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Journey producer Robin Hunicke to speak at Boston Festival of Indie Games
The Boston Festival of Indie Games has announced that its keynote speaker will be Robin Hunicke, former executive producer of Journey. Hunicke's talk, Finding Meaning in Gameplay, will "focus on how developers can create games that inspire new feelings, by looking inward and examining the everyday experiences of their own lives," according to the festival's site. Hunicke left thatgamecompany in late March 2012 for Tiny Speck, before co-founding indie studio Funomena in September 2012 with former thatgamecompany programmer Martin Middleton. The Boston Festival of Indie Games, which is in its second year of existence, will be held on September 14. Its planners are raising funds on Kickstarter to improve the event, and are currently $2,414 shy of their $15,000 goal with 11 days left in the funding campaign. Incentive for those pledging $25 or more (aside from a warm, charitable feeling) is a PC bundle that includes Fieldrunners and Go Home Dinosaurs.
Six years in, Journey studio rewards itself with two new hires
Did you know that today is thatgamecompany's sixth birthday? It's true! In those six years, the team of approximately a dozen people created Flow, Flower, and, most recently, Journey, all the while cementing their place as heads of the art games movement. The company recently completed its contract with Sony for three exclusive titles, but that doesn't mean it's resting on past successes. For instance, TGC is already in talks with publishers for whatever's next.Alongside its success, some big names at the studio recently moved on – co-founder Kellee Santiago and executive producer Robin Hunicke both exited in the past few months, following the launch of Journey this past March. Today, TGC adds two new employees.In light of its big sixth birthday, thatgamecompany is announcing the appointment of two new stars: former director of marketing and business development of PowerMMO Games, Sunni Pavlovic, becomes studio manager, and taking up the new position of audio director is Cloud and Flower contributor Vincent Diamante.In a prepared statement from TGC, Diamante said, "I'm very excited to be a part of thatgamecompany, joining forces with both friends from past projects as well as new faces. The last time around, I worked with TGC mostly as a music contractor. Things this time around will be a bit different, as I'll be dealing with all sound and music issues on their upcoming game."Diamante related his first several weeks at TGC as akin to "tight-rope walking with chainsaws," which is, like, the exact opposite of what we imagine working at TGC to be like. Isn't it all floaty stuff and soft music? Quit ruining our illusions, Diamante! You've only just started!
thatgamecompany courting publishers, next game announced 'hopefully within this year' [update]
Update: Chen contacted us to clarify his statements regarding Hunicke and Santiago: "Both Kellee and Robin made huge contributions to our games. My comments about their roles were made to address, particularly, the creative development process of our next game. By no means would I make those statements by themselves, otherwise it would feel like I'm downplaying my partners' roles."Now that Journey is out and thatgamecompany has been loosed from the bonds of its three game exclusivity deal with Sony, company co-founder Jenova Chen is on the prowl for a new publishing parter. "It takes us a little bit of time to basically readjust after the three game deal," Chen said during an interview with VG247. "We're very close in figuring out what the next deal is. We're negotiating with various partners."Obviously, thatgamecompany wouldn't need a new publisher unless it was working on a new game, but the acquisition of a new publication pal won't necessarily translate into any information about Chen's next project. "In terms of when you'll know about the next game, I think we intentionally announce our games very early. We announced Flower half a year after we launched Flow. We announced Journey half a year after we launched Flower. So hopefully within this year, you'll hear from us about our next game."Chen also put to bed fears that the departures of producer Robin Hunicke and co-founder Kellee Santiago would hamper thatgamecompany's ability to create its next title. "I wouldn't say they have any direct impact when it comes to developing the game. Kellee is mostly working on the business end and PR for TGC, so she represents the company, but she's not a developer in terms of engineer or artist or designer on this game."Robin was the producer. She's more like a manager type. But we still have the lead engineer, lead designer and artists from Journey, so it doesn't really matter in terms of our ability to make games."
Robin Hunicke leaves thatgamecompany for Tiny Speck
Robin Hunicke, thatgamecompany's "Producer Extraordinaire" since 2009, has left the Journey developer to join Tiny Speck, the Canadian studio responsible for Glitch. Hunicke will be "providing leadership in game design" for Tiny Speck and Glitch specifically from Tiny Speck's San Francisco offices, according to an announcement at the Glitch Blog."When they told me they had an office in San Francisco, where folks were joining up to imagine new fun for Glitch... well, I must admit I swooned," Hunicke said in an update on her personal blog.Hunicke's departure from thatgamecompany comes hot on the heels of Kellee Santiago's similar announcement earlier this morning. It was also heralded by an anonymous source speaking to Gamasutra, who warned of further "key staff departures" following in Santiago's footsteps.
