIO PAINT

  • Unity

  • GitHub

  • Discord

  • Google Workspace (Drive, Docs, Slides, Forms)

  • Figma

  • Notion

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Contributions

  • Led scrum meetings & sprint retrospectives in a cross-functional team of 8, tracking 150+ tasks across 3, sprints throughout a 10-week project life-cycle.

  • Authored & maintained game design documentation that encompassed creative designs, technical processes, and player experience goals; establishing traceability to measure progress & improvements.

  • Presented weekly updates with playtesters & stakeholders, faciliated 30+ playtests, and gathered feedback & insights to support future technical iterations.

  • Collaborated with the Lead Artist to define the game's visual style by researching Victorian-era elements, creating mood boards, and developing art style guides.

  • Conceptualized & designed character sheets, maps, game menus, UX/UI flows, landscapes, and buildings.

  • Oversaw & supported 2 Programmers in the implementation of game-ready assets & visual elements into the Unity game engine.

  • Storyboarded, scripted, and produced the game trailer within 3 days.

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My Art

INTERACTIVE MAP OF CASTELONIA

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ASSETS

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CHARACTER DESIGN

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UI / UX DESIGN & MOCK-UPS

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GAME TRAILER STORYBOARD

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Project Management

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Otter Underwotter

Producer, 2D Artist & Animator

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About the Game

A parallax scrolling, bullet-hell game!You’re enjoying the sunset with your Significant Otter… until they suddenly get dragged beneath the waves, and towards the bottomless ocean! It’s up to you to dive underwotter, and save them!

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Game Screenshots

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ROLE: Producer, 2D Artist & Animator
DURATION: 10 Weeks
TEAM SIZE: 8
TOOLS:

  • Adobe Creative Suite (Premiere Pro, After Effects)

  • Procreate

  • CLIP STUDIO PAINT

  • Unity

  • GitHub

  • Discord

  • Google Workspace (Drive, Docs, Slides, Forms)

  • Figma

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Contributions

  • Directed a cross-functional team of 7, providing structure and support to 2 Artists, 2 Programmers, a Sound Designer, and a Narrative Designer across 3 sprints within a 10-week project life-cycle.

  • Facilitated scrum meetings & sprint retrospectives, tracked and reviewed 8+ submissions each week, updated production schedules, and drove actionable tasks.

  • Anticipated production issues, and removed roadblocks / bottlenecks that would prevent teams from achieving their goals on time.

  • Organized 10+ playtests to identify bugs, gather information, and document feedback. Wrote reports and recommendations for improvements.

  • Collaborated with 2 Artists to establish the visual style of our game, and developed mood boards, art style guides, and game design documents.

  • Illustrated the game's title screen, parallax backgrounds, environmental props, and animated the otter and enemy sprites.

  • Oversaw & supported 2 Programmers in the implementation of game-ready assets & visual elements into the Unity game engine.

  • Created rapid prototypes, wireframes, diagrams, and UI/UX mock-ups based on the feedback of 10+ playtesters.

  • Storyboarded and produced the game trailer within a 24-hour turnaround time.

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My Art

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ANIMATION

ENVIRONMENT ART

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CONCEPT ART

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Project Management

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A Long Way Home

Game Designer & Artist

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About the Game

A puzzle and movement-based indie game made using Bitsy.
Play as a lost cat who tries to find their way home!Among 25 student submissions, the game was selected as a winning game to be showcased at the annual UCSC Games Showcase of 2020.

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Game Screenshots

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ROLE: Game Designer & Artist
DURATION: 1.5 Weeks
TEAM SIZE: 3
TOOLS:

  • Bitsy

  • Discord

  • Google Workspace (Drive & Docs)

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Contributions

  • Developed & designed the original concept & narrative of the game.

  • Drove the vision and implementation of game features & systems (i.e., narrative, settinging, interactive objects, quests).

  • Led the development process by delegating tasks, tracking their progress, and updating the team’s production schedule.

  • Coordinated & facilitated team meetings to drive actionable tasks and deadlines with Google Docs.

  • Drew, designed & developed environments, quests, sprites, and interactive objects within Bitsy.

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Game Design

Our game provides players with lots of freedom and agency, allowing for emergent gameplay:

  • Almost every home in each neighborhood has fully furnished & designed interiors, which the player can explore.
    (Some locked homes require a key before you can enter)!

