Creating emotionally resonant content for a global audience in Sky: Children of Light

Yingxian Lu is a content producer at Thatgamecompany, the place she leads in-game occasion/season manufacturing and cultural localization for Sky: Children of the Light. Her work focuses on emotionally resonant, globally inclusive content. She beforehand led interactive campaigns at JD.com, and her work was additionally broadly lined by media retailers in China.

In as we speak’s global video games trade, success isn’t nearly going worldwide – it is about making gamers in all places really feel emotionally linked. As video games like Sky: Children of the Light attain large global audiences, we face a inventive problem: how will we design content that feels really significant to folks from broadly completely different cultures, languages, and life experiences?

Thatgamecompany, the unbiased studio behind Journey, Flower, and Sky, is thought for its emotionally wealthy, suave video games that emphasize human connection over competitors. Sky has acquired important acclaim since its launch, together with profitable the Video games for Affect Award at Gamescom 2023, and continues to earn reward for its revolutionary social gameplay and emotional depth.

The sport has now surpassed 270 million downloads globally, with as much as 8 million every day energetic customers in China – a market I assist assist carefully. Since becoming a member of Thatgamecompany in 2022 as a content producer on Sky, I’ve led the manufacturing of a number of main in-game occasions and season content, and have labored to localize emotional experiences in ways in which resonate deeply with Chinese language gamers.

My experience has helped bridge cultural expectations, scale back misalignment throughout groups, and convey extra inclusive, emotionally resonant content to at least one of Sky’s largest and most energetic participant bases.

Main with emotion, connecting throughout cultures

Sky’s core philosophy, formed by our inventive director Jenova Chen, is constructed on inclusivity. Gamers seem as ‘Sky youngsters’, characters with out outlined gender, age, or ethnicity. This design selection removes floor variations, permitting folks to fulfill and join as equals. It’s a house of quiet magnificence and shared humanity.

That very same philosophy guides our content design. At Thatgamecompany, we don’t begin with options, we begin with emotions. The primary query we ask for each new occasion or season is: “What do we would like the participant to really feel?” Ought to it’s pleasure? Melancholy? Peace?

That emotional goal turns into the inspiration. And since feelings transcend language and borders, they’re one of probably the most highly effective instruments now we have to construct inclusive experiences.

“As a result of feelings transcend language and borders, they’re one of probably the most highly effective instruments now we have”

This method doesn’t make content creation simple, but it surely does make it sincere. I’ve embraced this course of in each undertaking I’ve led, whether or not shaping the temper of an occasion, adjusting reward pacing to align with emotional beats, or proposing content changes primarily based on cultural sensitivities.

Subsequent, I might prefer to share a few concrete examples of how this philosophy involves life in our work.

A story of two occasions: Global design with native which means

One of my favourite examples is Days of Moonlight, a 2024 in-game occasion. It originated as a quieter counterpart to our full of life Days of Daylight occasion. Throughout brainstorming, somebody requested: “If Daylight represents power and exercise, what would Moonlight symbolize?”

As a Chinese language content producer, I instantly thought of the Mid-Autumn Competition, a time of reunion, moon-gazing, and reflection. It is a beloved custom the place households come collectively, admire the complete moon, and eat mooncakes. I grew up celebrating it. It felt like a excellent emotional anchor for the occasion.

So whereas global gamers noticed Days of Moonlight as a poetic seasonal celebration, Chinese language gamers acknowledged one thing extra private: cultural validation inside a recreation they beloved. That twin which means made the occasion really feel globally accessible but domestically resonant.

The response was overwhelmingly optimistic: gamers shared screenshots of moonlit gatherings, wrote tales impressed by the theme, and praised the emotional tone as peaceable and shifting. It turned one of probably the most mentioned occasions on Chinese language social media throughout its run.

We additionally added a riddle-writing function, letting gamers create and guess riddles from each other. Initially, we deliberate to reward gamers for appropriate solutions, however rapidly realized the language complexity made that unfair. So we shifted the mechanic to reward participation as an alternative. The enjoyable stayed, the stress didn’t.

Not each thought lands as properly. One summer time, we launched a marshmallow roasting prop, full with firepit, roasting stick, and visible suggestions. Within the West, this evoked nostalgia and tenting recollections.

However in China, the place roasting marshmallows is not a frequent custom, the second felt distant. That taught us that emotional references aren’t at all times as common as we expect – and why listening issues.

Bridging worlds: Manufacturing as cultural mediation

Sky’s success in China relies upon not solely on our content, but in addition on how we work collectively behind the scenes.

I at all times attempt to suppose a few steps forward: anticipating potential data gaps earlier than they turn out to be points, and continually conserving our publishing accomplice’s wants in thoughts. Understanding what they care about helps me proactively floor particulars they may in any other case need to ask for, and ensures we’re aligned not simply on output, however on priorities.

One of my key duties is managing communication between our global growth crew and our Chinese language publishing accomplice.

Earlier than I joined, we generally had points with content readiness and misaligned expectations, usually brought on by time zone gaps and language boundaries. A 12-hour time distinction can flip one determination into a three-day alternate. Miscommunication is not simply inconvenient – it may well straight impression the participant expertise.

To streamline collaboration and scale back pricey miscommunication, we use a hybrid communication mannequin that mixes structured asynchronous documentation with real-time suggestions loops. We additionally creatively used instruments comparable to Slack bots to automate notifications and reminders, which helped keep alignment throughout time zones and decreased avoidable delays.

“A 12-hour time distinction can flip one determination into a three-day alternate”

One other ongoing consideration is navigating main holidays on each side. For instance, we have needed to regulate manufacturing timelines round Christmas and Lunar New Yr, that are an important holidays in the USA and China, respectively.

This usually means planning content home windows properly in advance, shifting inside milestones, or being versatile to reply rapidly when plans change on quick discover. These sorts of lodging are important for sustaining belief and momentum throughout areas.

As well as, we continually must issue in native laws. As an example, China has strict playtime limits for minors, which straight impacts how we method scheduling, content pacing, and even reward constructions.

These coverage particulars could be ignored if the crew lacks regional consciousness, so half of my function is to maintain them seen all through the design course of.

This setup has helped scale back avoidable incidents and constructed stronger belief between groups. For a producer, communication is not simply operational – it is cultural infrastructure. When your recreation lives in many areas, your crew has to suppose throughout these boundaries, too.

Trying forward: Illustration backstage

Within the trade, we frequently discuss range in character design. However for global video games to thrive, we additionally want range in decision-making, in the rooms the place inventive calls are made, deadlines are set, and trade-offs are thought-about.

Being a Chinese language producer engaged on a globally beloved recreation has helped me see issues others may overlook – participant expectations, emotional cues, even sensitivities round timing or symbolism.

I am not the one one doing this work, however I do know my perspective issues. That is as a result of content constructed for everybody begins with groups that mirror everybody.