Hanzi Workshop / 汉字工坊
A bilingual web game project that turns hanzi structure into playable systems instead of decoration.
This project lives in the hanziHero repository and currently ships as a two-game launcher: the survivor-style Hanzi Hero and the deckbuilding Cangjie Road. It is one of the clearest examples of the kind of interactive, language-driven work this site should highlight.
Challenge
The core challenge is making Chinese characters feel readable, learnable, and tactically interesting at the same time. That means balancing language clarity, game feel, bilingual onboarding, and a presentation layer that still feels like a real game instead of an educational demo.
Approach
The project is structured as a shared launcher plus two prototype directions. Shared language and theme preferences carry across pages, Hanzi Hero explores fast battlefield readability and combat effects, and Cangjie Road explores a deckbuilding interpretation of character composition with a Babylon.js stage layer.
Outcome
Hanzi Workshop already reads as a serious prototype line rather than a loose experiment. It has a presentable launcher, clear visual identity, release notes, and a branching workflow that supports rapid iteration while keeping a stable mainline for showcase use.
Gallery
Legacy assets kept intact while the surrounding story gets rebuilt.
