Jenova Chen
Encyclopedia
Xinghan Chen known as Jenova Chen, is the designer of the award-winning games Cloud, Flow, and Flower
, and is co-founder of Thatgamecompany
. Chen is from Shanghai
, where he earned a bachelors degree in computer science and a minor in digital art and design. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he got a master's degree from the University of Southern California
's Interactive Media Division
. While there he created Cloud and Flow, and met fellow student Kellee Santiago
. After a brief period at Maxis
working on Spore
, he founded Thatgamecompany with Santiago and became the company's creative director
. The company signed a three-game deal with Sony Computer Entertainment
, and has sold Flow and Flower through the PlayStation Network. Chen and Thatgamecompany are currently working on Journey, their third game for Sony.
As Chen was born in one culture and lives in another, he chooses to try to make games that appeal universally to all people. His goal with his games and Thatgamecompany in general is to try to help video games mature as a medium by making games that inspire emotional responses in the player that other games are lacking. Although he and Thatgamecompany can and have made more traditional games, he does not plan on commercially developing any of them, as he does not think that it fits with their goals as an independent video game developer
.
, and lived there until 2003. His parents were "a middle class family", and his dad worked in the software development industry, having previously worked on "one of the earliest giant computers in China". Although Chen was interested in art and drawing as a young child, his father influenced him towards computers, entering him in programming contests from when he was 10 years old. He found himself interested in video games that he saw there, but was not as enthusiastic about programming. While a teenager, he had deep emotional experiences with games that he played, which he ascribes to the fact that he was not as exposed to books, films, or life events that other people would have had those experiences with. These experiences drove him to try to create those types of feelings in games as an adult, when more emotional maturity had caused his "standards to rise" in what would move him in a game. It was during high school that he chose the English name Jenova after a character in Final Fantasy VII
, wanting a name that would be unique anywhere he used it as there were "thousands of Jason Chens".
He earned a degree in Computer Science & Engineering in Shanghai Jiao Tong University
, which due to his background in computers he found "quite easy", but describes himself as spending much of his time there teaching himself digital art and animation, and later did a minor in digital art and design at Dong Hua University. Still interested in video games, he was involved in making three video games as part of a student group while in school. Upon graduating, he had trouble finding a job in the Chinese video game industry that combined his interests of "engineering, art, and design", and additionally felt that "very few games [had] actually achieved those qualities that would be interesting to an adult". He also considered working in digital animation for films.
He then went to the United States to earn a master's degree in the Interactive Media Program
of the School of Cinematic Arts
at the University of Southern California
. His intention at the time was to use the degree to get the kind of job he wanted back in China. At USC, he became inspired when he went to the Game Developers Conference
, where he positively compared the games he had made in college with the student work present at the Independent Games Festival
portion of the conference. While at USC he met Kellee Santiago
, another student in the same program, and the two decided to work together on games that would be outside of the mainstream. Their first game, which won a grant of twenty thousand dollars from USC to produce, was Cloud, released in 2005, which "focuses on a young hospital patient who soars in his mind despite being trapped indoors". The idea was partially based on himself, as when he was a child he was often hospitalized for asthma. It was designed as an attempt to "expand the spectrum of emotions video games evoke". At a student showcase at the Game Developers Conference, Chen and Santiago showed the game to a representative from Sony, John Hight, saying that it was the first game in the "Zen" genre. Hight was interested, though no deal was forthcoming. The game won the Best Student Philosophy award at the Slamdance Guerilla Games Competition and a Student Showcase award at the Independent Games Festival, and was showcased on Spike TV, G4TV
, and CBS Sunday.
Chen went on to do his master's thesis
the following year in the concept of dynamic difficulty adjustment
, where the game adjusts how it reacts to the player based on the past and present actions of that player. Chen illustrated his ideas with Flow, a Flash
game made with Nicholas Clark. The game involves the player guiding an aquatic microorganism
through various depths of the ocean, consuming other organisms and evolving in the process. It was released in March 2006; it received 100,000 downloads in its first two weeks and by July had been downloaded over 650,000 times. A PlayStation 3
version was announced in May 2006 as a downloadable game via the PlayStation Store
, and was released in February 2007. A version for the PlayStation Portable
, developed by SuperVillain Studios
, was released in March 2008. Flow became the most downloaded game on the PlayStation Network in 2007, and won Best Downloadable Game at the Game Developers Choice Awards
.
