Journey Interview
with thatgamecompany's Kellee Santiago
If you’ve played thatgamecompany’s PSN exclusives fl0w or Flower, you’ve no doubt experienced something…different. With each game, the tiny developer aims to inspire awe, tweak emotions, and leave players thinking long after the credits have rolled. Where most games amp adrenaline and tax trigger fingers, theirs are known for soothing the senses and relaxing the mind. We recently got some hands-on time with their latest not-quite-a-game, Journey, an expectedly bizarre effort offering a unique online experience. After spending a few minutes in its beautiful, sand-consumed world, controlling a cloth-based character, no less, we thought we best find out what the hell was going on. Who better to answer--albeit often cryptically--our queries than thatgamecompany’s President and co-founder Kellee Santiago.
AtomicGamer: What exactly are you guys trying to accomplish with Journey?
Kellee Santiago: So Journey is thatgamecompany’s first online experience. I think players that are familiar with the previous titles, fl0w and Flower, will certainly see a common DNA in the Journey experience. We’re trying to present something new in a video game. One of the central inspirations of the project is really trying to give players a moment of awe and wonder that they don’t usually have in their day-to-day lives, and are very rare to find in our digital lives, certainly.
AG: Can you talk about your unique approach to multi-player?
KS: When we were thinking about taking TGC’s game design philosophy into the online arena, taking these qualities of making relevant, intuitive experiences, we really wanted to explore the idea of an online game in which the connection between players happens intuitively within the game experience itself. So, in Journey, as you’re moving through the world, you may happen upon someone else who is another player, a stranger, who’s out there playing their own game as well. And there’s no voice. There’s no text. The only ways to communicate are through a shout that you have and the physical movement that you have in the world. In that way, it’s a really safe online experience. You can choose to share your gameplay experience together, or you can decide that if you don’t want to play with that person, you can simply walk away from them in the space of the game, and you’ll disconnected and you can have an opportunity to meet someone else.
AG: Given the online focus, can solo players also expect a fulfilling experience? Or is it something that is really meant to be played with others?
KS: Just like with our previous games, we wanted to give players the option to determine their own gameplay experience. So you can play Journey from beginning to end by yourself if you desire to, and you’ll also be able to have slightly different experiences when playing with someone else.
AG: Is there a benefit to playing with someone else online?
KS: So in the world, there’s this element of cloth as the embodiment of the life-force in the universe. You are made of cloth. So when you’re with another player and you’re with one another, you can sort of move more easily as one way of working together. You can also decide to be competitive with each other, race little areas, if that’s more of the kind of online experience you want.
AG: thatgamecompany’s titles can never easily be placed in any existing genres. Where do you guys draw inspiration for your titles?
KS: Our inspirations really come from anywhere. I mean, I think we just really take inspirations from our lives, psychology, religion, experiences.
AG: But it seems there are certain things you want to avoid in your games, things that are too familiar from other genres. Is that accurate?
KS: I guess we don’t really get inspiration from other video games because we are trying to explore new emotional experiences.
AG: You mentioned this was a bigger title and the first you guys have made with an actual character, a “humanoid“, as you put it. Did this pose any new challenges?
KS: Oh, absolutely, yes. I think our fans will definitely see Journey as much bigger than anything else we’ve made to date, and very different in that way.
AG: The scope and the aesthetics of it remind me a little bit of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Did those title inspire the team, even a little? Are you guys fans of those games?
KS: I was going to say a little bit of both. Like I said, we start our projects with an inspirational or emotional goal, and design everything around that. We sort of discover as we’re going along, “Oh, this kind of looks like this other thing.” That said, we’re certainly inspired by others’ work.
AG: Journey seems tailor-made for folks who are familiar with thatgamecompany’s previous titles. But how about for those who have never played fl0w or Flower? Is this something they will “get“?
KS: We hope so, yes. I mean, we make our games to be relevant and accessible to anyone. So, yes, I hope so. I hope that anyone that has a PS3 will be able to pick it up and play Journey.
AG: So, back to the protagonist. They are not a person? They are made of cloth?
KS: Right.
AG: (laughs) You’re not really saying specifically what they are? They don’t have a name? Is it a secret?
KS: (laughs) It’s part of the discovery.
AG: Can you talk about the unique controls a little bit?
KS: In Journey, the camera is set to the motion control. You use the left thumb stick to move. There are two buttons, which is a really big departure for us in our control scheme. One button is to shout or call. The other button is to jump. You can also use it to fly and soar through space.
AG: What is the shouting used for? Is that to communicate with other players online?
KS: It can be used to communicate. It can also be used to call cloth to you. So it has a gameplay function as well.
Thanks to Kellee Santiago for her time and piquing our curiosity. Now we can’t wait to play Journey, even if we don’t quite get it. We look forward to giving our trigger fingers some time off when it ships later this year.
