27 Facts About Jenova Chen

Xinghan Chen, known professionally as Jenova Chen, is a Chinese video game designer.

Jenova Chen is the designer of the award-winning games Cloud, Flow, Flower, and Journey, co-founder of Thatgamecompany as well as an advisor for Annapurna Interactive.

Jenova Chen moved to the United States, where he earned a master's degree from the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Division.

Jenova Chen signed a three-game deal with Sony Computer Entertainment, and has sold Flow, Flower, and Journey through the PlayStation Network.

Jenova Chen was born in Shanghai on October 8,1981, and lived there until 2003.

Jenova Chen's father worked in the software development industry, having previously worked on "one of the earliest giant computers in China".

Jenova Chen found himself interested in video games that he saw there, but was not as enthusiastic about programming.

Jenova Chen went to the United States to earn a master's degree in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.

Jenova Chen studied in the Interactive Media Program, a new division of the School of Cinematic Arts.

Jenova Chen felt that the reason that Cloud had been so warmly received was because the emotions it sparked in players were different than any other game available at the time, and believed that it was his "calling" to make more games that changed what people saw video games as.

Jenova 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.

Jenova Chen illustrated his ideas with Flow, a Flash game made with Nicholas Clark.

The PS3 version of Flow was the first, and while it was in development Jenova Chen worked for Maxis on the game Spore.

Jenova Chen was the creative director in charge of the game, while Santiago was the producer and Clark was the lead designer.

Jenova Chen ranged in size from six to nine people at varying stages of the game's development.

Flower was intended by Jenova Chen to provoke positive emotions in the player, and to act as "an emotional shelter".

Jenova Chen described the game as "an interactive poem exploring the tension between urban and nature".

In 2008, during Flowers development, Jenova Chen was named to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 list, as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.

Journey was intended by Jenova 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 Jenova Chen intended 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.

Jenova Chen worked as creative director in the first mobile game of thatgamecompany, Sky, which is a popular and critically acclaimed game.

Jenova Chen plays a wide variety of video games, but he names his greatest influences as Katamari Damacy, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.

Jenova Chen personally plays games "competitively", including titles such as Street Fighter IV and StarCraft.

Jenova Chen feels he has a competitive nature, which he has turned towards "winning" at being a game designer by creating games that are unlike what is in the market rather than towards creating competitive games.

When Jenova Chen quit Maxis to re-join Thatgamecompany, he did so knowing that it would mean taking less pay and having a less stable career.

Jenova Chen 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.

Jenova 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.