About

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Zisen Ling at work with a colleague

Background

My name is Zisen Ling, I'm 28 years old, and I was born and raised in Shenzhen, China. Although I initially planned to pursue art as my major, I ultimately chose computer science and game development, which has allowed me to find a unique balance between technical and artistic pursuits. I have maintained a strong passion for art, continuing to learn and explore areas such as concept art, photography, design, and UI. This experience enables me not only to work closely with art teams on a technical level but also to understand and value artistic expression deeply.

In terms of technical skills, I have a solid foundation in computer science, with over three years of experience in Unity and seven months of professional experience working primarily with Unity environments. This has allowed me to build hands-on skills in project implementation and development. I also have a strong understanding of game design and mechanics; beyond playing a wide variety of games, I've developed my own insights into design (during university, I even ranked in the top 500 in North America in Overwatch).

I believe this dual background in technology and art equips me to support a game development team in multiple dimensions, and I'm always eager to learn from both artistic and technical colleagues.

Experience

Technical Artist
Insomnia Development · Contract Part-time

Jun 2025 – Present · 4 mos

Project: Insomnia (Spriggan)
  • Integrated Gaia and Storm plugins to support batch configuration and management of multiple ecological zones.
  • Enhanced terrain and vegetation rendering with texture blending and optimized LOD solutions.
  • Reviewed and tuned the animal AI system (Entity → Sentient → AnimalManager) to fit project requirements.
  • Developed editor tools to streamline batch operations and resource management.
  • Participated in performance analysis and optimization, focusing on shadows, textures, and LOD in large scenes.
  • Contributed to the demo showcased at Gamescom 2025.
Localization Quality Assurance
GlobalStep · Casual / On-call

Jan 2025 – Sep 2025 · 9 mos

Projects (Confidential)
  • Worked as a Traditional Chinese LQA specialist, participating in multiple confidential game projects.
  • Executed the full LQA workflow, including test planning, string review, functional checks, and regression testing.
  • Submitted and tracked bugs via JIRA, ensuring consistency across Chinese (CHT), English, and other language builds.
  • Collaborated with development teams to resolve localization issues, gaining hands-on experience in modern game localization testing.
  • Enhanced both problem-solving and communication skills through cross-team coordination.
Gamification Developer
Concordia's Next-Generation Cities Institute · Internship

Apr 2023 - Jul 2024 · 4 mos + 4 mos

CityPlayer: Chinatown (May 2023 - Sep 2023)
  • Contributed to early-stage automated modeling using satellite data, public city records, and Google Maps to instantiate Montreal’s Chinatown district.
  • Implemented a procedural window-frame and fake-interior generation system, creating layered visual depth with adjustable styles based on function and angle of view.
  • Optimized building performance through LODs, mesh merging, and render cost reduction techniques.
  • Led vegetation asset simplification by classifying 100 urban plant types using ChatGPT and consolidating them into 10 reusable models, improving scene organization and runtime efficiency.
Game Demo for Public Exhibition (Apr 2024)
  • Developed a public-participation game prototype simulating the redevelopment of a Chinatown public lot, presented for one week at a city planning expo.
  • Designed core systems including UI, camera control, post-processing effects, and a Save/Load system. Handled on-site tech support, user interaction, and live feedback collection.
CityPlayer: Voltage (Apr 2024 - Jun 2024)
  • Created a realistic digital twin of Montreal’s downtown core using Unity 6 features such as Adaptive Probe Volumes (APV), custom day-night blending, and weather simulation; project gained attention from ARTM (Montreal Transit Authority).
  • Replaced legacy procedural window logic with a shader-based fake interior system, drastically reducing GameObject count and draw calls.
  • Designed an automated texture pipeline (360° photography -> Photoshop/LR de-distortion -> batch cropping ->ShaderMap export), accelerating PBR production for 60+ buildings.
  • Conducted team training on ProBuilder for modular building adjustments and texture replacements.
Front-end Development
Chiwan Oriental Smart IOT Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. · Internship

Apr 2022 - May 2022 · 2 mos

Report Page
  • Built and deployed web pages using Vue.js
Report Module on Wechat Mini Program
  • implemented pages for a WeChat mini program, driving successful deployment and sustained engagement.

Education

Computer Games
Bachelor of Computer Science, Concordia University

Grade: 3.2/4.3

"Demonstrated strong academic improvement in the latter half of university with a GPA of 3.603."

"Known as a responsible and collaborative team member, consistently earning peers' willingness to collaborate again."

Skills

Techs

Computer Science

C#/Python/Java

js/Vue.js/CSS

Unity

Unity Shaders

Unreal Engine

Behavior tree

OpenGL

Virtual Reality (VR)

WeChat Mini Programs

Arts

Digital Printing

Photography

Figma

Unity Probuilder

Photoshop

Lightroom

Shadermap

SketchUp

Audacity

Blender

Computer Animation

Others

Fluent, work-ready English

Native Chinese Speaker

Computer Hardware Installation

Stable Diffusion

Agile Methodologies

Note-taking & Personal Knowledge Management (e.g., P.A.R.A, CODE)