After graduating, Chen and Santiago formed their own game company, Thatgamecompany
, in Los Angeles
where he still lives and signed a deal with Sony for three PlayStation Store games. The PS3 version of Flow was the first, and while it was in development Chen briefly worked for Maxis
on the game Spore
. Upon Flows release, Chen returned to Thatgamecompany and began working on their second game.
, was Chen and Thatgamecompany's "first game outside the safety net of academia". Chen was the creative director in charge of the game, while Santiago was the producer and Clark was the lead designer. The company ranged in size from six to nine people at varying stages of the game's development. Flower was intended by Chen to primarily to provoke positive emotions in the player, and to act as "an emotional shelter". Chen described the game as "an interactive poem exploring the tension between urban and nature". He decided on a "nature" theme early in the development process, saying that he "had this concept that every PlayStation is like a portal in your living room, it leads you to somewhere else. I thought; wouldn't it be nice if it was a portal that would allow you to be embraced by nature." Chen designed the game around the idea that the primary purpose of entertainment products like video games was the feelings that they evoked in the audience, and that the emotional range of most games was very limited. To make Flower have the "emotional spectrum" that he wanted, Chen looked at the development process as creating a work of art, rather than a "fun" game, which would not provoke the desired emotions. In 2008, during Flowers development, Chen was named to the MIT
Technology Review
TR35
as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
After Flower was released to critical praise and awards, Chen and Thatgamecompany moved on to their next game, Journey. Journey is intended by Chen to focus on the element of communication and social interaction in video games. Since in most games the communication between players is focused on specific goals, in Journey Chen intends for the player to be able to either play alone or to come across other players, but not be able to communicate with them directly. Instead, players will have to build relationships with each other through their actions, helping each other or leaving as they choose. Journey has not yet received a projected release date.
, Ico
and Shadow of the Colossus
. He also names Final Fantasy VII
as an influence, and the game that he took his adopted name from. He personally plays games "competitively", including titles such as Street Fighter IV
and Starcraft
. As he was raised in China and works in America, Chen feels that he cannot fully relate to either culture as a game designer. As such, instead of trying to make games that fit perfectly with one culture he tries to make games that tap into feelings that are universal and independent of culture.
When Chen quit Maxis to re-join Thatgamecompany, he did so knowing that it would mean taking less pay and having a less stable career. He felt, though, that it was important to the industry and medium as a whole to create games that provoked different emotional responses in the player than just excitement or fear. While Chen is not opposed to making action games, and his company has made internal "exciting" games that were well received at Sony, he feels that there is no point to Thatgamecompany commercially producing games like that instead of working for existing game developers, as they would not be making anything new that justified the cost of remaining an independent studio. Similarly, Chen does not intend for Thatgamecompany to make "big budget blockbuster games", as the pressure on profits that that entails would stifle the innovation that he wants Thatgamecompany to focus on. Chen believes that for video games to become a mature medium like film, the industry as a whole needs to create a wide range of emotional responses to their games, similar to how film has thriller, romance, and comedy genres based on the emotions they provoke.
Flower (video game)
Flower is a PlayStation 3 video game. It was developed by Thatgamecompany, designed by Jenova Chen and Nicholas Clark, and announced at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show. Flower was released on February 12, 2009, via the PlayStation Network. The game was intended as a "spiritual successor" to Flow, a...
, and is co-founder of Thatgamecompany
Thatgamecompany
Thatgamecompany, stylized as thatgamecompany, is an American independent video game developer co-founded by University of Southern California students Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen. The studio is currently a second-party developer for Sony Computer Entertainment, and is under contract to create...
