Welcome to Flow in Games

Resume

Xinghan (Jenova) Chen
JenovaChen at gmail dot com
(213) 210-1756

Education

Master of Fine Arts, University of Southern California 2003-2006
School of Cinematic Arts Interactive Media
Bachelor of Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 1999-2003
School of Engineering Computer Science & Engineering
Minor, Donghua University 2001-2003
School of Garment Design Digital Art & Design

Video Game Development Experience

President & Creative Director, thatgamecompany 6/2012-present
Create timeless interactive entertainment that makes positive change to the human psyche worldwide
Creative Director & Co-Founder, thatgamecompany 5/2006-5/2012
Company establishment, IP development flOw PS3, Flower, Journey
Game Designer, Electronic Arts Maxis 6/2006-2/2007
Game Design for Spore NDS
MFA Student, USC School of Cinematic Arts 8/2003-5/2006
Conducted MFA thesis research "Flow in games" & web game flOw
Game Designer, USC EA Game Innovation Lab 8/2005-5/2006
Game design, prototyping for NSF serious game project Immune Attack
Technical Game Designer Intern, Electronic Arts Los Angeles 6/2005-8/2005
Game design, digital prototyping and preproduction for Tiberium
Creative Director, USC EA Game Innovation Lab 1/2005-3/2006
Producing, lead game design, lead art, gameplay programming for Cloud
Background Artist Intern, Electronic Arts Los Angeles 1/2005-4/2005
Environment art, level design of Russian campaign in Medal of Honor: European Assault
Art Director & Lead Artist , Annenberg Communication Center 6/2004-12/2004
Pilot and Prototype of Montage a Russian modernism game under Labyrinth Project
Lead Artist & Game Designer, Interactive Media Division USC CNTV 6/2004-11/2004
Art & Game design for Dyadin
Level Designer Intern, Institute of Creative Technology 3/2004-12/2004
SASO & MRE project
Teaching Assistant, Information Technology Program USC 12/2003-5/2004
Teaching advanced game modeling and animation
Level Artist , USC Video Game Club 12/2003
Built USC Campus Map in Unreal Tournament 2003
Lead Artist, Wonder Gust Studio (Shanghai China) 3/2001-7/2003
Developed video game Saint War Curse of Rainbow Crystone
Game Tester, Interserv Entertainment (Shanghai), 10/2002
QA focus group on MMOG Monster Farm
Production Intern, Ubisoft (Shanghai), 7/2001-8/2001
Crazy for Song: Summer Rainbow

Academic Activities

Speaker, Game Developer Conference 2013 3/2013
Designing Journey
Keynote, DICE Summit 2013 2/2013
Theories Behind Journey
Speaker, Game Developer Conference China 2011 11/2011
Art, Entertainment & Video Games
Speaker, Applied Brilliance 2010 10/2010
Hope in Video Games
Speaker, Indiecade 2010 10/2010
Discover Multiplayer Dynamics in Journey
Lecturer, National School of Interactive Entertainment (ENDI) 08/2010
TGC's Game Design Philosophy
Judge, Bivouac Urbain (Quebec) 08/2010
Game Jam contest
Speaker, Game Developer Conference 2010 03/2010
Game Design Challenge
Speaker, Make a Difference Forum Hong Kong 01/2010
Video Games a New Media Waiting for Change
Speaker, Indiecade 09
Keynote 09/2009
Speaker, Develop Conference at Brighton 07/2009
flOw & Flower: Video Games & Art
Attendee, Science Foo Camp 07/2009
Speaker, University of California Riverside 05/2009
Art, Entertainment & Video Games
Speaker, ConceptArt.org Reverie 09 03/2009
Art, Entertainment & Video Games
Speaker, Game Developer Conference 2009 03/2009
Experimental Gameplay Workshop & Micro Talks
Speaker, GamesBeat 09 03/2009
Future of Video Games
Speaker, Indiecade08 10/2008
Master Class: From Indie to Mainstream
Speaker, Imprint Culture Lab 08 04/2008
the Cult of Gaming
Speaker, Game Developer Conference 2008 02/2008
Pouring Gas on the Flames: Game Designers Rant
Paper Reviewer, ACM SIG Computer Human Interface 2008 12/2007
Video Games Research
Speaker, Montreal International Game Summit 2007 11/2007
Challenges from Designing Games with Unique Emotions
Speaker, E for All Gaming Convention 2007 10/2007
Do It Yourself: Starting as an Independent Developer
Paper Reviewer, 11th Int. Conference on Information Visualisation 04/2007
Computer Games and their applications
Paper Author , Communications of the ACM magazine 04/2007
Flow in Games (and Everything Else) Vol50, Num4, Pg31
Speaker, Game Developer Conference 2007 3/2007
on The Autobiography of flOw & Independent Game Summit
Lecturer, UCR California Museum of Photography 11/2006
Digital Wizards on Flow in games
Co-author, ACM SIGGRAPH Video Game Symposium 2006 8/2006
That Cloud Game: Dreaming & Doing Innovative Game Design
Speaker, Game Developer Conference 2006 3/2006
Experimental Gameplay Workshop
Volunteer, SIGGRAPH 2004 & 2005 8/2004-8/2005
Volunteer, Electronic Entertainment Expo 2004 4/2004