  • There are also signs, objects, animals, and NPCs that the player can speak and interact with.

  • The game has one main quest that the player must complete in order to progress in the game, and several side quests which the player has the option to either participate in or ignore.
    (ex. one “side quest” is the option to help clean up all the trash in Northlake Park, which triggers new dialogues from the NPCs and objects there)!

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Player experience goals

We wanted the player to feel an initial sense of comfort and ease — particularly at the beginning of the game — as they chase the butterfly. We also hoped that a sense of smallness would follow, as the player realizes that they have to explore and traverse the entire game world in order to find a way back “home.”(This sense of smallness grows bigger, as the player realizes that the game world isn’t as small as it may have initially appeared.)We hoped that our game would almost create an “open-world”experience, by implementing elements such as exploration and side-quests. With this, players have the agency to roam around the urban neighborhood as they wish, while
scavenging for items along the way.

  • Problem-solving — players must match certain items with certain sprites when taking on side quests. As the game stretches on, players may also feel the want or need to memorize which routes they’ve taken in order to avoid revisiting the same streets, and to find new paths that could help them reach their house as soon as possible.

  • Friendliness & Curiosity — an experience which sprouts from interacting with the NPCs who live in the neighborhood, exploring their homes, and occasionally helping them out with any problems they might be facing.

  • Uncertainty — may occur due to different interactions with different NPCs, which could affect the outcome of the game. Based on the different neighborhoods that the cat [the player] will arrive at, NPCs can range from being very kind to very dismissive, or even hostile.

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Game Reviews

“This game is beautiful. You all should be very proud of the work you’ve done, and I hope you’re okay with me sharing it with the rest of the graders. I am absolutely taken aback by the level of effort, time, and energy spent on this project and I want you to know that it is not to waste. I wish I could give you more than just one point of extra credit, but alas, rules exist! This game is one for the portfolio. Also, great pokemon references."ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ                                                                                                                                          —Dany Francis, Course Grader“Very cute cat / animation / music. Quests are surprisingly deep."                                                                                                                                                                                  —Judge at UCSC Games Showcase of 2020

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Kingdoms of Aivrath

Producer, Character Designer & Writer

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About the Game

A turn-based strategy RPG!On the continent of Aivrath, two large rivaling empires are at the brink of war. The outcome of their first battle will indefinitely set the tone for the rest of the continent... and reveal which empire is most advantageous.While the Empire of Orane has teamed up with some friends in the Outer Territories, including the Xulu Tribe, and Verna Empire only have themselves to depend on.Who will the first victory go to?

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Game Screenshots

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ROLE: Producer, Character Designer & Writer
DURATION: 3 Weeks
TEAM SIZE: 7
CONSTRAINTS: ⏰ As It Turns Out: Turn-Based RPG Design ⚔️

"The combat system in your game must be turn-based. Any lore, story, dialog, or worldbuilding included in your game must be tied directly to the mechanics of your battle system. Keep the focus of your project on mechanical and system design, but be creative with the actions you can use your mechanical framework to represent."

TOOLS:

  • Procreate

  • Unity

  • GitHub

  • Figma

  • Discord

  • Google Workspace (Gmail, Drive, Docs & Slides)

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Contributions

  • Authored game design documents, character dialogues, and the overall game world to convey the game's vision and mechanics.

  • Conceptualized 2 character designs, and illustrated 10 game-ready characters.

  • Designed the game level and map by collaborating the Environment Artist, who provided a texture atlas with 22 unique tiles.

  • Oversaw and supported a team of 4 Programmers to implement a tile map system in Unity for the game map.

  • Led weekly scrum meetings & faciliated daily standups to track progress, drive actionable tasks, and documented progress.

  • Defined & rebalanced project scope, strategies, and resources throughout production.

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My Art

Character Designs

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UI Design

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Project Management

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Seventino Midnight Café

UI, Food, & Character Artist

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About the Game

A cooking game with a blend of adventure, exploration, and hunting for your own ingredients! Play as a barista who runs a small coffee shop, serving customers with unique tastes. Hunt for your own fresh ingredients from the wild!The game was presented at the annual UCSC Games Showcase of 2021, where it won the B-A-N-A-N-A-S Award as an “amazing, unexpected, and weird game.”

