Something went wrong. Try again later

Giant Bomb News

108 Comments

Climbing Mountains of Beautiful Sand in Journey

We've played with Jenova Chen's crazy multiplayer experiment.

I have no problem saying Flower was my favorite game of 2009. That any game was able to make Sixaxis controls fundamentally interesting is remarkable enough, but Flower was something special, a calming experience more therapy than game. It’s why I’ve been acutely interested in thatgamecompany’s next experiment, Journey. At first glance, it looks…traditional.

I say that as though it’s a dirty word, but only because the abstraction in thatgamecompany’s projects are part of the appeal. I knew there was more to this, so when I had the chance to play the first 15 minutes or so of the game and speak with designer Jenova Chen, we immediately dove into Chen’s intentions with Journey--and how he’s kind of sort of messing with you.

Journey, like Flower, is about isolation. You’re piloting an avatar this time around, which grounds the gameplay into constructs basically all players will be immediately familiar with. You can jump, collect power-ups that amplify the power of those abilities over time, and solve simple puzzles required to make progress. When the game opens, as you catch your bearings, you’re in the middle of a massive desert with very few buildings, objects or characters. You’re alone.

Journey reveals its “a-ha” moment when another character appears, one who looks very much like you. They look like you because they are you, they just happen to be another player who could be on the other side of the world or down the block for all you know. There are no nicknames, real names or even an indication the character’s not secretly driven by artificial intelligence. You don’t have to cooperate with them, either. That choice is up to both of you.

== TEASER ==

Unfortunately, this feature wasn’t working when I sat down the play the game, but I asked Chen to explain why he chose to strip the multiplayer down to its most core components.

“We decided to focus on innovating the feeling between two players in the digital space,” said Chen. “In a world like this, if you see another player, you will feel like you want to get close to him. In a big city, you’re walking [a] downtown street, you don’t care about [people], because they’re everywhere. You care about your cell phone or whatever. But if you go to the mountain, go to the wild, hiking, you’re so small, you don’t feel you know a lot about the world. You’re insecure. Whenever you run into another person, you naturally want to go and say hi to them. Very simple psychology. I wanted to see an online game where we delivered the mountain.”

Chen decided to push back on traditional multiplayer design because he’s plays a bunch of multiplayer games himself, from Left 4 Dead to Street Fighter IV. While a fan of competition, he became tired of competition. Even when cooperation does occur, it’s forced.

“The fact that you have two-player online, the social experience is there, asking for you to explore, but most games, 90% of the time, you’re shooting zombies,” he said. “You only get 10% time to look at each other and usually that’s forced. People kill me before we reach the end; they steal my health pack. I think if we really want to make people feel better towards each other and have a different impression compared to what the general consensus of online play is, you need to design a game differently. “

You can finish Journey without working with another player, but that's your choice. Chen wants that to be your decision. When solving puzzles in Portal 2’s co-op mode, you’re doing so because you booted up co-op. What if someone appeared in the middle of the single-player experience and asked to help? You’d probably turn them down, wouldn’t you? I know I would. And besides Journey intentionally masking names, your Bluetooth headset means nothing; you can't talk.

"When you run into another player [in Journey], you don’t think about ‘oh, this character’s hot, this character has history.’" said Chen. "You think ‘okay, this is another person who’s controlling the same kind of thing and I know that’s a person.’ That interaction happens at the level of a human being. I know someone’s playing a game. I don’t know how old he is, what gender he is or she is, but I can tell he’s a human, I can tell he’s doing things, I can tell he’s trying to communicate with me. I think, at that level, the multiplayer’s the most beautiful. As soon as you have language, you have ‘okay, this guy is clearly a twelve-year-old.’"

He (it?) has no feet and no arms. Creepy.
He (it?) has no feet and no arms. Creepy.

I'm not the first and I won't be the last person to draw comparisons to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. If you were told Journey was a Team ICO project, you wouldn't blink. Chen doesn't have a problem with the comparison, arguing both him and designer Fumito Ueda are actually designing around the same ideas of establishing emotional connections. Even in my brief time spent with Journey, the wide open vistas, flowing sand (by far the most impressive use of Sweet Sand Technology I've seen) and long, quiet moments of running in isolation brings echos of Ueda.

