jenova-chen
Latest
Thatgamecompany's flOw swimming to PS4 next week
Thatgamecompany's flOw will launch next Tuesday, December 17 on PS4, Sony Santa Monica announced in a PlayStation Blog post today. The port of the artsy aquatic indie game will cost $5.99, with its lone DLC priced at $1.99. Developed by Jenova Chen and Nicholas Clark as a Flash game in 2006, the game was ported to PS3 in February 2007 by thatgamecompany as the developer's first release with music provided by Austin Wintory. Chen and his team went on to develop Flower and Journey, the former joining the likes of flOw, Sound Shapes and Escape Plan on PS4. All four games are Cross-Buy compatible, so owners of any one version of the respective PS3, PS4 or Vita games will have access to the other ones as well.
thatinterview with thatgamecompany co-founder Jenova Chen
In a relatively quiet, upstairs nook of the rain-soaked Palmer Events Center in Austin, TX, thatgamecompany co-founder Jenova Chen and I sat down to discuss Journey, his company's future and his thoughts on free-to-play business models, among other things.For Chen, 2012 was an auspicious year. Journey was a critical smash hit, earning top honors at DICE and a five-award sweep at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts game awards, among other illustrious achievements. Beyond its success with the press, however, Journey's release represented an even larger milestone for Chen and thatgamecompany: The developer's three-game exclusivity agreement with Sony had come to an end.
Journey bankrupted the studio, next game to be multiplatform, Chen says
Developing Journey cost thatgamecompany a lot of time, talent and all of its money, creator Jenova Chen said during his DICE 2013 address. Journey bankrupted thatgamecompany; Chen began its development in 2006 and the studio eventually received two extensions from Sony so the team could perfect the game's emotional impact."We did get the money, we got to finish the extra year, but a lot of people in our studio were not paid in the last half of the year, and we actually paid our savings to extend the game for another couple months," Chen said. "So by the end, when we shipped Journey, we also went bankrupt as thatgamecompany."In the end, Chen said it was worth it, if only to see the deep, human impact Journey had on its players. One email he received told Sophia's story, a 15-year-old who played Journey with her dad before he died and said the game changed her life for the better.Next up, Chen wants to create a similarly artistic, but more commercially successful game, in an attempt to broaden the game development industry as a whole, he tells Polygon. Thatgamecompany's next game will be multiplatform, unlike its previous, Sony-exclusive games.
Hit List Q&A: Jenova Chen, thatgamecompany President
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: thatgamecompany President Jenova Chen. A note from the AIAS:Jenova Chen is President & Creative Director for thatgamecompany (TGC). TGC is best known for creating experimental, artistic, and accessible games that touch players on an emotional level. TGC designed and developed the award-winning PSN titles flOw, Flower, and, most recently, Journey.At the upcoming 2013 D.I.C.E. Summit conference, Jenova will be speaking on: Emotion Oriented Interactive Entertainment - Inspirations and Theories Behind Journey. Jenova learned many valuable lessons on what went well and how to do better on his quest to create games that deliver a lasting emotional impact. Jenova will discuss TGC's founding design philosophy and share some of the lessons he and his team gleaned from TGC's past six years developing three innovative downloadable games.
'Critical Path' trailer is loaded with games industry talent
A trailer for Critical Path, a "transmedia project exploring the art, philosophy, politics and psychology of video games" recently surfaced. The trailer, created by a Los Angeles-based studio named Artifact, shows dozens of game designers talking about their craft and the place games take in the history of expressive media. The project aims to "give game designers their due as innovators and influencers of culture."Critical Path is described as the culmination of "two years of filming and archiving" interviews, according to Artifact's site. "User feedback will influence future interviews, which will be added to the archive on an ongoing basis."Among the 37 names listed at the end of the trailer are Warren Spector, Jenova Chen, John Carmack, David Cage, Cliff Bleszinski, Ken Levine, Peter Molyneux, Tim Schafer and Hideo Kojima. You can watch the trailer here.
Journey dev goes fully independent, self-publishing next game
Having completed its three-game contractual stint with Sony Computer Entertainment America, the team behind Flow, Flower, and Journey is breaking free with a $5.5 million infusion of capital from Benchmark Capital's Mitch Lasky. "Today I am pleased to announce thatgamecompany has raised funding to develop and release our games independently," company co-founder Jenova Chen wrote on the TGC blog."This enables us to bring our games to more platforms and provide our players the highest quality experience at every point of contact," Chen added. TGC's first three games are owned by Sony, so don't expect to see them going multiplatform anytime soon. The company's next project, however, could end up on any number of platforms. He stopped short of revealing what TGC's next big project is, but said the team is "very excited about our new adventure" and will offer more news about it "soon."thatgamecompany celebrated its sixth year in operation this past May with two new hires, and said goodbye to several employees earlier in the year. Chen said in May that TGC was courting publishers for its next game, but today pointed out that the company will be self-publishing instead.Update: thatgamecompany issued Joystiq the following statement: "We are extremely excited to be partnering with Benchmark Capital, as now we are going to be self-publishing our next games. We haven't announced if our next game will be multiplatform, but we are trying to reach a larger audience than that of the PS3."