. Chen is from Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, where he earned a bachelors degree in computer science and a minor in digital art and design. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he got a master's degree from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
's Interactive Media Division
USC Interactive Media Division
The University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts's Interactive Media Division first accepted students in 2002. In addition to coursework in film production, screenwriting, and animation, students in the division study across three disciplines within interactive media: immersive...
. While there he created Cloud and Flow, and met fellow student Kellee Santiago
Kellee Santiago
Kellee Santiago is a video game designer and producer, and the co-founder and president of Thatgamecompany. Santiago was born in Caracas, Venezuela and was raised in Richmond, Virginia, where she played video games from a young age and was encouraged by her software engineer father to experiment...
. After a brief period at Maxis
Maxis
Maxis is an American company founded as an independent video game developer in 1987. It is currently a subsidiary of Electronic Arts . Maxis is the creator of one of the best-selling computer games of all time, The Sims and its first sequel, The Sims 2...
working on Spore
Spore (2008 video game)
Spore is a multi-genre single-player god game developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. The game was released for the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems in September 2008 as Spore...
, he founded Thatgamecompany with Santiago and became the company's creative director
Creative Director
A creative director is a position often found within the graphic design, film, music, fashion, advertising, media or entertainment industries, but may be useful in other creative organizations such as web development and software development firms as well....
. The company signed a three-game deal with Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony...
, and has sold Flow and Flower through the PlayStation Network. Chen and Thatgamecompany are currently working on Journey, their third game for Sony.
As Chen was born in one culture and lives in another, he chooses to try to make games that appeal universally to all people. His goal with his games and Thatgamecompany in general is to try to help video games mature as a medium by making games that inspire emotional responses in the player that other games are lacking. Although he and Thatgamecompany can and have made more traditional games, he does not plan on commercially developing any of them, as he does not think that it fits with their goals as an independent video game developer
Independent video game development
Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large firms can create independent games, they are usually designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the...
.
Biography
Chen was born in ShanghaiShanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, and lived there until 2003. His parents were "a middle class family", and his dad worked in the software development industry, having previously worked on "one of the earliest giant computers in China". Although Chen was interested in art and drawing as a young child, his father influenced him towards computers, entering him in programming contests from when he was 10 years old. He found himself interested in video games that he saw there, but was not as enthusiastic about programming. While a teenager, he had deep emotional experiences with games that he played, which he ascribes to the fact that he was not as exposed to books, films, or life events that other people would have had those experiences with. These experiences drove him to try to create those types of feelings in games as an adult, when more emotional maturity had caused his "standards to rise" in what would move him in a game. It was during high school that he chose the English name Jenova after a character in Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII
is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was originally released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation and was re-released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers and in 2009...
, wanting a name that would be unique anywhere he used it as there were "thousands of Jason Chens".
He earned a degree in Computer Science & Engineering in Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University or SJTU), sometimes referred to as Shanghai Jiaotong University , is a top public research university located in Shanghai, China. Shanghai Jiao Tong University is known as one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China...
, which due to his background in computers he found "quite easy", but describes himself as spending much of his time there teaching himself digital art and animation, and later did a minor in digital art and design at Dong Hua University. Still interested in video games, he was involved in making three video games as part of a student group while in school. Upon graduating, he had trouble finding a job in the Chinese video game industry that combined his interests of "engineering, art, and design", and additionally felt that "very few games [had] actually achieved those qualities that would be interesting to an adult". He also considered working in digital animation for films.
He then went to the United States to earn a master's degree in the Interactive Media Program
USC Interactive Media Division
The University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts's Interactive Media Division first accepted students in 2002. In addition to coursework in film production, screenwriting, and animation, students in the division study across three disciplines within interactive media: immersive...
of the School of Cinematic Arts
USC School of Cinematic Arts
The USC School of Cinematic Arts, until 2006 named the School of Cinema-Television , is a film school within the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. It is the oldest and largest such school in the United States, established in 1929 as a joint venture with the Academy of...
at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
. His intention at the time was to use the degree to get the kind of job he wanted back in China. At USC, he became inspired when he went to the Game Developers Conference
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking...