"Ico is trying to use the environment to focus on the connection between the main character and the girl," said Chen. "We are using that same feeling, which is more of a sense of wonder and not knowing, to force the players to be together. It’s kind of interesting that I heard Shadow of the Colossus was supposed to be a multiplayer game. It makes sense. Fortunately, they didn’t do that because of the limitations of PS2. We get to do that here! I don’t feel bad if people say ‘oh, this is kind of like Shadow of the Colossus’ because really we are trying to go for a similar feel in a multiplayer game."

And even though Journey appears to look more traditional, the controls are not. You might be tempted to look around the world with the right analog stick but the game won't let you. Tilt the controller around, however, and you've discovered the camera controls. Chen admitted the team has not made a final decision on whether the camera controls will be locked to Sixaxis. We had a lengthy off-the-record discussion about the merits of forcing players into this unorthodox camera method. For my money, I dug the deliberate, methodical approach to looking around. Sixaxis moves slower, and you shouldn't be rushing through Journey. You're meant to slowly take in what's around you. That said, Journey isn't Flower and I can see people upset at limited options.

With thatgamecompany, however, one expects subversion. Journey looks poised to deliver that. We'll see if players decide to engage with Chen's multiplayer experiment later on this year.

"I want to see a genuine choice of two human beings of wanting to be together," he said. "I think the connection between the players after they go through the journey together will be much, much stronger than a forced experience. To me, that’s a big experiment. The game design is very, very challenging. I’m glad that we’re using a more traditional adventure game form. That’s also what I want to do if I get to make an adventure game."

Patrick Klepek on Google+

108 Comments

Avatar image for kazona
Kazona

3399

Forum Posts

5507

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 6

Edited By Kazona

I would love a multiplayer game where I don't hear idiots screaming over my headset or speakers all the time.

Avatar image for getbentthevideogame
GetBentTheVideoGame

268

Forum Posts

20

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 5

Flower is incredibly overrated. This looks incredible.

Avatar image for ssully
SSully

5753

Forum Posts

315

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

Edited By SSully

I cant wait for this game. Thatgamecompany are so damn creative.

Avatar image for gamersland
GamersLand

4

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Edited By GamersLand

Thank you so much.
I don't have a PS3, but I want to have one because of 'Journey".

Avatar image for catolf
Catolf

2791

Forum Posts

3348

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 13

Edited By Catolf
@PixelPrinny said:
Would it be too much to ask to have all of you forum critics stop throwing the word "pretentious" around as if you actually know what it means or how to use it?  Yes, we know you've heard it on plenty of podcasts and read it in articles written by other people, but that doesn't mean you actually know how to use it, as you have clearly proven here. 
 
Seriously, "pretentious" has been, by far, the most overused word on the Internet this year due to people trying to sound smarter than they actually are and attempting to emulate the reviewers and critics they look up to. 
 
I swear these people just look at any (usually indie) game trying to do something different, point their fingers at it and yell from on high, "PRETENTIOUS!", all the while lacking any actual argument to prove why those games are guilty of such a thing.  
 
Anywho, gettin' off my soapbox. I'm looking forward to trying this one out. I enjoyed Flower a lot, as did my entire family -- something that is seldom said about any video game (hell, even my grandma enjoyed Flower. Clearly, it was due to its pretentiousness that non-gamers could enjoy it. Clearly.) . I don't imagine this will be a repeat of Flower, but I'm certainly interested in seeing what the studio does next.
AMEN!
Avatar image for pixelprinny
PixelPrinny

1089

Forum Posts

141

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 6

Edited By PixelPrinny

Would it be too much to ask to have all of you forum critics stop throwing the word "pretentious" around as if you actually know what it means or how to use it?  Yes, we know you've heard it on plenty of podcasts and read it in articles written by other people, but that doesn't mean you actually know how to use it, as you have clearly proven here. 
 
Seriously, "pretentious" has been, by far, the most overused word on the Internet this year due to people trying to sound smarter than they actually are and attempting to emulate the reviewers and critics they look up to. 
 
