CV

Selected research, engineering experience, projects, publications, and skills.

Contact Information

Name Yufeng Huang
Email yufeng.huang.ai@gmail.com
Website https://www.dreamhungry.com/

Professional Summary

AI systems engineer with 8+ years of industry experience in game AI, interactive agent systems, and AI-assisted production tools across major studios (Tencent, ByteDance, NetEase). My work spans the full spectrum of agent intelligence – from traditional behavior trees and utility AI to LLM-driven autonomous agents with personality and memory. Research interests center on human-centered AI agents for interactive virtual environments – how to build agents that are emotionally intelligent, personalized, and capable of sustaining believable long-term relationships with users.

Experience

  • 2024 - Present

    China

    AI and Tools Lead
    Tencent, SGRA Studio
    Led a five-person AI and tools group for Animula Nook, a pre-launch interactive virtual-world simulation game, focusing on NPC intelligence, agent behavior, and AI-assisted production workflows.
    • Designed and built a hybrid NPC AI architecture combining behavior trees, FSMs, utility AI, and LLM-based modules. Each NPC exhibits configurable personality traits, maintains conversation memory, performs autonomous daily routines, and engages in personalized interaction with players.
    • Led development of 10+ LLM-powered authoring tools spanning narrative/dialogue generation, behavior tree generation from natural language, construction blueprint generation, automated cutscene generation, and more.
    • Explored an automated pipeline where an LLM agent autonomously generates production tools end-to-end – from UI design to code implementation to automated testing.
    • Contributed to core gameplay systems including character animation, NPC systems, dialogue, quests, combat, and in-game chat.
    • Previously responsible for building the global distributed server architecture supporting 1M+ DAU for shared-world multiplayer.
  • 2021 - 2024

    China

    Senior Software Engineer
    ByteDance, Nuverse
    Developed game AI systems and production tools across multiple studio projects, spanning tactical combat AI, open-world ambient NPC behavior, and AI-assisted content generation.
    • Built the battle AI system for Dragonheir: Silent Gods (launched strategy RPG) using behavior trees and state machines for auto-chess-style tactical combat. Explored RL for hero lineup composition.
    • Designed complex multi-phase boss AI (comparable to Souls-like titles) using layered behavior trees and state machines.
    • Built an event-driven blueprint-based NPC AI system supporting 1,000+ concurrent NPCs per scene for a text-heavy DnD-themed CRPG.
    • Developed a utility-based ambient NPC behavior system for an internal open-world ARPG project.
    • Explored generative AI in game production, including diffusion-based concept art/UI icon generation, text-to-motion generation, and video-based motion capture.
    • Built internal authoring tools including blueprint editors, behavior tree editors, narrative editors, quest editors, and dialogue editors.
  • 2020 - 2021

    China

    Software Engineer
    NetEase Games
    Worked on an internal open-world MMORPG project.
    • Developed gameplay systems (character control, camera, level system, etc.).
    • Built companion (buddy) AI combining behavior trees and utility AI, enabling NPC allies to fight alongside players with context-aware combat behavior.
  • 2017 - 2019

    China

    Software Engineer
    NetEase Games
    Worked on Onmyoji Arena, a launched MOBA title.
    • Shipped multiple gameplay systems including hero skills, in-game activity systems, and battle pass systems.
    • Gained working knowledge of utility-based MOBA combat AI and participated in exploratory research on RL-based PvP agents.

Research Interests

  • Emotionally aware and personalized AI agents with long-term memory and adaptive behavior.
  • Game AI and autonomous character behavior in interactive virtual environments.
  • AI-assisted authoring tools for narrative, dialogue, and agent behavior design.
  • Evaluation and alignment of agent behavior in interactive settings.

Education

  • 2014 - 2017

    Wuhan, China

    M.S.
    Huazhong University of Science and Technology
    Pattern Recognition and Intelligent Systems
    • Pattern Recognition
    • Computer Vision
    • Machine Learning and Data Mining
    • Digital Image Processing
    • Digital Video Processing
    • Matrix Theory
    • Stochastic Processes
    • GPA: 3.43.
    • Thesis: CNN-based Visual Place Recognition in Changing Environments.
  • 2010 - 2014

    Wuhan, China

    B.E.
    Huazhong University of Science and Technology
    Measurement and Control Technology and Instrumentation
    • Calculus
    • Linear Algebra
    • Probability Theory
    • C Programming
    • Data Structures
    • Computer Networks
    • Automatic Control
    • Digital Signal Processing
    • GPA: 3.73.

Selected Research Projects

Publications

Skills

Programming: Python, C/C++, C#
AI / ML: PyTorch, Hugging Face Transformers, Reinforcement Learning, LLM Agent Development (LangChain, RAG, Context Engineering), Multimodal Interaction (ASR, TTS, Emotion Recognition)
Game AI: Behavior Trees, Finite-state Machines, Utility AI
Game Engines and Tools: Unity, Unreal Engine, Custom Editors and Authoring Tools
Backend and Infrastructure: FastAPI, WebSocket, Docker, Linux, Distributed Server Architecture