Meet Qingyuan Fan

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Qingyuan Fan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Qingyuan below.

Qingyuan, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

As a game developer working specifically on level design and system design, I would say that my creativity mostly stems from my real-life experiences and various gaming experiences. The book Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon resonates strongly with me because I also believe that my imagination is essentially a recollection of past experiences. My game and level design ideas often originate from games I’ve played or places I’ve visited.

I believe that the way you “steal” like an artist is by infusing your thoughts and feelings into the works from which you draw inspiration. Rather than merely copying and pasting, I often embed my personal emotions, feelings, and unique perspectives into new ideas that have connections to my past experiences.

Returning to the original question, to put it simply, I believe the way I keep my creativity alive is by investing passion and emotion into every detail of my work. I am convinced these emotions and feelings act as bridges connecting my ideas with the audience, ultimately making my work personal, meaningful, and alive.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Currently, I am a junior pursuing a degree in Game Design at the NYU Game Center. The most exciting part of my game design journey is that I lead a passionate student team of 12 members on an independent project outside of school. We have been developing a game titled Song of Maka for three years and plan to release it by the end of this year. It is an adventure-puzzle game where players role-play as birds exploring a beautiful bird kingdom.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I would say passion, persistence, and teamwork are the three qualities that have helped me succeed in the field of game development. Creating games is never a solo endeavor, and maintaining good relationships with teammates is crucial to a game’s success. Over the years, the most important advice I would offer to fellow game developers is that teamwork is the key to success. From my experience, I adopt a “friend-first, work-second” approach, meaning I first view my teammates as friends before considering our collaborative work.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

I believe the most impactful thing my parents have done for me is allowing me the freedom to choose my own path, my major, and my future. In traditional Chinese culture, games are often viewed negatively—as harmful or a waste of time—but my parents recognized my passion and excitement for this field and gave me the liberty to explore who I wanted to become. I’m genuinely grateful and thankful for their decision and support. Without them, I would never have had the opportunity to study game design at NYU.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.henkfan.design
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/qingyuan-fan0324/