I swear these people just look at any (usually indie) game trying to do something different, point their fingers at it and yell from on high, "PRETENTIOUS!", all the while lacking any actual argument to prove why those games are guilty of such a thing.  
 
Anywho, gettin' off my soapbox. I'm looking forward to trying this one out. I enjoyed Flower a lot, as did my entire family -- something that is seldom said about any video game (hell, even my grandma enjoyed Flower. Clearly, it was due to its pretentiousness that non-gamers could enjoy it. Clearly.) . I don't imagine this will be a repeat of Flower, but I'm certainly interested in seeing what the studio does next.

Avatar image for themod
TheMoD

129

Forum Posts

37

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

Edited By TheMoD

Yep flower was an amazing experience, even if people like jeff and brad fail to realise that because they think there are restrictions as to what a game should be -.-
Avatar image for alphadormante
AlphaDormante

45

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By AlphaDormante
@LordCmdrStryker said:

@bonkers: Did you read the shit the guy said? He's making a game for people who never leave their goddamn houses. You know what I do when I want to seriously interact with people? I go outside. When I play a game, I want to play a game.

 Did you read the shit? He's making a game that simulates a loneliness for the player they can't find without moving out to Buttwipe Nowhere. I don't see how that's any different than the dozens of other companies that simulate a gun for you to shoot people in the face with. It's all pretendy funtimes that you can't get in real life without screwing yourself over.
Avatar image for milkman
Milkman

19372

Forum Posts

-1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 3

Edited By Milkman

This make me seem like a pretentious hipster but thatgamecompany is doing important things for the game industry and if this medium ever wants to be taken seriously, more developers like thatgamecompany need to exist.

Avatar image for bacongames
bacongames

4157

Forum Posts

5806

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 8

Edited By bacongames

Personally I still can't believe Flower was Patrick's favorite game of 2009. I have nothing against flower but on really? A $15 title where you float around as flower pedals for like 3-5 hours beats Batman or Uncharted 2? Fucking looney.

Avatar image for sleepydoughnut
SleepyDoughnut

1269

Forum Posts

133

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 5

Edited By SleepyDoughnut

Did anyone ask what you're actually supposed to do in this game?

Avatar image for purexis
purexis

4

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By purexis

Wow, exploring the concept of selfhood in a game...never thought it would happen. I love that life always surprises me...the unexpected always bears the hallmark of the real.

Avatar image for crono
Crono

2762

Forum Posts

-1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 23

User Lists: 6

Edited By Crono

Wow, running around in isolation with nothing in sight and no real objectives!? Where do I sign up for the fun!

Avatar image for duffyside
Duffyside

959

Forum Posts

96

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 14

Edited By Duffyside

One of my most-anticipated.

Avatar image for nicksem
nicksem

7

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By nicksem

Lovin' the kneejerk 'go back to cod' nonsense. 
 
The game is a middling co-op platformer. Morrowind did 'you're alone in an alien world' nine years ago. 

Avatar image for onarum
onarum

3212

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By onarum
@Chirag4 said:
@Jrad said:

@drag said:

@LordCmdrStryker said:

@Skullomania said:

@nicksem said:
Pretentious bollocks
My thoughts exactly.

Thirded. Make a game, FFS.

agreed. not enough shooting

What do you mean I can't 'pwn noobs'? FUCK THIS GAME.

When do you get the red dot sight?
He didn't mentioned perks, wtf, do we at least get xp for shooting people?
Avatar image for time allen
time allen

2329

Forum Posts

29

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By time allen

can't wait to play it wait i don't have a ps3 :'(

Avatar image for mjhaylett
MJHAYLETT

490

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By MJHAYLETT

day one for me

Avatar image for dungbootle
dungbootle

2502

Forum Posts

19953

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By dungbootle

I'd really like to play this.

Avatar image for red
Red

6146

Forum Posts

598

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 5

User Lists: 11

Edited By Red

Shadow of the Colossus is my favorite game of all time, and I absolutely adore ICO. I thoroughly enjoyed Flower, although I did find the environmentalist twist kind of annoying. Regardless, the multiplayer component of this game seems incredibly interesting, and the visual style is beautiful. It's the kind of jaw-dropping I haven't felt since I played Okami. 
Very interested in this one.