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Game Screenshots

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ROLE: UI, Food, & Character Artist
DURATION: 5 months (21 weeks)
TEAM SIZE: 13
TOOLS:

  • Procreate

  • CLIP Studio Paint

  • Unity

  • GitHub

  • Discord

  • Trello

  • ClickUp

  • Google Workspace (Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms)

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Contributions

  • Illustrated 50+ sprites, UI buttons, and characters.

  • Submitted work to the Art Director for review, and made revisions as needed each week, based on feedback.

  • Tracked, logged and updated the progress of my tasks with Trello, ClickUp, and Google Sheets.

  • Organized weekly playtests, wrote comprehensive reports that identified bugs, and assisted team of 4 Programmers in executing test cases.

  • Participated in bi-weekly team meetings to communicate the status of my tasks with the Lead Producer, driving my next actionable tasks.

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My Art

Food, Beverages & Ingredients

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Kitchen Tools & Utensils

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UI Design

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Character Illustrations

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Background Art

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Awards

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Tools

The Atlas

Lead 2D Artist

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About the Game

A RPG puzzle game!Shan, a Taoist student, must master the “Five Elements” through cultivation, in order to become a true immortal to save his Master.The game was presented at the annual UCSC Games Showcase of 2020, where it won the Visual Art Award.

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Game Screenshots

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ROLE: 2D Lead Artist
DURATION: 5 months (20 weeks)
TEAM SIZE: 18
TOOLS:

  • Procreate

  • Unity

  • GitHub

  • Discord

  • Trello

  • ClickUp

  • Google Workspace (Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides)

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Contributions

  • Collaborated closely with the Producer to contrive the artistic direction the game by taking color, visual design, and typography into consideration.

  • Established the visual style of the game, drafted mood boards, developed art style guides, and authored team design documents.

  • Designed and animated the Playable Character.

  • Developed the game’s visual target in collaboration with the Art Director, and supported team of 7 Programmers to develop a vertical slice.

  • Coordinated meetings between an Art Team of 4, and developed art guides to faciliate the artistic cohesion between all visual elements and assets, guiding revisions as needed.

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My Art

Visual Target

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Environment Art & Props

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Character Design

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UI Design

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Awards

Graphic design

DRC: ANNUAL HALLOWEEN PARTY OF '22

I had the pleasure of aiding my Supervisor in coordinating UCSC's Disability Resource Center's (DRC) first annual Halloween party!
These are some event materials & signs I helped design, under the time restraint of one week:

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Playing Cards

A game adaptation of the turn-based, two-player card game: Table Battles.
I adapted the game to be Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse themed, and implemented some of my own rules and abilities to balance the game, and to create cohesion.

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MECSA

Event fliers I made as a Media Coordinator & Community Manager
for the Mixed Ethnic & Cultural Student Association (MECSA) at UC Santa Cruz:

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Food & Beverages Menus

Promotional & seasonal menus I designed over the years in while working at several boba shops!

Yuna

For the course, ARTG 118: Character Creation in Video Games, at UC Santa Cruz.Concepted in Photoshop • Made in Blender • Textured in Substance Painter • Imported into Unity

A hands-on studio course I took, which gave me an understanding of the techniques used to create game-ready characters for game engines. Through this course, I developed an understanding of 3D character design pipelines in video games, and honed the skills necessary to take this design through each stage of the pipeline (i.e., concepting, sculpting, modeling, UV mapping, texturing, rigging, animating).Skills & knowledge I developed throughout the course:

  • Understanding of shading, lighting, structure, texturing, and silhouette.

  • Understanding of mesh topology and edge loops.

  • Knowledge of anatomy, form, color, stylization, and appeal.

  • Ability to work from reference materials, such as photography or concept art.

  • Knowledge of game requirements to create low poly assets that are optimized for animation.

  • Interpreting concept designs, while taking account of technical & design constraints (i.e., poly counts, texture memory limits, and topology).

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Concept Art

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Design

Yuna is a character design I imagined for the world of Genshin Impact!

