Meet Yangying Ren | Game Designer & Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Yangying Ren and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yangying, what habits do you feel play an important role in your life?
Having conversations and observing people help me a lot, especially when talking with people who are not in my industry or never play games.

I think most of my game ideas are from the life of ordinary people, about their happiness and sadness. My initial purpose in making games is to connect with others, whether they are game players or not. Most of my friends don’t play games, mostly because they are women and it is a stereotype that women didn’t play video games as a hobby. I tried very hard to find a game that my best friend can play because most of the games are either too “hardcore” or too “fantasy”. Then I realized that there are lots of our common memories, very small moments we spend together that I can bring as an idea to make mini-games, like a new way to write a diary.

Observing people also make me very sensitive to people’s emotion and expression, I could have a good sense of what people like and why they like it. Then with extra data. I can do the forecasting, making sure that my idea and decision are feasible and workable for my next game. Also sometimes people outside of my industry would give me totally new perspectives or blindspot that I ignore. By keeping talking to people, I can guarantee that the game experience that I wish is successful proceeds to the player’s end.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Not like most game designers who grow up as game players. I played my first video game when I already graduated from college. So I can easily understand the feeling of people who are not “hardcore” players.

I care a lot about the people who traditionally won’t be treated as video games’ target audience, and I do wish my game could also involve them. I spend a lot of time discovering possible ways to make video games easily control and I do believe that easy games can be fun. In fact, if we looked back to the game history, those world-famous games have a very simple mechanism, Super Mario Bros is about jumping, and Terix can only move left and right.

It’s a very lonely journey to discover all of those concepts because frankly speaking even today playing games is still a privilege. In some communities playing games is still an activity for boys only, and lots of girls would be told that playing games is bad behavior, not elegant. Sometimes I feel that I am still an outsider because I lack the experience of growing up with video games, and I was hesitating about whether my theory makes sense or it is just my imagination. Until I played lots of mini-games on itch.IO and in a class called “Prototype Studio”, which asked students to make mini-games every week. Those games are very “shady”, with no good art, and no complex game control. I remember one of them is about observing the cloud outside the window, and that game is very enjoyable. So I figured out that the fun mechanism is only one way to make fun games. Most of non “hardcore” players are not that interested in mechanisms or AAA art, they would be attracted by the games that relate to their own life.

I started to make mini-games based on the fun moments of my life, such as the elevator that never arrive when I was late, a firework in the summer, or a boring meeting. I wish after playing those tiny life moments players could smile and relate their own experiences with my game content, making the two funny experiences overlap with each other and harmony in the end.

The lessons that I learned are always to doubt the existing theory and don’t stop finding your own way of expression. The industry is always hungry for new ideas and fresh points, so whether you are a game veteran or a totally new member, there is always a way to make a good game. It’s my obligation to shout out that games as a part of pop culture should not be a privilege and I as a female designer wish more people could find a game that they can spend a wonderful time.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my friends don’t have any specific place they wish to visit, then I will choose the place that I used to visit and I can play the role of a guide. If this place is in the LA area, I would say Disneyland + Hollywood + WarnerBros Studio + Academy Museum of motion picture. Those 4 places are what I would say the most typical Los Angeles theme places.

I work on a Disney-related game project so I am confident my Disney knowledge can support a 1-day Disneyland trip. Disneyland California is also the first Disneyland around the world so it means a lot. Meanwhile, I would say watching Disneyland fireworks with friends is one of the most romantic moments in my life. In fact, I just spent my 10th-anniversary high school classmate reunion there.

I am also a movie nerd (specifically in animation), so I think I could let my friends have lots of fun in Hollywood, Warner Bros Studio, and Academy Museum. Hollywood has my favorite musical theater, Pantages. It is as good as New York Broadway but a different experience.

My best friend is a huge fan of the Friends TV series, and I still can remember how she persuaded me to watch it during college time. So there is no reason we should skip Warner Bros Studio. We could have a photo on the fake sofa in front of the fake Plaza Hotel, cosplay the character we love and repeat again and again those classical lines.

One of our old traditions is watching movies together after dinner. I am very sure that there are lots of exhibitions in the Academy Museum that would remind us of our old times. Besides, LACMA is just near the Academy Museum and my best friend loves modern art, so we can visit 2 museums in one day, wandering from floor to floor, gallery to gallery.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I really appreciate my best friend Freya, who supported me while I totally switched my career path from finance to game design. She gave me the power to believe that I am talented, creative, and bound to succeed when I doubted myself, when my parents judged me, and when I had the hardest time in my life.

And I also really appreciate the NYU Game Center faculty, which gave me a chance to move my first step toward being a game designer, provided me with the most precious game design knowledge.

Finally, I really appreciate all the players who play my game, without them there is no way to interact and the game would be meaningless.

Website: https://www.yangying-ren-gameandart.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yangying-ren/