Avatar image for s-a-n-jr
s-a-n-JR

3256

Forum Posts

2993

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 15

Edited By s-a-n-JR

This game looks so damn incredible. Looking forward to playing it.

Avatar image for basketsnake
BasketSnake

1821

Forum Posts

48

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By BasketSnake

IT'S THE NOMAD CONES!!!!!

Avatar image for chirag4
Chirag4

586

Forum Posts

27

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

Edited By Chirag4
@Jrad said:

@drag said:

@LordCmdrStryker said:

@Skullomania said:

@nicksem said:
Pretentious bollocks
My thoughts exactly.

Thirded. Make a game, FFS.

agreed. not enough shooting

What do you mean I can't 'pwn noobs'? FUCK THIS GAME.

When do you get the red dot sight?
Avatar image for brendan
Brendan

9414

Forum Posts

533

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 7

Edited By Brendan

This seems like a neat little experiment that's worth trying out.

I think it's sad that people are bashing this game and the dev for doing something a little more artistic when most of them are the same people constantly bringing up how games are "art" on message boards. Guess what people, it's a little artistic experiment. Just as we have room for big budget FPS's and little downloadable games, our newer industry has room for these kinds of games as well. It's great that people can trying out new ideas, and if you don't like how the language sounds "arty" then you should seriously consider what you're doing next time you find yourself squaking about how games are "art" in the next thread devoted to the latest thing Roger Ebert said.

Avatar image for tourgen
tourgen

4568

Forum Posts

645

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 4

User Lists: 11

Edited By tourgen

Overblown pretentious nonesense

Avatar image for jrad
Jrad

638

Forum Posts

15

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

Edited By Jrad

@drag said:

@LordCmdrStryker said:

@Skullomania said:

@nicksem said:
Pretentious bollocks
My thoughts exactly.

Thirded. Make a game, FFS.

agreed. not enough shooting

What do you mean I can't 'pwn noobs'? FUCK THIS GAME.

Avatar image for deactivated-6058f06e73ee8
deactivated-6058f06e73ee8

1024

Forum Posts

75

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Things like this make me want a PS3 more than any of the big name titles.

Avatar image for blacklab
blacklab

2025

Forum Posts

22

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By blacklab

Loved Flower and am very much looking forward to Journey.

Avatar image for lordcmdrstryker
LordCmdrStryker

356

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 3

Edited By LordCmdrStryker

@bonkers: Did you read the shit the guy said? He's making a game for people who never leave their goddamn houses. You know what I do when I want to seriously interact with people? I go outside. When I play a game, I want to play a game.

And I didn't like Flower, either. What a waste of time.

@jabbertrack said:

I prefer to forget about those months in 2009 when Flower was debated ad nauseum.

This team is doing cool and different things, and I buy their games, but lets pause before we go all hipster and start drooling over high concept.

Amen, brother.

Avatar image for adamazing
adamazing

83

Forum Posts

592

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Edited By adamazing

I love his comparison on why they chose that style of multiplayer.  Very interesting.  I'm curious to see how the multiplayer all works out.  Yay for good previews of non-AAA titles!
Avatar image for rvone
RVonE

5027

Forum Posts

8740

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 6

Edited By RVonE

@bonkers said:

"herp derp, the game has no guns or 'splosions, offers an
unconventional playing experience and the dev is talking about feelings and psychology,
omg FEELINGS!! I can't wrap my tiny brain around these crazy concepts and
I therefore deem this entire thing as pretentious herp derp." This game looks beautiful and unique, can't wait to play it.

I like you.

Avatar image for deactivated-59a31562f0e29
deactivated-59a31562f0e29

1212

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@shinluis: my bit was a joke but alright
Avatar image for bonkers
bonkers

34

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By bonkers

"herp derp, the game has no guns or 'splosions, offers an unconventional playing experience and the dev is talking about feelings and psychology, omg FEELINGS!! I can't wrap my tiny brain around these crazy concepts and I therefore deem this entire thing as pretentious herp derp."

