ILLUSTRATION STATION

DOWN TO A FINE ART Beijing-based Illustrator Fei Fei by Valerie Osipov

Established as an artist and illustrator, Fei Fei has always been inspired by the dynamic capital city. The Hunan native first moved to Beijing in 2016, after a program abroad in the US. In the time since completing her studies, Fei Fei has collaborated with several businesses like Vogue, Gung Ho! Pizza, Pang Mei Noodles and more, coloring brands with her whimsical and thought-provoking illustra tions. During the day, she’s an in-house illustrator for a tech company, but after hours, you can find her organizing a handful of art markets spotlighting the underground creative community in the capital, while also working on her own personal pieces. We caught up with the char ismatic artist about her art background, what she loves most about Beijing and some of her favorite projects.

Tell us about your arts background. Was creativity always impor tant to you while you were growing up?

I completed a bachelor’s degree in Illustration and Printmaking in the US in 2015 and studied for a Masters in Fine Art at UAL Wimbledon for a year. But education aside, I’ve always liked drawing. It’s my way of looking, studying and learning about the world around me. Drawing came naturally to me as a kid; I’d spend hours drawing on the floor with chalk. Art lessons or art-related activities were defi nitely a major part of my childhood. I think from an early age it was instilled in me that studying art was very important. My parents once hired a full-time live-in art tutor for me over a summer holiday.

Did you have your mind set on being an illustrator initially?

I guess the term illustrator came up when they were trying to fit us into various majors in university. I’ve always thought of myself as an artist, just because it’s such a big part of my life, but ever since I started working and making a living, ‘illustrator’ seems to be the title that suits me the most.

What are your favorite mediums to work with? Ink, watercolor and iPad/digital painting, to name a few.

Tell us about your favorite projects you’ve been a part of. I’m super into editorial illustration, the kind of illustration that works with a narrative. To express an opinion via visual metaphor always excites me. That being said, I’ve done two sets of illustrations for work that really made me happy. One was for the yearly report magazines at my work. The book content is very dry and filled with numbers; I often had to translate difficult terms into visuals to help make the magazine more readable and aesthetically pleasing. A similar project is the series of editorial illustrations I did for Medium – my good friend from university hooked me up with a few of those. The subjects include climate change and climate justice, racial stereotypes and what it means to be a woman in the contemporary world.

How does your personal work differ from your professional projects? Allow me to use a metaphor to explain: My personal works are like a piece of raw wood, whereas my professional works are made from raw wood, but are cut and designed into more defined shapes – like furniture, they fulfill a certain purpose.

You’re based in Beijing. What inspires you most about the city? This is a difficult question to answer. I guess it’s the people that inspire me the most. It’s rare to find another city in China that shares the same level of openness as Beijing; I’m

talking about the different people you can meet from every corner of the earth. It’s also close to Southeast Asia (well, kind of), which means the ocean is only a flight away...

You also collaborate with many local art ists and organize art markets here. What do you love most about the city’s art scene? That it gives a chance to rising and young artists to showcase their work, no matter what stage they are at. Being a visual artist is very lonesome; we spend a majority of our time hunched over a desk from day to night. I think it means a lot to artists when we get to have a big party a few times a year, sharing

our recent works, the ones make us proud, happy or sad.

Getting to know newcomers, making friends and just getting to know your favorite artists better is very rare. I think our partici pants are really happy to see the customers buying their works as well – it’s strong vali dation when someone gives you money for what you made.

You can follow Fei Fei ’ s work on Instagram (@feifeiart) or scan the QR code below to see her website.

CROSS CULTURAL GAMING YOOZOO Games Team On the Secrets to Their Success by Bryan Grogan

The latest release in the League of Angels series of games, League of Angels: Heaven’s Fury dropped in February, via Shanghai-based company YOOZOO Games. The fourth in the popular series of games continues on with the series’ focus on Western mythology, bringing more and improved features for gamers all over the world to enjoy. We linked up with the team behind the game to talk about the development of the series, increased gaming competition in China and new features.

Compared to the previous chapters in the series, League of Angels: Heaven’s Fury is much more devoted to the PVP game play mode, pitting players online against one another with not-seen-before intensity. Additionally, roles are more clearly divided than before, with three classes each offering a wider array of heroic skills to join the angels in the fight against darkness.

With more angel transformation func tions now in-play, players must strategize and choose wisely if they are to emerge victorious. Based on the feedback we got, we can tell that players are hugely excited about the extremely smooth next-generation bat tle graphics teamed with rich gameplay and spectacular in-battle fighting skills. The game offers a flawless user experience during bat tle, which we hope will attract new players to try the game.

It has been key for us to use ‘localized’ thinking in order to really tap into the wants of users in overseas markets, and continu

ously optimize the user’s experience of the game based on the feedback we get. This way, we are not just offering a great game on re lease, but constantly staying in touch with the customs of local markets around the world, to provide a supreme entertainment experience for players. For example, taking internation ally known festivals and integrating them into the storyline in a way players around the world can accept and love.

The Chinese gaming market has changed rapidly in recent years. There have been hundreds of good games, and a handful of phenomenal games, but the market has also experienced relatively tough times too. Innovation is now the biggest feature of the Chinese games industry. At present, game research and development innovation is most obvious, followed by gameplay and graphics innovation.

Now, with all these new features emerg ing, the challenge is for old titles to stay relevant, fighting to incorporate the latest innovative elements into their existing op erations. Competition in the gaming market is clearly beneficial to the promotion of the market. Some of the great games we’re see ing being released at the moment are proof of this. However, excessive competition can also cause some problems; for example, too many homogenized products in the market, and increased pressure to simply survive for smaller game makers.

Chinese games play an important role on the global stage. Competition is definitely more conducive to the development of the entire market. The rapid development of Chinese games can drive global game innova tion, but this is not enough for Chinese games alone. Game manufacturers must, and should, continue to work together.

YOOZOO was one of the first Chinese

companies to build on its successes at home and expand globally. With Shanghai as its headquarters, YOOZOO has established regional branches around the world – in Germany, India, the US, Singapore and else where. This allows us to strengthen our localization and R&D capabilities for specific markets, and really get to the core of under standing what players want.

Through this, we have built a globali zation strategy coupled with localization systems covering the entire games lifecycle - from project establishment, through to dis tribution and operation. It’s important to say we are always listening, and always learning. The most important thing about the global market is to differentiate and custom ize. Each overseas regional market has its own characteristics and cannot be general ized. If you want to occupy a certain share in the regional market, you need to thoroughly understand the characteristics of the region and the universality, and then combine the characteristics of the product with a targeted distribution strategy in order to maximize localization.

In terms of other releases this year, we’ve also got a doomsday-esque car role-playing game (RPG) called Doomcar and a fantasyworld mobile 3D massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) called League of Valhalla set to be released this year. All of these games will be on show at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany in August, so stay tuned for announcements.

Scan the QR code to play League of Angels: Heaven ’ s Fury.