Journey, new game from thatgamecompany (flOw, Flower)

[rabidrabbit]

http://kotaku.com/5564719/flower-developers-new-game-is-a-multiplayer-adventure/gallery/

Some screens of the game.
Wonder what the games objective will be, is it going to be a MMO, or an experience like Flower, with little actual gameplay objetives and emphasis on the feeling of journey and exploration.

Now why wasn't this on Sony's E3 conference? It would've been a velcome highlight in the PSN presentation.

 

[Grall]

Doubt MMO, or even multiplayer in any form. A MMO requires a huge infrastructure and support operation, I'm sure thatgamecompany isn't interested in getting into that market. It's so far removed from what seems to be their overall philosophy...

I saw a couple screenies on Joystiq. Looks really nice IMO.

Was hoping they'd release a couple more levels for Flower. I loved that game, but it was over so fast.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I saw a couple screenies on Joystiq. Looks really nice IMO.

Nice TGC style, but also very empty and dull. First impression is 'wandering a desert aimlessly' which isn't something I'd part money to do.

 

[KongRudi]

It were game of the show for a dude at the hotspot-podcast at gamespot.com (06/17/2010).
He had trouble explaining why tough. Storytelling were reminding him of Demon's Soul, were you kind of chose wich characthers.
Objective seemed to be 'get to the mountain', but the gameplay were the journey.. Cloth and sand were important gameplay-elements. It had co-op, and you were hitchhiking with others or something like that..

Sounded strange..

 

[Sigfried1977]

Ohh, new hotspot. Thanks for the heads up. Love that podcast.
After Flower I'm more than willing to give thatgamecompany the benefit of the doubt.

 

[TEEDA]

Here's the fact sheet

Journey™

Platform: PlayStation®3 system
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC
Developer: thatgamecompany
Rating: “RP” for “Rating Pending”
Release: 2011

OVERVIEW

The pioneers that brought you the award-winning PlayStation®Network titles flOw & Flower® are back with another title that challenges traditional gaming conventions. With Journey, thatgamecompany (TGC) continues its tradition of delivering simple gameplay and accessible controls in a rich interactive environment that invites players to explore and experience emotional chords that are still uncommon in video games.

An exotic adventure with a more serious tone, Journey presents TGC’s unique vision of an online adventure experience. Awakening in an unknown world, the player walks, glides, and flies through a vast and awe-inspiring landscape, while discovering the history of an ancient, mysterious civilization along the way.

Journey’s innovative approach to online play encourages players to explore this environment with strangers who cross their path from time to time. By traveling together, they can re-shape the experience – creating authentic moments they will remember and discuss with others.

KEY FEATURES

INTUITIVE CONTROLS AND EXPERIENCE –Players with differing skill levels and/or moods can experience the game at their own pace.
LUSH AND EXPANSIVE ENVIRONMENTS – Grand landscapes filled with dynamic sand and cloth. Fully simulated sand dunes ripple and slide as players move across them.
FRESH ONLINE ADVENTURE – Players explore a mysterious world, discovering its hidden history. People are free to travel alone, or adventure with strangers that they meet along the way.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I'll have to see some vids. I actually like the look of it, but almost every pic I saw was just someone walking through an empty desert. There has to be something else to it.

 

[JPT]

I'll have to see some vids. I actually like the look of it, but almost every pic I saw was just someone walking through an empty desert. There has to be something else to it.

FRESH ONLINE ADVENTURE – Players explore a mysterious world, discovering its hidden history. People are free to travel alone, or adventure with strangers that they meet along the way.

Meeting other people?

 

[tha_con]

I'll have to see some vids. I actually like the look of it, but almost every pic I saw was just someone walking through an empty desert. There has to be something else to it.

Not necessarily. I mean, obviously they'll do something with it, but look at Flower. There wasn't a "lot" to it, for the most part.

I'm significantly interested in the online stuff tough. Wondering how the'll handle that and still preserve the integrity of the 'experience'.

 

[patsu]

He had trouble explaining why tough. Storytelling were reminding him of Demon's Soul, were you kind of chose wich characthers.

