Small games, strange ideas — made with care.
Hi — I'm Ichigo33 (Wang). Ichigo Studio is my solo practice for designing, coding and drawing small games — experimental ideas, kept to a size one person can actually finish. Mostly one desk, one pair of hands; sometimes a tiny team on a jam. Made with care, a bit of playfulness, and (soon) with a small white terrier named Bobo underfoot.
Pinned to the board.
Ten projects · 2023 – 2026scope rule:
if it can't ship in six weeks, it's a different game.— note above desk, 2024
Look outside games for the spark.
Build a mechanic that isn't.
Scope tight. Playtest. Cut.
At the desk.
Ichigo33 (Wang) · NYC → ShanghaiI'm a game designer and developer, solo-cooking at Ichigo Studio. The work sits at the intersection of experimental mechanics and well-scoped ideas — trying to push what games can do, at a size one pair of hands can hold.
I studied games from both sides — BA in AGPM (Art & Design: Games and Playable Media) at UC Santa Cruz (2019–2024), then the MS in Games for Learning at NYU (2024–2026, about to wrap). I work in Unity and Unreal, sprite in Aseprite, finish in Photoshop and Premiere. Each project gets the length it wants — no longer, no shorter.
The studio name comes from Bleach — the first manga I followed for years, and the one that shaped how I think about characters, worlds, and making things. Ichigo is the main character's name; in Japanese it also reads as "strawberry." Keeping both felt right.
Studio Receipt · 04·2026
On the shelf.
A loose timelineStopped calling it "my projects folder" — gave it a name and a homepage. Not a registered company; just the label on whatever comes off this desk.
Wrapped the ARTG170–172 senior thesis at UCSC (Sep '23 – Jun '24) — Fraw G. and the Moth, Goat in Our Stars, Dragon Gate, and Mariana Trek all came out of those classes. Graduated AGPM that spring.
Headed east to NYU for the Games for Learning MS that fall. Lightsaver and Ninja Drummer came out of my first NYU class; Lightsaver kept growing in free time after.
The earlier UCSC stack — Retro-Active, Icy Hunt, Pixel Patcher, plus the Woodland Season board game. Platformers, a speedrun, a tabletop — figuring out the kinds of games I wanted to make.
Summer at Unity China's Shanghai bootcamp (May – Aug 2022). Capped it with the Unity Associate Game Developer Certification that August.
Summer internship at a game studio in Wuhan as Market & User Research. Playtested games and wrote reports — first time seeing the industry from the inside.
Started my BA in Art & Design: Games and Playable Media at UC Santa Cruz. First Unity class. First game made by me, alone.
High school kid in China who'd (according to my parents) played PC games before he could walk. Around then, game design started showing up as a US major — first time the hobby looked like a possible career.
Kind words.
Players · jams · professorsLet's make
something small — and a little strange.
Heads-down on two new games — not taking on collabs or freelance right now. But for hellos, questions, weird ideas, or playtest swaps, the inbox is always open. Usually a reply within a day.
ichco233@gmail.com ↗