Today we’d like to introduce you to David Fang.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Hi, I am David, a game designer and content creator. My interests include video games, board games, film, photography, and digital arts, and so many other stuff. I am currently pursuing my MFA degree in Game Design at NYU Tisch School of Art.
– Cloud Atlas
My journey start with a movie, Cloud Atlas, which I watched in my high school and changed my life completely. I remember it was an afternoon; I sat at home, experiencing the shock and inspiration brought by the movie, without moving a single finger of mine for an entire 3 hours. The movie provides a new perspective for me to know about the world and also made me realize the charm of film itself as a media to present inspiring stories. I was impacted and impacted by this process of impaction. Since then, I decided to be a creative media creator that use my work to inspire other people. The formation of this goal led to my choice of Digital Media Technology as my major in my undergraduate study.
– Bachelor in Digital Media
I have my undergrad degree in Beijing, China, where I learned a lot of practical knowledge and skills in the field of digital technologies, such as programming, image crafting, video production, game development, graphic design, and so on. My major focus was on video production since my inspiration is film. I did lots of practice in short film direction, script writing, video shooting, editing, and photography. I tried a lot of things in this period, trying to find a path to the career of impacting other people, my position in this field, and most importantly, trying to learn more about myself —— my real passion, what my style is, and what kind of story I would like to tell. After 4 years of study, I still feel I am very scarce in this field. So, I decided to apply for grad school and bring my practice further.
– Film school, COVID, and game
Originally, I wanted to be on the track of a film director since that’s my first inspiration, so I applied to a lot of film schools in the US (mostly on the West Coast) and was accepted by some of them, like Art Center College of Design. However, at the time of my first semester, COVID happened, I was unable to fly to US and start my semester. Also, before my graduation of undergrad, I did some internships at film companies, in which I felt very crunch, and the environment is not creative at all. I also felt uncomfortable for some of the day-to-day job I was doing when I was directing my own independent films. As a result, I decided to quit my film program at Art Center and shift to another track I am also very interested in, the video games.
– Video Games
Video game is part of my life. During my undergrad, I played lots of different kinds of video games. Some I played independently and some with my friends, which made me feel like this is more like a daily passion for me. After I canceled my film program, I got a job in game industry as a visual designer and was applying game programs in grad schools. I learned a lot about game industry in my professional practice in the company. A year later, I quit my job and started to learn more about video game development techniques and make my own independent games until I got accepted to NYU Game Center, which is where I am right now.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I have my undergrad degree in Beijing, China, where I learned a lot of practical knowledge and skills in the field of digital technologies, such as programming, image crafting, video production, game development, graphic design, and so on. My major focus was on video production since my inspiration is film. I did lots of practice in short film direction, script writing, video shooting, editing, and photography. I tried a lot of things in this period, trying to find a path to the career of impacting other people, my position in this field, and most importantly, trying to learn more about myself —— my real passion, what my style is, and what kind of story I would like to tell. After 4 years of study, I still feel I am very scarce in this field. So, I decided to apply for grad school and bring my practice further.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As I mentioned, I’ve done many projects in different fields, which mainly include video games, board games, short films, and photography. I would like to talk more about my game projects, since they are my present time.
I am designing both video games and board games at the same time. In video game industry, we usually divide all games into two categories, one is AAA games, which requires the cooperation of hundreds of people and years of development to make and is known for their “high quality”. The other is independent games, which is also called indie games. Indie games are usually made in a small studio or independent solo developers, which is more likely to be “Low Res”, but more innovative and creative. What I am talking about here is more lying on the indie game field.
In my independent design, I try to keep these two purpose in mind: one is I want my games to be fun to play, the other is that I want my games to give inspiration to my players, either surprise them with creative ideas and game mechanics or provide them with new perspectives to know about the world. I am also exploring my style in terms of expression using the media of game. For now, there are 3 major aspects that interest me most, they are 1, coming up a creative and interesting gameplay system that is innovative and also interesting enough 2, different characters whose interaction can reflect their personalities based upon a basic stable game system. 3, games that can trigger the curiosities from the players.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out.
I think, to try more things hand on hand is very important as a starter. The purpose of trying new things is to find areas and fields that are what you truly passionate about. Devoting your passion into a career you love is a joyful thing, and it will also make your efforts doubly effective. You also want to try things hand on hand. Because if you don’t do a thing on your own hand, you will never know what it is and whether you like it or not. Once you find it, what you need to do is to enjoy it, put your love and efforts into it, and embrace every failure and success.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.davidfangzy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidfangzy/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfangzy/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/shatlyor