Nice TGC style, but also very empty and dull. First impression is 'wandering a desert aimlessly' which isn't something I'd part money to do.

Yap, this certainly reminds me of Demon's Souls. It is counter-intuitive compared to my common complains about open world games. My guess is the map should be not just empty and dull. I suspect the terrain should be vast, empty and unfamiliar/alien to the gamers.

 

[Scott_Arm]

It just seems weird. There's obviously something to it their not showing. Walking through the desert isn't really an adventure on its own. There is obviously something more to it than that. And coming across random people, there must be something you can work together for. Just wandering around in a big empty desert can't be the game.

 

[patsu]

I was looking for a gamasutra article that explains this notion but I can't find the link at the moment. If I remember correctly, the gist of it is: The designer should trust the design/map. In an open world map, it is sometimes ok/good to leave the map alone (empty and vast) instead of trying to cramp a lot of activities in it and ruin the overall unpredictable experience. He used Shadow of the Colossus as a positive example.

I think Demon's Souls is similar in the sense that the landscape is desolate but because of "helpless" player interaction (due to a sustained overhang of doom), the game becomes interesting.

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9011722

I've heard that the inspiration for the online component came about when one of the designers was stranded on a mountain road during a snowstorm. He was eventually freed by a few anonymous rescuers, and he later found himself wondering about who they were. Demon's Souls boasts a passionate, slightly insane community, and I feel like it's that dynamic of strangers helping strangers that helps bind them together to some degree, however anonymously.

In this case, may be the boredom (or something else) will force you to interact with the occasional people you meet online ? Or perhaps like in some manga, the landmark mountain may disappear for some unknown reasons (i.e., the magical mountain where only the faithful can see and climb).

Whatever it is, I'm interested to follow this.

EDIT: Might want to remove this thread:
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=57768

 

[Scott_Arm]

I definitely like the idea of space, but I hope it doesn't feel like you're always wandering aimlessly. Exploring in the hopes of finding something cool, even if it takes a while, is a good thing. Never liked the overcrowded nature of many open world games. I like the idea of knowing roughly where something is and having to locate it, or just walking into the unknown and finding great things at random, without it being obvious where they are. This game has huge potential, and I hope that's what they're going for. They just aren't saying much, so it's hard to know exactly what it is.

 

[patsu]

Impressions:
http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6266636/journey-impressions

Before he showed us Journey in action, Chen outlined his inspirations. He talked about how all of us wield power via modern technology. We use mobile phones, computers, and other technology to exert our will on what is around us. In turn, games focus on giving us further power to wield in their worlds--through guns, superpowers, magic, and more. But Chen felt there was something missing. In a discussion with a NASA astronaut, Chen heard the pilot's stories of how colleagues that walked on the moon returned as changed individuals--more religious, more spiritual. Chen thinks that change is a result of seeing the earth from the moon, which instills a sense of wonder, or as he called it, "a sense of small."

With that, Chen showed us Journey in action. The game begins with a gorgeous cello melody, and we see that we are in desert. The sand stretches in front of us, and we see a close-up of our own character, an abstract form in a hooded cloak. Chen then briefed us on the controls: you use the Sixaxis tilt-sensing to move the camera, move your character with the left stick, press one button to jump, and another to sing. (More on singing to come.) What is most striking at this point is the sense of loneliness and wonder. Chen echoed this idea by telling us that players will be asking themselves: "Who am I? Where am I?" The game is about discovering the answers to these and other metaphysical questions.

I stopped reading right there since I didn't want to spoil the game for myself too much.


This is a ZOMGWTFBBQ moment for me.

I know e-x-a-c-t-l-y what he meant. I had a similar experience decades ago in a "World Music" class. The lecturer played a recording of the Africa plain's night time to the class. We turned off the lights in the auditorium. It was total darkness. No animal. No insect. Nothing at all for minutes and minutes of grainy recording -- because the plain was so vast. Our ears were getting really uncomfortable.