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."
Journey Without Words
You're reading Reaction Time, a new weekly column that claims to examine recent events, games and trends in the industry, but is really just looking for an excuse to use the word "zeitgeist." It debuts on Fridays in Engadget's digital magazine, Distro. I'm not sure I've seen anyone describe Journey as a well written game. It's praised as an earnest, emotionally stirring masterpiece, and a subtle success that nearly denigrates other games just by existing alongside them. But the topic of writing in games is often confined to scripts, spectacle and whatever is said in a cutscene, and Journey doesn't have any of that. If you completed it, you'll probably agree: There are no words.As I wandered through an orange-hued desert, coming dangerously close to outright frolicking, I noticed a figure striding into distant view. Here I met another nameless nomad, and one that shared my appreciation of tasteful, unfettered fabrics. A friend? Another traveler compelled to reach the mysterious obelisk at the center of the world? "Would u like 2 work 2gether," he said in a text bubble. "I know how 2 get 2 the mountain and beat the game."
Journey is fastest-selling PSN game ever, soundtrack coming April 10
We thought Journey was a very good game, as you may recall, and apparently we weren't the only ones looking forward to its release, as Journey is now the fastest-selling SCEA-region PSN game in all of recorded history. Previously, that honor was held by Sucker Punch's Infamous 2: Festival of Blood."We thank you so much for your support, for spending time and money to play our game and for spreading the word about Journey to your dear friends and family," said thatgamecompany co-founder Jenova Chen in a post on the PlayStation Blog. "We have received more letters from fans in the two weeks since Journey's launch than we did for Flower over the past three years!"Chen also announced that Journey's brilliant score (composed by Austin Wintory) will be available on the PS Store and iTunes come April 10, with a "limited" CD release to follow shortly after.
Jenova Chen: thatgamecompany aiming 'beyond just PlayStation'
Indie studio thatgamecompany will conclude its three-game deal with Sony with the launch of Journey on March 13. Will the group still focus on Sony's hardware or possibly try their hands at PS Vita next? Somebody get Chuck Testa in here so he can respond aptly.Jenova Chen, thatgamecompany co-founder and creative director, told Push Square that the plan is to expand the studio's audience beyond Sony's realm. "Right now we are very much exploring ways to bring our games to a bigger audience, beyond just PlayStation. We are still in the process of negotiating, but I hope that we can announce it [soon]."By the sound of it, thatgamecompany already has its next project lined up. We've been through the ocean, the garden and the desert -- so where to next?
'Us and the Game Industry' is the next documentary about indies
Whereas Indie Game: The Movie aimed to explore the lives of the people behind some of indie gaming's biggest titles, an upcoming documentary on the indie gaming scene entitled "Us and the Game Industry" seeks to capture already established success cases in that world. Cases like Jason Rohrer (Inside a Star-filled Sky, Sleep is Death) and Jenova Chen (Flower, Journey) both show up in the premiere trailer, seen above."'Us and the Game Industry' is a film about the new thinkers at the new frontier of experimental computer game development," the film's Vimeo page reads. "This film explores how their motivation, design process, focus and execution are creating unique and new possibilities of connecting people and providing the possibility for uncharted experiences outside the normal realm of commercial games."So -- yes -- it's almost assured you'll hear several indie devs wax philosophical on the process of game design when the film eventually arrives (no launch date is given, and the film's official site has yet to go live). And frankly, after the emotion fest that is Indie Game: The Movie, we're looking forward to some cold, hard pretention.
If it looks like an MMO, walks like an MMO, and quacks like an MMO...
Then it might just be an MMO! Indie gaming fans out there are probably already familiar with thatgamecompany, creators of hit PSN titles such as Flower, flOw, and the to-be-released Journey. Journey is going to be the studio's first experience with online interaction between players, but a new job listing from the studio seeking a scalability engineer states that the studio would "like to take it a step further with [its] next game." Taking online interaction a step further, you say? Why, they could be talking about an MMO! The job listing further corroborates this theory as it continues on to state that "while [thatgamecompany is] pretty experienced making games, [the studio has] never built a full scale online service available to hundreds of thousands of users." Hundreds of thousands of users, you say? Why, that sounds even more like an MMO! Of course, this is all pure conjecture at this point, but surely we're not alone in our belief that an MMO from the minds of the folks that brought us Flower and flOw would be pretty groovy. But the fact remains that Journey won't even be released until next month, so this next project -- whatever it may be -- is still far off the horizon, but stay tuned. Hopefully we'll know more about this new project before too long.
thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen tours the world of Journey
We'll admit it: we're kinda, sorta seriously smitten with thatgamecompany's third game, Journey. As if the two previews we've run didn't already tell you that! Anyway, this recent interview with GTTV is interesting, sure, but look at all that gameplay footage! Beautiful! Check it out after the break.