Journey beta preview: Feeling small
During a PlayStation press event last week, I spoke with thatgamecompany executive producer Robin Hunicke, who told me that the team was "really really satisfied" with the feedback on the recently wrapped up Journey beta. "So many people wrote us to say that meeting a stranger online was a satisfying experience," Hunicke said. "It was exactly the kind of feedback we wanted." If that sounds as counterintuitive to you as it did to me, Hunicke explains just how thatgamecompany managed to make meeting strangers online (ick!) a not-awful experience. Over the course of the two-week beta, 10,000 players – 5,000 in the US and 5,000 in Europe, according to thatgamecompany co-founder Kellee Santiago – helped the small dev test its networking code. The beta was a good source of positive reinforcement; the game's ideas worked. Not bad for the studio's first multiplayer game. The networking code, on the other hand, had a single bug. "But it was a really big bug," Hunicke said, laughing. It presented itself immediately and was patched just as quickly. For the next two weeks, the team gathered feedback and enjoyed hearing players write in, sharing experiences that matched the game's goals.%Gallery-129118%
Journey preview: Souls searching
I laughed when I first saw the scarf worn by Journey's main character. I couldn't help it -- the flair it adds to the enigmatic avatar renders the figure distinctly more charming than spooky. The scarf serves a more functional purpose, too: It's a gameplay meter, measuring your character's ability to fly. The scarf depletes as you fly; fill it back up -- and even lengthen it -- by completing puzzles and discovering secrets, among other things. There's actually a variety of scarves to be collected and equipped throughout the gameworld. Scarves, however, are not the focus on thatgamecompany's third PSN-exclusive, Journey. The focus, creative lead Jenova Chen told me at a recent press event, is to enable unique online experiences. "Everyone's on a journey towards a goal, and everybody travels through a similar landscape," he said of the game. "And at some point, their paths cross each other, and then they could be playing together." %Gallery-110295%
Boom Blox producer leaves EA, joins thatgamecompany
thatgamecompany, the studio behind flOw and Flower, has managed to sweep away former EA developer Robin Hunicke. Hunicke worked as the lead designer behind MySims, and produced the two Wii Boom Blox titles. In a statement to Kotaku, Hunicke explains that she wants "to reach new people, with new experiences, via the medium of games and the language of game design" in her new position. With both flOw and Flower completed, Hunicke says thatgamecompany is "at the forefront of the indie movement." It's currently unknown what position Hunicke will serve at thatgamecompany or what project she will be working on. The team is still contractually obligated to develop at least one more game for PlayStation Network.
Moving The Sims from PC to Wii
At GDC, Maxis Game Designer Robin Hunicke spoke about her process of transferring The Sims to the Wii. Her team was excited to be working on a Wii title because of its new controller and Nintendo's history, but Hunicke's most important lesson was to stay true to the defining elements of a franchise instead of starting over for a new console.Hunicke said, "The Wii is so cool ... oh my gosh. ... Almost everyone on my team is a Nintendo fan. Almost all game developers are Nintendo fans. ... We were really excited to build a [Wii] game." But since the team began work well before the console's launch, they only had tradeshow experiences and Nintendo ads to approach the MySims design.Hunicke noticed the clean lines, family oriented approach, and tactile aesthetics of the early Wii marketing material. She followed those elements instead of trying to build the game around flailing controller movements. Hunicke said, "We wanted to bring The Sims to the Wii in a way that we could say we were at home on the Wii."%Gallery-2064%
GDC 07: MySims goes to Wii, gets rid of pee
"OMG! The Wii is so cool," an enthusiastic female developer screams during a GDC session. That developer is Robin Hunicke, designer of the upcoming Wii-exclusive MySims. Designing the title began long before the team had a chance to get their hands on the system, so they had to rely on the "aesthetic" of Nintendo's advertising. "We wanted to bring The Sims to the Wii in a way that we could say we were at home on the Wii," she said, trying to find a unique look, style and feel for the Wii version.Converting a game for play on Wii doesn't necessarily mean changing everything. What the team focused on was how it feels to touch the characters on screen with the Wiimote: wild, flailing actions probably wouldn't be appropriate for a title such as this. One of the biggest changes that needed to be made was how the game was managed: there was a great deal of opposition to focusing on a single character (rather than a large family), and there was an even greater uproar against the loss of urination, and other micromanagement features.Streamlining The Sims process was key to moving the franchise to the Wii, and that's where the character designs came from. Although they look strangely like Mii, the look wasn't based on Nintendo's character creation system. The lead character designer, when showing off her simplified look for Wii Sims, was told: "it's perfect."See also:Joystiq: Moving The Sims from PC to WiiGallery: MySims design processGallery: MySims