, where he positively compared the games he had made in college with the student work present at the Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
portion of the conference. While at USC he met Kellee Santiago
Kellee Santiago
Kellee Santiago is a video game designer and producer, and the co-founder and president of Thatgamecompany. Santiago was born in Caracas, Venezuela and was raised in Richmond, Virginia, where she played video games from a young age and was encouraged by her software engineer father to experiment...
, another student in the same program, and the two decided to work together on games that would be outside of the mainstream. Their first game, which won a grant of twenty thousand dollars from USC to produce, was Cloud, released in 2005, which "focuses on a young hospital patient who soars in his mind despite being trapped indoors". The idea was partially based on himself, as when he was a child he was often hospitalized for asthma. It was designed as an attempt to "expand the spectrum of emotions video games evoke". At a student showcase at the Game Developers Conference, Chen and Santiago showed the game to a representative from Sony, John Hight, saying that it was the first game in the "Zen" genre. Hight was interested, though no deal was forthcoming. The game won the Best Student Philosophy award at the Slamdance Guerilla Games Competition and a Student Showcase award at the Independent Games Festival, and was showcased on Spike TV, G4TV
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
, and CBS Sunday.
Chen went on to do his master's thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
the following year in the concept of dynamic difficulty adjustment
Dynamic game difficulty balancing
Dynamic game difficulty balancing, also known as dynamic difficulty adjustment or dynamic game balancing , is the process of automatically changing parameters, scenarios and behaviors in a video game in real-time, based on the player's ability, in order to avoid them becoming bored or frustrated...
, where the game adjusts how it reacts to the player based on the past and present actions of that player. Chen illustrated his ideas with Flow, a Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
game made with Nicholas Clark. The game involves the player guiding an aquatic microorganism
Microorganism
A microorganism or microbe is a microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters, or no cell at all...
through various depths of the ocean, consuming other organisms and evolving in the process. It was released in March 2006; it received 100,000 downloads in its first two weeks and by July had been downloaded over 650,000 times. A PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
version was announced in May 2006 as a downloadable game via the PlayStation Store
PlayStation Store
The PlayStation Store is an online virtual market available to users of Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable game consoles via the PlayStation Network. The Store offers a range of downloadable content both for purchase and available free of charge. Available content includes full games,...
, and was released in February 2007. A version for the PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
, developed by SuperVillain Studios
SuperVillain Studios
SuperVillain Studios is a video game development company that develops for the Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and the PlayStation Portable.-Company Profile:...
, was released in March 2008. Flow became the most downloaded game on the PlayStation Network in 2007, and won Best Downloadable Game at the Game Developers Choice Awards
Game Developers Choice Awards
The Game Developers Choice Awards are annually presented by the Game Developers Conference for outstanding game developers and games.Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Spotlight Awards, which were presented from 1997 to 1999.The 2009 award presentation was...
.
After graduating, Chen and Santiago formed their own game company, Thatgamecompany
Thatgamecompany
Thatgamecompany, stylized as thatgamecompany, is an American independent video game developer co-founded by University of Southern California students Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen. The studio is currently a second-party developer for Sony Computer Entertainment, and is under contract to create...
, in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
where he still lives and signed a deal with Sony for three PlayStation Store games. The PS3 version of Flow was the first, and while it was in development Chen briefly worked for Maxis
Maxis
Maxis is an American company founded as an independent video game developer in 1987. It is currently a subsidiary of Electronic Arts . Maxis is the creator of one of the best-selling computer games of all time, The Sims and its first sequel, The Sims 2...
on the game Spore
Spore (2008 video game)
Spore is a multi-genre single-player god game developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. The game was released for the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems in September 2008 as Spore...
. Upon Flows release, Chen returned to Thatgamecompany and began working on their second game.
Thatgamecompany
The next game, FlowerFlower (video game)
Flower is a PlayStation 3 video game. It was developed by Thatgamecompany, designed by Jenova Chen and Nicholas Clark, and announced at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show. Flower was released on February 12, 2009, via the PlayStation Network. The game was intended as a "spiritual successor" to Flow, a...
