Shifting Into the Shanghai Video Game Industry in 2021

Who : Jeremy John Butler, Vancouver, Canada.

Job Title : Audio Creative Producer

Where : Xindong Mobile Games, Shanghai, China

2020 was definitely a year with big changes for everyone all around the world, many people lost their jobs and they’re still in some form of recovery mode today. My heart goes out to those people and I wish them positive energy in their job searches. It happened to me too, I was hit with a layoff in mid 2020, but I stayed positive and used all of my networks to search for the next step in my career. For the previous six years I was working for the Shanghai University as the Head of the Sound Design program at their Shanghai Vancouver Film School campus. The layoff notice felt like it could have been a life changing event that might have even forced me to move back home to Canada prematurely, but it turned out to be a great opportunity for me instead and I was fortunate to be able to join the Xindong team in September 2020.

Why did I choose to work At Xindong?

As far as I can tell, interactive media is the future of entertainment, the old days of passive viewership are fading. Even if you’re just chilling out at home watching Netflix, you still find yourself, and anyone you’re with, swiping the phone at least once during the program. Interactive media titles come with a whole culture network attached, things like cosplay, meet up groups, game jams, and now they’re filling stadiums and cheering on their favorite E-Sport teams as fervently as any physical sports fans would. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve spent 20 years of my career working in film, television, and animation, I love watching a movie or great series as much as the next person, but fundamentally it’s still a passive experience. With the way that people are connected to their smart phones and social networks today, that passive experience is starting to feel like it is just not going to be quite enough for too much longer. In an even more fundamental sense, it might partially explain why many people still find reading a good book more entertaining than just watching a film, because the physical activity of reading is forcing you to interact with the pages of the story at a deeper mental level, it doesn’t matter if it’s a paperback or an e-book.

So I wanted to make a shift to move into the game industry, with mobile or VR being my two preferences. The VR industry is just started realizing itself, probably still a few more years before the marketplace accepts it. With the massive explosion of mobile games in the Chinese market I have seen here over the past years, I found myself perfectly situated in the right city at the right time.

How has it been so far working at Xindong?

It’s been really great, the company is very progressive and expanding quite rapidly to develop many different game titles. I think I may have found one of the only Chinese game companies in Shanghai that openly recognizes how unhealthy the “996” culture truly is. The audio team here has welcomed me like a family member, and it has grown even bigger since I’ve joined the company. Now I am welcoming new audio family members too, and they all seem to be as passionate about sound and music as I am.

What is the company vibe like?

This place is friendly and fun, and the buildings are boldly designed in a gloriously orange way! If you do not like the color orange, then this may be a deal breaker for you, but I like bright colors, so this place feels vivid and alive. It’s a pretty big operation, over 2000 staff in multiple buildings, so that was a little intimidating at first, but honestly there is a really exciting energy here that I am glad to be contributing too. There are not too many other foreigners here like myself, and the Chinese language curve is a steep one, but that has not stopped me one bit from making new friends in many departments.

Would I recommend Xindong to my friends?

 Absolutely, it has been a great new step in my career, and I’ll be calling Xindong my home for the foreseeable future. If you’re looking to get into the game industry in Shanghai, then this might just be the right place for you, that is as long as you like the color orange of course.

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