This game looks beautiful and unique, can't wait to play it.

Avatar image for brenderous
Brenderous

1299

Forum Posts

360

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 11

Edited By Brenderous

One of the most interesting games at e3.

Avatar image for shinluis
shinluis

518

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 4

Edited By shinluis
@drag said:
@LordCmdrStryker said:

@Skullomania said:

@nicksem said:
Pretentious bollocks
My thoughts exactly.

Thirded. Make a game, FFS.

agreed. not enough shooting
I really feel sorry all you kiddos. I beg of you, please go back to your Call of Duty and stop quibbering about designers who actually give a thought about their games instead of going bob kottick about them and making the medium and saturated with endless games that look all the same and have no spirit.
Avatar image for kyle
Kyle

2383

Forum Posts

6307

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 12

Edited By Kyle

I can't wait for this. It needs to come out soon! :(

Avatar image for springtoast
springtoast

37

Forum Posts

35

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By springtoast

Looks very interesting. Can't wait to try it out myself!

Avatar image for confideration
confideration

607

Forum Posts

7

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By confideration

I prefer to forget about those months in 2009 when Flower was debated ad nauseum.

This team is doing cool and different things, and I buy their games, but lets pause before we go all hipster and start drooling over high concept.

Avatar image for opentheharbors
opentheharbors

13

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Edited By opentheharbors

great article. looking forward to journey!

Avatar image for prestonhedges
prestonhedges

1961

Forum Posts

42

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By prestonhedges

"In a big city, you’re walking [a] downtown street, you don’t care about [people], because they’re everywhere. You care about your cell phone or whatever. But if you go to the mountain, go to the wild, hiking, you’re so small, you don’t feel you know a lot about the world. You’re insecure. Whenever you run into another person, you naturally want to go and say hi to them. Very simple psychology. I wanted to see an online game where we delivered the mountain.”

 
Yeah, or maybe a desert and two characters is just easier to render.

Avatar image for sixpin
sixpin

1345

Forum Posts

758

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 7

Edited By sixpin

Played Flower and Flow. Never really enjoyed either of them that much. They aren't bad, just not worthy of all the praise I think. They are neat experiments and I think that this game will be as well. Don't know if I'll like it any more than the studios previous works, but it is pretty.

Avatar image for rbanke
rbanke

238

Forum Posts

16

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 5

Edited By rbanke

I completely disagree about the motion controls in Flower. Loved the game, but thought the motion controls completely got in the way and made for a frustrating experience. I would have much preferred to use the analog sticks.

Journey looks pretty interesting, been waiting on it for quite a while. Nice to see some new press about it.

Avatar image for bigchief
bigchief

513

Forum Posts

784

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 7

Edited By bigchief

This game looks excellent.

Avatar image for warofart
artofwar420

6994

Forum Posts

290

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 7

Edited By artofwar420

After the awesome experience that Flower was I can't wait to see this in person.

Avatar image for yorro
yorro

560

Forum Posts

239

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 4

Edited By yorro

Wasn't this at google labs?

Avatar image for bhhawks78
bhhawks78

1348

Forum Posts

18

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Edited By bhhawks78

After the overhype for a pretty screen saver aka flower I don't think I can trust any coverage about this company.

Avatar image for geirr
geirr

4166

Forum Posts

717

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 5

Edited By geirr

Beautiful, looking forward to experiencing this.

The sound design seems a little out of place though, I mean the echo somehow sounds too

near, as if not in a desert where an echo really wouldn't be so eager to resound.

Avatar image for make_me_mad
Make_Me_Mad

3229

Forum Posts

1007

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 11

Edited By Make_Me_Mad

I remember when people took the time to make things that looked beautiful, were artisticly wonderful, and were actually games.  This is despicable, just like Flower was.

Avatar image for strangeling
strangeling

1317

Forum Posts

28

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 50

Edited By strangeling

I like the movement in this. I like that you can slide along the sand.

I like the bursts of sound you can emit.

I'm intrigued.