被遗忘的王国 Forgotten Kingdom 寂静深处
From traditional ink painting to digital worlds — an IB student crafting stories across animation, games, and interactive media.
Li Zhizhen, Class of 2026
I grew up learning Chinese ink painting on rice paper. The breathing space of shan-shui taught me to see what is not drawn — and that lesson became the lens through which I now build animation, games, and interactive worlds.
To admissions officers: portfolio PDFs and recommendation references are available on request.
Four moments, one artist.
3rd International Conference on Design Science, Shanghai. Presented "Games / Animation / Design." Awarded Best Oral — one of only two student recipients.
Thumbnails that map emotion before they map scenes.
48-hour sprints turning ink-wash ideas into playable code.
Squash, stretch, and the persistence of ink.
The ritual before every wall is breached.
When the city paused, a small light kept moving between doors.
Pandemic Community Volunteer Service, Shanghai. During the lockdown, I joined my community as a frontline volunteer — assisting with testing, delivering supplies, and caring for the elderly. To honor the fellow volunteers who risked so much, I adapted the song "There Are So Many People in This World," writing new lyrics and set to a series of my own paintings. The short video spread widely through volunteer group chats, moving countless people who served their communities at personal risk, and was later affirmed by the Shanghai municipal government and published on its official platform.
Hand-drawn action animation merging Chinese ink aesthetics with combat choreography.
Graduation short: a coming-of-age story told through seasonal silence and sudden motion.
Concept animation exploring the tension between safety and discovery.
A curated collection of animation exercises and gesture studies.
Browser action game: defend the wall. Built with HTML5 Canvas.
Ink-wash puzzle platformer prototype. Navigate hidden paths with light and shadow.
Narrative RPG prototype about memory, paper, and the cities we fold.
访谈中，李致臻谈了为什么想做游戏、以及她心目中"好设计"的样子。以下均为她的原话：
“设计的巧妙之处就是没有设计——实际上就让玩家自己去探索。最好的设计，不是粗暴地告诉玩家"你要去那里"，而是玩家感觉不到被安排，像自己走到了那里。这跟"看不见的设计师"是一回事：设计师创造一个场景，由玩家自己设计体验。”
ENThe cleverest design is design you don't notice — the player never feels directed, yet arrives as if they found the way themselves. It's the "invisible designer": the designer builds the stage, and the player designs their own experience.
“制作游戏的过程，以及猜测我的玩家会怎么做、怎么反应的过程，比较吸引人。这就是我想要学习游戏开发的核心原因。”
ENWhat pulls me in is the act of making a game — and guessing how my players will act and react. That's the core reason I want to study game development.
“游戏是一种下限极低、上限极高的亲民艺术——你可以把它当消磨时间的工具，也可以把它当深度解析的艺术品。它既有视觉美感，又有强互动；制作者还能在里面埋彩蛋，表达自己对一些事情的观点。”
ENA game is an accessible art form — very low floor, limitless ceiling. You can treat it as a time-killer or read it as a profound artwork. It has visual beauty and strong interactivity; a maker can bury Easter eggs inside to voice their own views.
“编程只是把想法做出来的工具，但策划决定游戏怎么走、角色怎么发展。只有想清楚了才能做出来。” 她想做的，是"一个用留白代替说教、用探索代替指引的游戏"。
EN"Programming is just the tool that turns ideas into reality, but design decides where the game goes and how characters grow. Only when you've thought it through can you actually build it." The world she wants to build: "a game that uses negative space instead of preaching, and exploration instead of instruction."
— 李致臻 / 访谈原话
Click or tap the titans to slash them before they reach the wall. 3 hits and the wall falls.
TITAN SLASH
Click / Tap to slash
Interactive installation using Processing: light responds to participant breath via sensor input.
Web-based interactive narrative: a scroll-driven story where every choice leaves a trace.
Digital media experiment: what happens when the audience fills the blank?
VS*CS collaborative interactive installation: suspended telephones in a curtained space — each receiver carries an unheard voice.
关于交互作品，李致臻说自己追求的，是一种"看不见的引导"：
“不指定你必须按什么，而是随着你需要的时候，你就知道该点什么。”
ENIt never dictates what you must press — instead, when you need it, you simply know what to click.
— 李致臻 / 访谈原话
My earliest language — ink, paper, and the discipline of looking.
作为从小习画的人，李致臻对"留白"有自己的理解：
“不用一笔一还原，抓住神态就好；画面看似没填满，观感却是满的、平衡的。”
ENYou don't reproduce everything stroke by stroke — you capture the spirit. The picture looks unfinished, yet feels complete and balanced.
— 李致臻 / 访谈原话
Comparing the weight of a brushstroke and the weight of a keyframe.
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