, was Chen and Thatgamecompany's "first game outside the safety net of academia". Chen was the creative director in charge of the game, while Santiago was the producer and Clark was the lead designer. The company ranged in size from six to nine people at varying stages of the game's development. Flower was intended by Chen to primarily to provoke positive emotions in the player, and to act as "an emotional shelter". Chen described the game as "an interactive poem exploring the tension between urban and nature". He decided on a "nature" theme early in the development process, saying that he "had this concept that every PlayStation is like a portal in your living room, it leads you to somewhere else. I thought; wouldn't it be nice if it was a portal that would allow you to be embraced by nature." Chen designed the game around the idea that the primary purpose of entertainment products like video games was the feelings that they evoked in the audience, and that the emotional range of most games was very limited. To make Flower have the "emotional spectrum" that he wanted, Chen looked at the development process as creating a work of art, rather than a "fun" game, which would not provoke the desired emotions. In 2008, during Flowers development, Chen was named to the MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
Technology Review
Technology Review
Technology Review is a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as "The Technology Review", and was re-launched without the "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey...
TR35
TR35
The TR35 is an annual list published by MIT Technology Review magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35.Some of the most famous winners of the award include Larry Page and Sergey Brin , Linus Torvalds , Jerry Yang , Jonathan Ive , Mark Zuckerberg...
as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
After Flower was released to critical praise and awards, Chen and Thatgamecompany moved on to their next game, Journey. Journey is intended by Chen to focus on the element of communication and social interaction in video games. Since in most games the communication between players is focused on specific goals, in Journey Chen intends for the player to be able to either play alone or to come across other players, but not be able to communicate with them directly. Instead, players will have to build relationships with each other through their actions, helping each other or leaving as they choose. Journey has not yet received a projected release date.
Influences and philosophy
Chen plays a wide variety of video games, but he names his greatest influences as Katamari DamacyKatamari Damacy
Katamari Damacy is a third-person puzzle-action video game that is published and developed by Namco for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It was first released in Japan, and then later in South Korea and North America...
, Ico
Ico
is an action-adventure game published by Sony Computer Entertainment and released for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It was designed and directed by Fumito Ueda, who wanted to create a minimalist game around a "boy meets girl" concept. Originally planned for the PlayStation, Ico took...
and Shadow of the Colossus
Shadow of the Colossus
Shadow of the Colossus, released in Japan as , is an action-adventure game published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. The game was released in North America and Japan in October 2005 and PAL territories in February 2006...
. He also names Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII
is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was originally released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation and was re-released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers and in 2009...
as an influence, and the game that he took his adopted name from. He personally plays games "competitively", including titles such as Street Fighter IV
Street Fighter IV
is a fighting game produced by Capcom. It is the first numbered Street Fighter game released by Capcom since . The coin-operated arcade game was released in Japan on July 18, 2008, with North American arcades importing the machines by August...
and Starcraft
StarCraft
StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...
. As he was raised in China and works in America, Chen feels that he cannot fully relate to either culture as a game designer. As such, instead of trying to make games that fit perfectly with one culture he tries to make games that tap into feelings that are universal and independent of culture.
When Chen quit Maxis to re-join Thatgamecompany, he did so knowing that it would mean taking less pay and having a less stable career. He felt, though, that it was important to the industry and medium as a whole to create games that provoked different emotional responses in the player than just excitement or fear. While Chen is not opposed to making action games, and his company has made internal "exciting" games that were well received at Sony, he feels that there is no point to Thatgamecompany commercially producing games like that instead of working for existing game developers, as they would not be making anything new that justified the cost of remaining an independent studio. Similarly, Chen does not intend for Thatgamecompany to make "big budget blockbuster games", as the pressure on profits that that entails would stifle the innovation that he wants Thatgamecompany to focus on. Chen believes that for video games to become a mature medium like film, the industry as a whole needs to create a wide range of emotional responses to their games, similar to how film has thriller, romance, and comedy genres based on the emotions they provoke.