Jenova "Xinghan" Chen

• • Name: Jenova Chen ( aka Xinghan Chen or 陈星汉 )

  • Notable creations and work: Flower, Cloud, flOw

  • Education: University of Southern California Interactive Media Division '06

  • Born: 1981

  • Death: Still Going

Biographical Summary.

Jenova was born (1981) and raised in the city of Shanghai, China until 2003 in which he relocated to the US. It would be in pursuit of education and a progression of interactive media knowledge that would bring him to California to study at the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Division. He would go on to graduate with his masters in 2006. Little is written about Chen's younger life due to his relatively immediate presence in the industry today, though he does keep some writings on personal matters within his blog. Chen would work under Will Wright at EA on his production of Spore before going on to open his own studios named thatgamecompany, where he now presides as creative director. Jenova resides as the designer for the award-winning games Cloud, flOw, and Flower all of which were produced under thatgamecompany. He states that he is "dedicated to expanding the emotional spectrum of video games and making them available for a much wider audience". This mantra holds true through all of his games so far, elevating them to a certain degree of higher artistic expression while attempting to connect with the players changes of state in a more than intimate way. Jenova is young, and still working as Creative director at thatgamecompany.

Work

Jenovas education begins at the University of Southern California in their Interactive media division. It was an up and coming major and he dove in head first with a focus in game design. This would serve him well as he graduated within the first generation class in 2006 with his masters and the workings on Cloud on his mind. Jenova was seeking to make a certain kind of game, one that extends beyond "fun" and "entertaining" and can reach a wide audience on a level far more guarded and intimate. Quickly finding that no game studio would take the risk on his concepts, Chen made the decision to start the small studio, thatgamecompany, with a close colleague. He had worked with Will Wright prior on the game Spore with Maxis, saying that while the game itself was wonderful and the minds of the designers were brilliant, constantly in prototype, it just was not the game meant for thatgamecompany. In an interview with Gamasutra Jenova when on to state that, "It's like the perfect job (Spore) for a game designer -- I still don't know why I dropped it" (Gamasutra interview). None the less he moved on to begin thatgamecompany and produce his thesis from grad school titled Cloud, followed by the critically successful titles of flOw and Flower. His work and style is one of intrinsic value to aesthetics, and degree's of human emotion. His games are often simple in play & concept but attempt in deeply being rooted in shifting states of consciousness and and a desire in the player for innate balance and equilibrium. Often using nature as his subject, his works look to force the player to explore the emotional spectrum and make of it as they wish. His incorporation of sound and music also add to the overall desire of achieving a certain state within the players current existence within play. He simply describes it as an interactive poem where abstract scenery and symbolism to go on an emotional journey. Whether Chen achieves this or not could be debated, and should be as the old question of art and game becomes more and more prevalent.

Project

Cloud:

Cloud essentially is an interactive puzzle game based on dealings with weather and atmospheric happenings, set in a very dream like atmosphere. This game was headed by Chen during his years at USC. It features a distinct visual emphasis on simple hand drawn art that in a sense compliments the atmospheric aesthetic captured in the game. The plot of the game is based on a young boy who is retained from going outside due to chronic asthma. He goes on to state how he forgets the feeling of flying through the sky, which inquires a response from a close friend to close his eyes and state what he sees. It is from here that the game begins. The player controls the young child as he flies through the skies collecting and controlling clouds. He must convert the gray clouds to white so he can "conquer" the ominous black clouds that may stand as reference to modern industry. This game served as black sheep at its time as a non violent, "innovative" game that opened a "non-genre" for games to explore new possibilities. I would become the predecessor for both the ideas of flOw and Flower.

flOw:

The game involves the player controlling a seeming bio-organic creature as a travels a seemingly aquatic abyss in search of consuming for physical self growth. You can choose from one of six creatures each with a unique specialty ranging from length of growth to speed of travel. Layer by layer the player must send their microorganism deeper into the abyss until they reach the bottom. This game follows very closely with Chen's mantra, creating an idealized world both visually and conceptually while maintaining roots in the common and mundane, being that of the core concepts of "eat or be eaten", and reaching into the psyche study of human flow in terms of creativity. This was produced as part of Chen's senior thesis at the University of Southern California. He also included an intrinsic difficulty balancing system that is dynamic to the players style, allowing a degree of custom ability. This game re arose the questions of the "art game", with many acclaims as it arising and beginning to dabble on forms of a "higher art". While visually aesthetic and artistic, I personally find its core concept and total immersible experience falling short in terms of successful & relevant art. While flOw is indeed a well created artistically driven game, it carries a minimal impact on the player in terms of denoting an experience of greater value. It would lay they steps for what would be refined in Chen's game flower. This is a much debated topic as it should be. None the less, Chen did succeed at raising the question once again of the age old question dealing with, simply stated, the line between art and games (Csíkszentmihályi).

Flower:

The spiritual successor to Chen's previous game flOw, Flower follows on many of the same lines taking the player on an emotional journey through the dreams of a flower trapped in the confinement of mans urban chaos. Once entering the flowers dream the player must control the wind in order to trigger a series of events, playing out much like an interactive puzzle. By coming in close distance with flowers, you will cause them to invigorate with life and bloom, while retaining one of their petals in your control. Other growths of flowers when brought into bloom will trigger events such as the revitalization of an area of dead plants or the re ignition of a dead and stagnant windmill. Chen decidedly chose to focus Flower on tapping into the range of emotions, mostly positive, capable within the media of games in contrary to making a game that is fun and challenging. In a decision that I much agree with, Chen chose to exclude certain game play elements and mechanics that proved themselves irrelevant for the desired response of the player. Flower seeks to put the player in a zen like state, seeking to keep the player in a state of equilibrium throughout game play. Chen accomplished this by throwing out any element that brought about stress and frustration with the same purge of elements that evoke an over sensation of joy or excitement. By keeping a player in a state of near equilibrium, it allows them to achieve a sense of order and therefore experience in full, a harmonious interaction. With Flower Chen begins to achieve what I see as the vision of his original mantra, obtaining control of his viewers states while continuing to explore the possibilities of immersion within the medium of of games.

References

• • Jenovas Personal Site - Jenova's personal website with links to many of his other projects

  • Cloud Download - Free download for Cloud

  • Resume - Jenova's current resume

  • thatgamecompany - Jenova's companies website

  • Blog - link to Jenova's personal blog

"Gamasutra - News - Thatgamecompany's Chen Talks Reasons To Stay Indie." Gamasutra - The Art & Business of Making Games. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Apr. 2010. <http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18494>.

Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály, and Isabella Selega Csikszentmihalyi. "Optimal experience: psychological ... - Google Books." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Apr. 2010. <http://books.google.com/books?id=lNt6bdfoyxQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=flow+psychology&source=bl&ots=k7Otkof0Ca&sig=exgYnbu8NYkMSzi3D5lkwLRpQ8k&hl=en&ei=lQG8S-2FJ5PO8wTt6O3vBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCsQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=flow%20psychology&f=false>.