About Me
Xi Zhang
I graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master's degree in Informatics with Honours. I have a passion for game development, and I love playing video games. I am familiar with the Unreal Engine (C++), the Godot Engine (C#), and the Unity Engine (C#). I have developed several game demos using Unreal and Unity, and I created my indie game 'Fraudster' using the Godot Engine with C#, which is now released on Steam.
Languages
C++ • C# • Python • Java • JavaScript • CSS
Technical Skills
Gameplay Programming • Game Animation • Game Optimization • 3D Math
Tools
Unreal Engine • Godot Engine • Unity Engine • Blender • GitHub;
My CVEducation
Master of Informatics with Honor, University of Edinburgh
Sept 2019 - July 2024
Won (as a part of a team) the Best Technical Solution in the Systems Design Project, University of Edinburgh in 2022, awarded jointly by Amazon.
Experience
Game Developer for my Indie Game Fraudster (Wenzhou, China)
June 2024 - September 2024
- Led the development of a 2D pixel art casual game titled Fraudster, serving as both producer and lead designer. Designed the game’s overall storyline, gameplay mechanics, and script, while also taking on the roles of lead programmer and lead artist to complete the majority of the game’s development.
- Handled the game’s marketing and promotion, with the promotional materials garnering over 200,000 views within 24 hours. Despite not having a publisher, the game achieved over $400 in sales during its first week on Steam.
Game Developer at CompSoc (Edinburgh, UK)
September 2023 - December 2023
- Developed a platform game within the programming team to integrate gameplay features into the game. Collaborated with the design team to design gameplay mechanics.
Project Manager Internship at CHN Energy Investment (Beijing, China)
June 2023 - September 2023
- Collaborated with a dynamic software development team to design and build a robust Human Resource Management System, catering to the needs of over 330,000 employees at CHN Energy Investment.
- Orchestrated the development of a multifaceted system with both a web-based interface and a mobile application, attracting over 20,000 visits within the initial week of launch.
Software Engineer at HYPED (Edinburgh, UK)
October 2020 - July 2021
- Demonstrated proficiency in full-stack development using JavaScript, CSS, and C++ as part of the Telemetry Team.
- Enhanced the user experience and accessibility of the web server by creating a more user-friendly interface.
Projects
ARPG Game Demo
- An ARPG game demo crafted in Unreal Engine using C++, incorporating character movements, a combat system, and a stamina system to enhance playability.
- Created animation systems for characters, utilized animation blending for smoother character movements, and applied 3D mathematics to create directional hit reactions.
- Implemented the skeleton retargeting technique to share animations between different characters, employed animation montages for streamlined animation management, and a foot IK system for realistic foot placement.
TPS Game Demo
- A 3D Third-Person Shooter game demo developed in Unreal Engine using C++, which challenges players to eliminate all enemies, and engineered an enemy AI controller using behavior trees to dictate diverse enemy behaviors.
- Scripted a sophisticated state machine for managing character animations, allowing for seamless transitions between animations based on the characters' states dynamically.
- Incorporated an aim offset mechanism with the layered blend technique to enhance the character animations.
Walking Spider Demo
- A walking spider demo created in Unreal Engine 5 using procedural animation.
Image Renderer (GitHub ↗)
Figure: Example image rendered by the image renderer.
- An image renderer developed in C++ using pixel buffers and ray tracing, designed specifically to generate images with realistic shading, reflection and refraction from two types of cameras: pinhole and thin-lens.
- Leveraged expertise in 3D mathematics and computer graphics to implement collision-detection algorithms for spheres, planes, triangles, and triangle meshes.
- Optimised rendering performance with Bounding Volume Hierarchy, enhanced image quality and realism through camera jittering and random sampling techniques.
Tower Defense Game Demo
- A 3D tower defense game demo in Unity using C\#, applied the breadth-first search algorithm for dynamic enemy pathfinding and optimised it with the A* algorithm for faster execution.
- Scripted a sophisticated state machine for managing character animations, allowing for seamless transitions between animations based on the characters' states dynamically.
- Employed an object pooling technique to efficiently manage enemy instances, reducing memory overhead.
Zombie Killer Game Demo
- A 3D first person view zombie shooting game developed in Unity where player have to find ammo, shoot and kill all zombies to win the game.
- The game move zombies to chase the player when being shotted, or when the player enters zombie's attacking range
- A user interface is designed to show player the remaining number of zombies, the number of ammos, and the health point of the player.
Crypt Raider Game Demo
- A 3D game with first person controller developed in Unreal 5, which allows the player to explore a dungeon and to do several puzzle games of different difficulty levels to get the treasure,.
- Player can pick up props from the map, place them at correct locations to trigger the gates, and place the final treasure at a courtyard to win.
Motion Matching Demo
- A demo created in Unreal Engine 5.4 using motion matching for the character animation.
Contact
Email: XiZhang721@outlook.com
Phone: (+44) 7579838161 / (+86) 13524586685
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xi-zhang-965a171b1
GitHub: https://github.com/XiZhang721
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@xizhang721