Award-winning writing sends student to Game Developer’s Conference

RIT student Jeff Chen thrives on the connections that form between players and the characters within games. Chen’s analysis of the game In Stars and Time has earned him the Game Developer’s Conference Game Narrative Review program’s prestigious Gold Prize, which enables him to give a talk and present a poster at the annual event, March 9-13 in San Francisco. This award was last given to an RIT student in 2014.

Talk about your prize-winning narrative analysis.
In Owen Gottlieb’s Foundations of Interactive Narrative class, my analysis about a time loop and the player character Siffrin’s reaction to it, explored themes of vulnerability, dehumanization, and clinging to the past. The game play is designed to enhance the player’s connections to these themes and its characters by making its mechanics a way to progress through the story while directly experiencing what Siffrin experiences. This direct connection between the player and Siffrin’s experiences makes the game’s message much stronger. Each action a player takes serves a narrative purpose, and that is the true strength of this game.

As a game design and development major, from where do you draw your inspiration?
I’m mainly inspired by narrative games like The Red Strings Club and The Cosmic Wheel: Sisterhood, as well as manga like Land of the Lustrous. Games allow players to take direct control over the flow of action, no matter how linear the game is. The player must progress the story, make choices, and see the consequences of those choices. This makes games uniquely able to explore themes like fate and agency, as well as deepen the connection between the player and the story the games present.

What are you looking forward to at the Game Developer’s Conference?
I’m looking forward to learning from industry professionals about ways to improve the narrative design of interactive experiences, as well as meeting many fellow game developers and trying out their games. Going to GDC will also be my first time visiting the West Coast and, outside of the convention itself, I can’t wait to see how the culture there differs from the East Coast. I especially want to check out San Francisco’s Chinatown to see how different it is from my hometown Chinatown in Manhattan. I also want to check out the various skate spots in California, the birthplace of the sport.

How has RIT enhanced your college experience?
RIT has given me a space to flex my creative muscles and has allowed me to connect with other talented game developers and visionaries to try new things, explore, fail, and get back up again. RIT has helped me grow my social circle by allowing me to explore beyond my degree program. I’ve gotten into creative writing and worldbuilding through RIT’s respective programs for each, as well as learning how to skate and giving me a community of skaters to hang out with.

What does your future look like?
I’m aiming to be a narrative designer as well as a technical artist, using gameplay to enhance the impact of stories and to create amazing visuals to make those stories hit even harder. In the future, I hope to make engaging narrative experiences, whether they are in games, books, or shows. I have so many stories that I want to tell.