Honors & Awards

Projects

Journey

Flower

Game Artistic Achievement, British Academy of Film and Television Arts
Best Downloadable Game of the Year, Game Developer Choice Award
Casual Game of the Year, Interactive Achievement Awards

Best Independent Game, SpikeTV Video Game Awards
Exhibition Tales of Play - Games of the Unexpected, ATA center in Lima , Peru
Exhibition, Fantastic Illusion Shanghai eArts, China & Belgium
Exhibition, Vernissage Game On ! Art & Video Games, in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Best of E3 Gold Award, GamePro
E3 Best Downloadable Game, Gamespy

flOw PS3

Best Downloadable Game of the Year, Game Developers Choice Awards
Best Debut Game, Innovation Nominee , Game Developers Choice Awards
Downloadable Game of the Year Nominee, Interactive Achievement Awards

Game Innovation Nominee, British Academy of Film and Television Arts
Best Artistic Design for PS3, IGN.com
Top 10 Game Design Innovations, Next-gen.biz
Top 5 Downloadable Games, Gamasutra.com
Exhibition, Gameworld at the Laboral Centro de Arte in Spain

flOw PC

Best Indie Games, Wired.com 2007
Best free online games, Jayisgames.com 2006

Cloud

Exhibition, 8BIT GAME PEOPLE FILE Games Rio, Brazil 2008
Exhibition, The A.L.I.C.E. Museum in Seoul, Korea 2007

Student Showcase Award, Independent Game Festival
Philosophy Award, Slamdance Guerilla Gamemaker Competition
Exhibition, Best of IGF Exhibition at Australian Center of the Moving Image
Internet Download Game of the Month, EDGE Magazine issue 157

Dyadin

Student Showcase Award, Independent Game Festival
Exhibition, DiGRA Point of View: Alternative Games Exhibition in Canada
Exhibition, Best of IGF Exhibition at Australian Center of the Moving Image

Curse of Rainbow

Second Prize, CBI ShuangMin Cup Game Design Competition 2002
First Prize, USTC Cup Game Design Competition 2002

Personal

Best Direction, Interactive Achievement Awards

Finalist, World Technology Award
Patrick Soon-Siong Innovation Award, LA Business Journal
Game Developer 50, Game Developer Magazine
The Most Creative Entrepreneurs in Business, Fast Company Magazine

MadeMan's 09 Trailblazers, MadeMan
Planet Illogica Excellence in New Media Award, Cinevegas
The 100 Most Creative People in Business, Fast Company Magazine
The Hot 100 Game Developers, EDGE Magazine

World’s Top Innovators under the Age of 35, MIT's Technology Review
10 Innovators to Watch, Variety

1st Place, USC Student Innovator Showcase 2007
EA Game Innovation Grant, USC IMD 2005
Electronic Arts Scholarship, USC IMD 2004-2005 & 2005-2006
Gold-cup Winner, Shanghai Yizhou Cup Digital Art Design Competition 2002
Third Prize, HuiGu Cup 4th National Computer Olympic Competition 1999
First Prize, Shanghai Dong Hai Cup Computer Programming Competition 1999

Specialties

Video game direction
Emotional game design
Expert in positive psychology for game design
Design Anthropology

Hobbies

Video Games, Film, Anime, Painting, Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy, Day Dreaming

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