Then in a ghostly fashion, fading in and out of the silence, we heard a wild animal crying timidly/softly. I was weird out and overwhelmed with emotion instantly. In fact, I felt like weeping with the animal together because I have (a las) found companionship in a vacuum. It soon became clear that someone was singing out of tune. It was a bow hunter playing his bow string, making terrible music.

I was awestruck. I could sense his vulnerability, desparation and loneliness from his tone. I could visualize his "small-ness" in the expansive Africa wilderness. I understood immediately why music was invented. It was our feeble attempt to "shout back" at this cruel silence and loneliness. Apparently, the hunter has wandered far away from his village, hungry and tired.

When the light came up later, I saw tears in some female students' eyes.


After more than a decade, I can still remember that feeling. I have no idea what Jenova's game plan is, but his description sounds very similar to my experience. Now I wonder what his story is. ^_^

 

[JPT]

What I do like about this game, is that might be something else. I commend thatgamecompany for trying to do something different and Sony for letting them try it.

If the game is just walking from point a to b or what not, not really that important. Although I want it to be fantastic, but the most important thing is that their not going for fps shooter #11214 since that is what is the "easy" sell.

 

[patsu]

I concur.

Decided to look up more info...

IGN preview:
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/110/1100163p1.html

Journey takes a unique approach to online multiplayer. The developer likens playing the game to taking a hike. On a hike you may encounter another person. You could choose to travel with them or maybe you'll go your separate ways. The same will happen in Journey. Here and there you'll find other people making their own way towards the mountain. You can play through the entire game on your own, but thatgamecompany isn't sure whether or not the game will work offline.

Singing = talking

The left stick maneuvers your humanoid character around the desert. There are only two buttons to worry about: one to jump and one to call or sing. Chen explained that the singing is a way for you to communicate to other players without words. You can tap the sing button for short sounds or hold it down for longer tones. Sixaxis tilt controls are used to look around.

Sand...

Since Journey takes place in a desert, you're going to be looking at a lot of sand. that gamecompany spent a lot of time getting the sand to move fluidly beneath your feet and it does look impressive. You could draw designs in the sand if you like. In fact, Chen says, "Certainly, we have seen people leave penises on the sand."

While the sand is beautiful, it won't always behave realistically. You'll encounter waves of sand passing by like waves on an ocean. Catch a ride and you can surf on a sand wave. The moving grains pour from waterfalls (sandfalls?).

...

Funny I thought of this the other day too. Got the idea from an old manga (Cobra). When I first saw the KZ3 rough sea, I was wondering why Guerilla didn't do a KZ2 desert but with the stormy sea physics. The oil rigs can still stay. ^_^

 

[patsu]

In-Depth: Hunicke And Chen Talk TGC's Intriguing New Journey
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/30901/InDepth_Hunicke_And_Chen_Talk_TGCs_Intriguing_New_Journey.php

[At Indiecade on Saturday, Jenova Chen and Robin Hunicke discussed their work on Journey, the PSN-exclusive follow-up (due in 2011) to Thatgamecompany's acclaimed Flower, and Gamasutra correspondent Michael Abbott was there to document their discussion.]

…

Because Journey bears few similarities to other games, media coverage has tended to focus on its visuals, which often elicit comparisons to Fumito Ueda's Shadow of the Colossus. Chen and Hunicke acknowledge the influence, but Journey is a very different sort of game.

…

 

[JPT]

I am so hoping I will find this game fun, because it ticks so many boxes of what I like and dont like about so many games now

 

[patsu]

Playtesting time:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/11/12/playtest-thegamecompanys-journey-next-week-in-l-a/

As you might already know, we have an extremely iterative development process, which means that although we are still building out the game, we like to get feedback from players early so we can incorporate it into the final version. This is a great opportunity to see the game as it progresses, and get a look behind the curtain of game development. Also, we’d love to have folks from this community help us!
Here’s the info:

Evening of November 19th, 2010

Requirements to participate are:

Be between the ages of 18 and 35.

Be an active PSN game player. We want people who are familiar with PSN games, visit the Store, and download games as a part of their PlayStation life.

Live in Los Angeles, and have reliable transportation to the playtest in Santa Monica.

…

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Why the upper age limit??