Recently, a team I contributed to as a minor collaborator - as interaction designer -submitted a game to the thatgamecompany × COREBLAZER GAME JAM 2025. The director of the game is my friend Ebay. I first met him through Cooper and Justin, who worked with Ebay on a different project at USC — a game called Myth of Lumi.
Ebay later became my Student Assistant in CTIN 534, a class taught by Peter Brinson. One day, I happened to run into him and we ended up having a long conversation. That’s when he pitched me this new game — a journey about a balloon.
The game is called Balloon. You play as a little red balloon floating through the air. You’re light, fragile, and can’t really control where you’re going—just drifting with the wind. All you can do is gently pull on the string to try and steer. The heart of the game lies in how you interact with the people you meet along the way. Like in real life, different people respond differently to hope: a kid might run toward you with joy, a tired office worker might glance up and smile, and a little girl might kick you like a soccer ball. The balloon reflects the people it passes — it’s a simple, poetic way to explore how people feel about hope itself. The whole experience plays out like a quiet, interactive poem.
When I first heard the pitch, it immediately reminded me of Flower by Jenova Chen — one of the more well-known game designers to come out of USC. Fittingly, Ebay later told me the game received a lot of mentorship and feedback from Tracy Fullerton, who mentored Jenova back in the day.
I immediately expressed interest in working on the project — but instead of taking on my usual role as an engineer, I told Ebay I was more interested in helping design the interactions. Partly because the concept really resonated with me, and partly because the engineering side was already in very good hands. The team had some incredibly talented developers, led by Shuyang — a graphics specialist and recent USC grad who also worked on Myth of Lumi.
Working with Ebay on this project taught me so much, especially because of his incredible attention to detail. He really focused on the finer points, like the exact background setting and the era of the game. We spent a lot of time finding that perfect balance between making the world relatable to a modern audience while also giving it a kind of timeless, almost nostalgic feel.
As an interaction designer, my job was to create detailed interaction design documents. These included everything from how characters look — their height, their clothing, their overall appearance — so that artists could turn those ideas into concept art and eventually 3D models. I also had to document the behaviors of each character or NPC — like what they do when they’re idle, or how they react when they see the balloon. Are they going to jump up and try to grab it? Are they going to tie a message to it and send it along to someone else? All of these details had to be described clearly so that the engineers could bring them to life in code.
But the most important part of this process was thinking about the characters’ backstories and, ultimately, their relationship to hope. Each character’s attitude toward hope shapes how they respond to the balloon, and that’s really what makes the game feel like a living, breathing poem.
But the real heroes of this project were the artists, engineers, and especially my friend Justin, who worked as the level designer. In just about a month, the artists created these incredibly detailed 3D characters with a super charming art style, full of life and personality. The engineers managed to implement a ton of features that brought the story to life, packing all these emotional highs and lows into a simple 15-minute experience. We had moments where the wind would push the balloon, characters would grab it and run off, and obstacles would pop up, all making the game feel dynamic and engaging.
Justin, our level designer, really thought through the emotional journey we wanted players to experience. He focused on how to teach players to interact with the balloon naturally, making sure they understood the mechanics and could enjoy the game fully. And I can’t forget the amazing musicians who created the score that tied everything together and gave the game its poetic heart.
Of course, none of this would have happened without Ebay, who worked tirelessly — sometimes with barely any sleep — to bring it all together. And, impressively, he managed all this while also working as a translator with me during the Seasun Games visit to USC. I’m incredibly proud of what our team created for the game jam.
Update: We ended up receive a nomination from the game jam and the team is invited to see Jenova Chen. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet him as I wasn't in China during the time. But here are some fun pictures from my good friend Justin Huang:
