1. How planned is your future / how is it customized to you?
   I feel like I spend a lot of time thinking about the future, but I guess I have to admit that I haven’t planned it out very much beyond some basic things. I’m 25 this year, with two boys, a wife, and a house to pay off. At the moment, I’m only able to pursue a college education and a career of my choice because of my mom and step-father, both of who are generous and supportive enough to provide the means that makes any of this possible.
   I know that I want to design games and work as a game developer for as long as possible. I think video games are a special medium that allow for endless possibilities. They can bring together all of the strengths of music, writings, and visual arts while still adding something entirely unique: Interactivity. I want to be a part of the growth of this medium. I want to contribute to building it up. I think life is a collection of experiences that define and change us, and I believe video games can add to that by allowing for entirely new kinds of experiences most of us could only dream of.
   I know that I want to take care of my family. I want my wife to have the chance to pursue her dreams like I’m attempting to pursue mine. I know I want my kids to have access to the opportunities and resources they need to have a good childhood that allows them to grow into healthy, independent, and confident individuals.
   I know that I want to be able to stand on my own two feet. I want to provide for myself and my family. I want to be able to send my kids to college, I want to be able to take care of my parents when they reach their golden years, and I want to know that I’ve done well with the opportunities I was given.
   But… I don’t know what all that looks like, exactly. Right now, my plan is to do well in school and graduate by 2018. I want to get into game development as soon as I’m out of school. But I’m not sure how to get myself to the point where I’m making great or even “good” income, or how to go about setting myself to be a historical contributor to this medium.
   Maybe I need to spend a little less time day dreaming and a little more time keeping my nose to the grindstone.
2. If you could travel abroad where would you go and why?
   I would probably choose Japan. I know, that’s the “nerd” answer, and I wish I had another location that came to mind as quickly as Japan does, but I don’t. I’ve consumed a lot of Japanese media growing up and I’ve always found their culture, their fables and lore, and their values to be very interesting. Like any other culture, it’s not too hard to start picking up on some hints of things are like through their stories and art, but it’s not quite the same as seeing it in person. I’d really like to experience more of that first hand. Plus, I’ve always been bewildered by the various scenery and seasons they seem to get on their islands. It’d be awesome to spend a year there and see what it’s all like.
   I recently went to Italy, however, so I guess if I was hardpressed to give another answer it would probably be to go back there. The difference in culture and food was incredible. It’s impressive how so many people there seem to be able to jump back and forth through different languages and can recognize different cultures, yet they still maintain such a strong sense of identity with their own.
3. Are you part of a student group? what kinds of extra-curricular activities would you like to see?
   Currently, I’m not. I’d love to help build an active student organization around the IGST major. I think a lot of people gravitate towards game development without a sense of professionalism or without much of an idea of what it’s like to work with others in a business environment. I also worry about how directionless a lot of IGST majors might feel at the beginning, with nothing but a strong passion for the medium to guide them. I’d like to see a student organization that focuses on Interactive Game Studies and helps to foster a community at St Edward’s that can teach, guide, and connect people. This was my first semester at St Edward’s, so I’ve mostly focused on getting used to student life here, but next semester I plan to step up on figuring out how to go about this and leave a mark on this major that sutdents years after me will be able to reap the rewards from.

“Our mission: Create timeless interactive entertainment that makes positive change to the human psyche worldwide.”

So says thatgamecompany, the development team behind Flower, one of the most unique and revelatory experiences in interactive digital media.

In Flower, the controls of the game are simple: Using the motion sensitivity of a controller and a single button, players control the wind, using it to direct the movement of a single flower petal through the air over open fields of grass. Within these fields, players will find flowers scattered about to interact with and build a collection of flower petals that are guided along the player’s wind. Players actions directly affect the game’s soundtrack and often cause vibrant changes in the surrounding environment

This is a game without narration, dialogue, or even any real challenges or difficulty. It’s an experience created with a focus on eliciting emotions from players and immersing them into a world far away from the urban life so many of us have become used to. Without using any words or text, a narrative is crafted from the perspective of the flowers on the conflict between nature and human creation.

Jenova Chen, the game’s director, commented in an interview on his motivations in the development of Flower: “The words people [use to] describe films are emotive; they describe films as ‘passionate’ or ‘magical.’ But when people talk about games they’re technical, as if they were describing a car. ‘The graphics are good. This car has four seats’… They rarely consider how the game makes them feel.”

Many projects by thatgamecompany have been noted for the unique gameplay they offer to players, especially in an age where the most successful games often focus on delivering engaging power fantasies. Chen’s perspective on the purpose of entertainment media and why society focuses on it so feverishly clarifies how his team’s approach to the medium is vastly different from others: “You see, what I realized during the development of Cloud was that entertainment is about feelings… Entertainment isn’t just for the sake of itself. When we’re hungry, we look for food; when we’re thirsty, we drink. When we want to experience feelings? It’s entertainment that provides, because in society there are restrictions that mean we can’t do whatever we want.”