Game Developer · World Wanderer
Nine years building games, from large commercial mobile titles to console combat frameworks;
solo journeys across a dozen countries, from Wadi Rum to the snows of Kilimanjaro.
01 — About
I am Li Ke. By day, a senior game developer building combat systems with Unreal Engine 5 and C++. Off the clock, I shoulder a pack and walk alone into the far names on the map.
Over nine years I have shipped several commercial games, and as lead programmer on a console title I built the engineering foundation and combat framework from scratch. In the same years I summited Kilimanjaro, dove the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, drove across the steppes of Central Asia, and recorded those vast, desolate, quiet moments through a lens and a drone.
Engineering gives me rigor; the road gives me an eye. This site is where the two meet.
02 — Work
From mobile to console, from gameplay to core frameworks. A dual stack of Unreal 5 / C++ / GAS and Unity / C# / Lua — I can own core systems independently on a large team, or carry a small team as lead programmer, from standing up the engineering pipeline to delivering the combat framework end to end.
Projects & experience
RedMoonGames · Lead & Sole Programmer · 8-person team
The sole programmer on an 8-person team, owning the entire programming effort from engine to gameplay. Designed and built a complete combat framework on GAS from scratch — input, combat and character ability systems — and shipped a playable demo with melee, ranged attacks and basic locomotion. Also stood up the engine source build, UGS, Perforce server and the team’s collaboration pipeline. (Wound down when funding fell through.)
Papergames · X3 Studio · Game Developer
Independently built the 3D live voice-interaction feature (real-time voice companionship), wiring the full path across native, framework and business layers. Owned SDK development and maintenance (mic / recording, Android-first), plus business systems such as inventory and live events.
Official site ↗Papergames · Nikki Studio · Game Developer
UI performance optimization, and helped establish UI standards and workflows to improve team efficiency; also developed and maintained business systems.
Official site ↗Youzu · War God Studio · Game Developer
Built city-hall module features and iterated the equipment system, with some live-event work; owned iteration and maintenance of the task-queue and notification-badge modules.
Official site ↗Youzu · Daxia Studio · Game Developer
Built UI logic and screens for selected live events and dungeons, and fixed related issues.
Official site ↗03 — Journeys
A dozen-odd countries, most of them solo. I care less about how many places I’ve been than about the vast, desolate, quiet moments — and the real conversations with people met along the way. Here are a few of them.
Middle East
Wadi Rum, Jordan
At sunrise the red sandstone lights up grain by grain, the wind combing the sand into silk. No signal, no voices — only my own footprints and a whole desert of silence.
Africa
Kilimanjaro, Tanzania · 5,895 m
Five days, from rainforest up into glacier. The last night I crept up the scree by headlamp; at dawn I stood on Uhuru Peak — clouds below my feet, all of Africa behind me.
Africa
Amboseli, Kenya
In the rains the savanna turns a wet green; a herd drifts past with Kilimanjaro’s snow cap behind them. I didn’t press the shutter much that moment — I just watched.
Central Asia
Samarkand, Uzbekistan · Kazakhstan
The domes of Samarkand glow a blue that hardly seems real. Further north lie the Kazakh steppe and badlands, the road running dead straight into the horizon — hundreds of kilometres without a soul.
Tianshan, China
East Karajun, Ili, Xinjiang
The meadows lie like green velvet combed by the wind, ridge after ridge folding away into the heart of the Tianshan. Far below, the Kokesu River curls into eel-shaped bends; for tens of kilometres there is no one — only the shadows of clouds drifting slowly across the slopes.
Underwater
Red Sea · Indian Ocean · OW / AOW
Twenty metres down, sound disappears — only breathing remains. Light slants in from the surface, fish drifting like leaves in wind. A very quiet kind of weightlessness.
On the Road
Overland, at home & abroad · 10+ years
Washboard tracks, river crossings, mountain switchbacks at night — in ten years I’ve met just about every road. The view keeps changing; what stays is the urge to see what’s a little further on.
04 — Photography
On the road I record the vast moments with a camera and a drone. This is a gallery still growing — more of my own landscape, documentary and aerial work will live here.
05 — Contact
Whether it’s a game-dev collaboration, a remote role, or simply a conversation about travel and photography — I’d love to hear from you.
forestlii@outlook.com06 — Indie / Devlog
I’m brewing an indie game rooted in the culture of a Chinese ethnic minority. This space will become its development log.
Coming soon