Overview
Yang Qi (杨奇) is the Chief Design Officer and co-founder of Game Science. He is the art director responsible for the visual identity of both Black Myth: Wukong and Black Myth: Zhong Kui, and the person whose dream directly inspired the Zhong Kui project.
Background
Yang Qi attended the China Academy of Art, where he majored in oil painting. He had studied traditional Chinese painting since childhood and transitioned to digital painting during his sophomore year. His personal design philosophy centers on direct observation: "What I do is I try to at least draw three concepts a day of things in the streets. I really like to draw things from Chinese mythology and reinvent it."
Career before Game Science
Yang Qi previously served as character designer for "The Romance of Mountain and Ocean," a large-scale online game. He joined Tencent in 2008 at Quantum Studio, where he worked as art director for the MMO Asura alongside Feng Ji. When Tencent restructured its studios in 2014, Yang Qi left with Feng Ji and five others to found Game Science.
Location Research for Wukong
For Black Myth: Wukong, Yang Qi and his production team surveyed at least 36 real-world locations across China for digital preservation, including Dule Temple (Jixian, Tianjin), Jade Emperor Temple (Jincheng, Shanxi), Dazu Rock Carvings (Chongqing), and Chongfu Temple (Shuozhou, Shanxi). When visiting ancient buildings, he avoided touching relics and attempted to preserve dust during digital scanning.
The dream that inspired Zhong Kui
Yang Qi told colleagues: "I had a dream last month. I dreamed of a strange man with a black face and a red beard." The figure stood on a balcony holding a tiger. He researched the image and found it matched Ming dynasty paintings of Zhong Kui riding a tiger.
He discussed the concept with a colleague named Wei, initially proposing they turn it into a CG short film. The idea eventually grew into a full game. Yang Qi noted the team had "worked on the Journey to the West-themed content for more than a decade" and felt it was "time to change the focus." He characterized Zhong Kui as "a strange and mysterious legend" distinct from Wukong's god-demon narrative.
Design Philosophy
On creative motivation: "If you are not interested, you will not do it well. Similarly, if you are really interested, no matter what difficulties you encounter in the future, you will be better equipped to overcome them."
Stance on Generative AI
In August 2026, answering a fan who asked how much today's AI could speed up the development of Black Myth: Zhong Kui, Yang Qi said the game's design and asset production stages will stay away from generative AI. He framed the choice as deliberate rather than hostile: not resistance to the technology, but a wish to stand the last watch for traditional craftsmanship.
He pointed to the filmmaker Christopher Nolan, whose film adaptation of The Odyssey he had just praised as the standard answer for epic films, as proof that older, refined techniques can still thrive. In his words, there is no last bus that absolutely must be caught, and there is plenty of time for AI later. The statement covers the design and asset stages specifically; Yang Qi did not rule the technology out elsewhere or forever.
Work Shown After the Gameplay Demo
Yang Qi was one of the studio's most visible voices around the August 2026 Gameplay Demo. Replying to players after its release, he described the footage as coming from a single test map and said there was no rush, remarks covered in full on the demo's page.
At the end of August 2026 he shared a set of images from the game on his personal portfolio account, describing them as lighting and material tests made directly in the game engine rather than finished artwork. He noted that no final design drafts or renders were ready for release yet, thanked his colleagues, and said the team would keep polishing the work. As of September 2026, these test images and the demo are the only in-engine material he has shown for the game.