VISION: Electro
WEAPON: Dual-wielding swords

Her playstyle is that of a swift and skilled assassin, capable of dealing quick strikes with high amounts of burst to her opponents.Since the current characters in Genshin Impact are only capable of wielding and equipping one sword, Yuna’s second sword will come with her ability kit. It will take on the form of an Elemental sword—formed out of Yuna’s own Electro Vision—and which can only deal Electro DMG.

ABILITIES

  • Normal Attacks: Performs up to 5 rapid strikes, with one sword dealing Physical DMG, and her other sword dealing Electro DMG.

  • Charged Attacks: Consumes stamina to unleash a flurry of sword strikes to enemies in a small AoE.

  • Mark of the Moon: Opponents affected by Mark of the Moon will suffer from three consecutive shocks of Electro DMG.

  • Fragmented Luminescence: 3 seconds after Mark of the Moon is applied, opponents affected by this mark will burst with Electro DMG. As they burst, they will inflict Electro DMG onto other opponents within their small AoE. DMG dealt in this way is considered Elemental Burst DMG.

  • Shattering Moonlight (Elemental Skill): Yuna strikes so fast that she takes on the form of lightning, dashing through her enemies at high speed along a path, dealing Electro DMG and applying Mark of the Moon. She gains an additional 10% ATK Speed for 10 seconds upon leaving this form.

  • Crescent Spellblades (Elemental Burst): Lightning is imbued in each of Yuna’s swords, which then releases intense, consecutive waves of lightning strikes with each cut Yuna makes for 10 seconds. These lightning strikes fly forward and deal massive Electro DMG to all opponents in their path; burst hitting multiple times on each target they hit. If opponents were already afflicted by Mark of the Moon, Fragmented Luminescence will trigger immediately upon contact with Yuna or her lightning strikes, overriding the 3 second channel time it usually takes.

PLAYER EXPERIENCE GOALS

The speedy and flashy-nature of Yuna’s abilities are supposed to help simulate the player experience of playing a sharp and highly skilled assassin; as Yuna executes each of her movements with great speed.Something unique that this character brings into the world of Genshin Impact is that she’d be the first dual-sword wielder to ever be introduced into the game. She would also be the first sword character to be unable to deal purely Physical DMG. Thus, her design would not only bring about a whole new combat experience & gameplay to players, but also different ways to experiment with character builds as well.

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Working with References

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Retopology

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Seams

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UV Mapping & Textures

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Shader Node Network

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Rigging

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Animation

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Final renderings

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a journey into the forest

A 3D animated short I made as a final project for the course, CMPM-26: 3D Animation, at UC Santa Cruz.
Inspired by Animal Crossing: New Horizons.Made with Blender v3.0.1, Photoshop, and Adobe Premiere Pro.

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DURATION: 2 Weeks

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Environments

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Characters & Facial Animations

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Storyboard / Animatic

Some things I learned, and proudly implemented while working on this project, include:

  • Cloth Simulation

  • Facial Animation

  • Weight & Texture Painting

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Driving Around the World

A 3D demo reel demonstrating the implementation of object Constraints for the course, CMPM-26: 3D Animation, at UC Santa Cruz.Made in Blender v2.93.4

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DURATION: 1 Week

about

For this assignment, students were tasked to make a low polygon world with irregular objects (i.e., trees, rocks, or buildings) distributed around it; as well as a piston-driven vehicle. We then had to animate the vehicle driving around the world along a non-circular, winding path using a Path Constraint.The vehicle’s wheels were required to visibly rotate, and the piston must appear to drive it. Additionally, the piston must operate smoothly and correctly as the vehicle goes around the path, which proved difficult to implement.In order animate the pistons, I applied the Damped Track Constraint and a Limit Distance Constraint to both the cylinder bearing and piston bearing parts of the piston.

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Loot Box: A Dreamy Delight

A final project made for the course, ARTG-131: 3D Game Production, at UC Santa Cruz.Made in Autodesk Maya • Textured in Substance Painter & Photoshop • Imported into Unity

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Substance Painter: Texture Baking

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High Poly vs. Retopologized Model

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Concept Art

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Throughout the course, I had the opportunity to learn about the 3D art pipeline for games, and familiarize myself with it through hands-on experience.We went through each step of the pipeline while making our loot boxes, including:
concepting, modeling, retopology, UV mapping, texture baking, texture painting, and engine implementation.

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