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

Work Experience

  • President & Creative Director, thatgamecompany inc 6/2012-present
    Create timeless interactive entertainment that makes positive change to the human psyche worldwide
  • Creative Director & Co-Founder, thatgamecompany llc 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

Journey

Flower

  • 2010
  • 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

  • 2009
  • 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

  • 2008
  • 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

  • 2007
  • 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

  • 2006
  • 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

  • 2005
  • 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

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

Personal

  • 2010
  • 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

  • 2009
  • 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

  • 2008
  • 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, Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy