Evgeniia Rein

M.F.A. – 4th Year

Game Design | Storrs

Hometown: Moscow, Russia
UConn location: 119 Bishop Center

Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/evgerein

M.F.A. – 4th Year

Assistantship: Sponsored Program Services (Office of the Vice President for Research)

Education: B.A. in Game Design at HSE University, Moscow, Russia
Study abroad in Game Design at Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

Language(s) Spoken: Russian – Русский

Area of Research / Artistic Focus: Game Design, Interactive Design, Fine Art

Evgeniia Rein is an award-winning artist who creates digital games and interactive stories, often using the medium as a tool for preserving personal narratives. Rein is passionate about games as a medium for translating human experience and emotions in historical and social contexts. She started to develop video games several years ago, both as a solo developer and a team member. Since then, she has worked on dozens of video games, board games, and tabletop role-playing games. Growing up with mixed Jewish and Korean ancestry in Moscow, a melting pot of cultures formerly united under Soviet rule, shaped her awareness of assimilation and the methods employed by those in power to enforce it.

Her thesis project, “The Furthest East,” is a point-and-click video game that delves into the culture, daily life, and tragic experiences of ethnic Koreans in the former Soviet Union, sharing the little-known story of Stalin’s forcible relocation of hundreds of thousands of Koryo-saram (Soviet Koreans) from their homeland in the Russian Far East westward up to 5,000 miles into Central Asia in 1937. Inspired by extensive research into the history and personal testimonies, this interactive story aims to foster empathy for the community and preserve its culture and history, bringing awareness to the Koryo-Saram, to have their pain and resilience acknowledged by the world.

Rein is currently a 4th year graduate student at the University of Connecticut where she is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Digital Media Design and a graduate certificate in Human Rights. She previously earned a B.A. in Game Design at HSE University in Moscow and studied abroad in the game design program at Uppsala University in Sweden. Her industry experience includes full-time internships at Blizzard Entertainment and Epic Games, where she worked on Diablo 4 and Fortnite as a systems designer and balance designer respectively. Recently, she was a finalist in the “Best Outplay Hunger Game” category of the University-Age Division for the 2025 Games For Change Student Challenge, and her team won the “Artistic Achievement” award at the Just Play Game Jam for Justice at SXSW 2024.

Recent Awards & Achievements:

Guest Lecturer, “Preserving Tragic Experiences with Interactive Media: Soviet Deportations of Koryo-saram” Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Yale University (2025)
Finalist – “Best Outplay Hunger Game” for Echo and Aid: In Search of Food, University-Age Division (Games For Change Student Challenge, 2025)
Balance Game Design Intern – “Fortnite,” Epic Games (2025)
Systems Game Design Intern – “Diablo 4,” Blizzard Entertainment (2024)
“Artistic Achievement” team award for Drawing Up Dust, Just Play Game Jam for Justice (SXSW, 2024).
HSE Endowment Fund Scholarship (HSE University, 2021)
Finalist in the Game Design competition I am a Professional (Yandex, 2021)
Finalist in the Student Research Paper Competition in Game Design (HSE University, 2020)
Finalist in the Highest Probe contest in Fine Arts (HSE University, 2018)

Email	evgeniia.rein@uconn.edu
Office Location	119 Bishop Center
Campus	Storrs