05— Zion Kim
Written by Phoebe Meng ✦ 5/7/2026
Zion Kim, also known by the online moniker ZoinDoesCode, is an aspiring indie game designer who has made numerous games on the website itch.io. Though still relatively new in his career, he has great dreams of eventually starting his own game studio.
Zion found his love for game design as a kid, when he found the thrill in solving puzzles through scavenger hunts with his friends. He later made scavenger hunts of his own that challenged others with decodable ciphers and end rewards,which brought him joy that culminated in him taking up coding after middle school. Coding satisfied that desire to share a creation of his own to the world.
While taking computer science class in high school, Zion found himself disappointed that his teacher spent the class period sitting in the corner and sending all the confused students to ask Zion for help.
“I loved helping my peers because it was genuinely fun but I hated the way he made coding feel like a meaningless task.” Zion said about his experience.
After that class, Zion decided to continue his education towards game design on his own. He learned Blender through YouTube courses, creating a loop of Excalibur embedded in stone. He discovered p5.js, an open-script Java library that teaches beginners how to code and make interactive visuals. Little by little, he built up a library of knowledge through a variety of online resources.
Now Zion is pursuing an Entertainment Design degree at the ArtCenter College of Design, studying game design and Unity, and enjoying his time making games like he loved since he was a child. He especially has developed an interest towards horror games, citing pieces of media like Interstellar, Inception, Maze Runner, SOMA, Little Nightmares, and Mouthwashing as sources of narrative inspiration. Despite his influence from media of different mediums, Zion believes that the stories he wants to tell are only achievable in game format.
“In a game, you're the director.” Zion explains. “You create your own experience all while understanding what the director wants you to realize or feel.”
Artistically, Zion draws inspiration from Christopher Nolan, as well as the studio behind Little Nightmares, Tarsier Studios and the studio behind SOMA, Frictional Games. He especially enjoys the puzzle-piece story format from Christopher Nolan, the eerie atmospheres from Tarsier Studios, and the deafening story plot twists from Frictional Games.
Zion is motivated to continue on his game developer journey through support from his friends and family. He and his friends have ideas for game stories that haven’t been realized due to a lack of expertise, but remain as aspirations in their future.
Though creating a game studio is one of Zion’s long-term goals, he also believes in his role as a designer to be able to come up with accessible solutions in his games for problems going on around the world.
“I don’t want to create games that reimagine what could have been different, but to show solutions, hope, and ways to fight back,” Zion says.
You can check out Zion’s video games at https://zoindoescode.itch.io/. He also has Instagram.
