Jenova Chen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Xinghan Chen ( pinyin: Chén Xīnghàn), 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.