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%
Journey's latest trailer keeps us believing
Journey isn't a game about transforming a landscape with the power of wind, or experiencing aquatic evolution, but about guiding your cloaked, scarf-wearing avatar through a world -- either alone or with another, unknown person -- and forever pushing towards the mountain in the distance. The game's latest trailer encapsulates a lonely tone and showcases Journey's gorgeous environments. thatgamecompany president Kellee Santiago characterized the PSN-exclusive Journey as "a social experiment" in a recent interview with GTTV (much like her studio's previous two games have been), while creative lead Jenova Chen says he's hoping to evoke the feeling of awe and wonder that people experience while on a hike. Neither explains what the deal is with the scarves, though.%Gallery-110295%
VGA 2009: Flower developers amidst the explosions and hype
This past Saturday brought us the Spike TV Video Game Awards and – before experiencing the litany of world exclusives that awaited us inside – we spent some time outside cruising the red carpet and talking (briefly!) to many of the game developers and talent. We squeezed them for information as fast as we could while simultaneously wishing them holiday cheer and good tidings. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. Here's what we learned from Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen from thatgamecompany about Flower. Spike TV and the VGAs are all about naked women, shooters, and explosions. What's it like for Flower to be here? Kellee Santiago: It's a very surreal experience. I think it shows that what are sort of seen as "artsy" games aren't niche, they appeal at the most commercial mass level, and that's very exciting for us. Jenova Chen: We had Flower exhibit at the MOCA in Shanghai as an interactive art piece. It's quite interesting to see a video game stand next to these art installations. Being at these awards will hpefully give us even more exposure. The PlayStation Network had a sale during Thanksgiving, and a lot of people picked up Flower who had never heard of it before. Then we started to get a lot of emails thanking us for making the game. We know there are more people who haven't seen the game, and it would be great if they know what video games could be. What's next? Could there be a sequel to Flower? We're working on a third title for PlayStation Network right now, you'll see more soon. Hopefully you'll see something next year, but we don't know yet when it will come out.
thatgamecompany's third Sony project is 'something you've never experienced before'
thatgamecompany, aside from giving us a chance to start this paragraph off with a lowercase letter for once, is currently hard at work on its third contractual Sony project. At the Develop Conference in the UK this morning, tgc's Jenova Chen had a handful of artfully abstract information to drop on conference attendees regarding the upcoming game. He said the project "feels like a natural progression" from the company's other titles and will be "something you've never experienced before." So, Flowest confirmed? Not quite."In the future there's a lot of feelings that video games haven't explored that are open for us to find," Chen said -- he specifically cited God of War as "a really good game about hatred." As Eurogamer points out in its coverage of the conference, Chen repeatedly cited the iteration time necessary for a game concept to go into full production -- he says that the concept for Flower took about two years -- and as such, may very well not have any solid information to talk about regarding his company's next game. Have you considered the fourth dimension, Mr. Chen? Hmm? [Image]
You gotta believe Masaya Matsuura and Jenova Chen will speak at Develop Conference
Develop has just announced the addition of two speakers to the Develop Conference's 2009 lineup, both respected game designers whose works tend to be more than a little unconventional. Parappa the Rapper creator Masaya Matsuura, whose last game was the Wii marching adventure Major Minor's Majestic March, will present "It's Time for Music Games 2.0," in which the developer will "map out unexplored gaming possibilities and reinvent our understanding of the genre." thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen will present a retrospective about flOw and Flower, and "explore the relationship between games, entertainment and art."The Develop Conference will be held at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in Brighton from July 14th through July 16th. If you're flying there and the pilot looks like this guy, get off and wait for the next plane.
Flower's Jenova Chen doesn't play new games, wants to explore 'feelings'
Jenova Chen, creative director for thatgamecompany and champion for the recently released arboreal PSN title Flower, recently opened up during an interview with GamesIndustry to an extent we rarely see outside of Dr. Phil reruns. During the interview, he reveals that he's interested in making games that elicit emotional responses more effectively than the traditional industry blockbuster, in an attempt to "recapture" the emotions that games used to inspire within him during his formative years. According to him, this is an area that modern video games (which he admittedly rarely plays) don't really excel at, saying most major releases "fail to educate you on an intellectual level, and the emotions they evoke are relatively primal." To this effect, the self-proclaimed goal of his burgeoning development company is to "push the boundary of what games can communicate." We're not sure what thatgamecompany's next aesthetically pleasing project will be, but one thing's for certain -- it probably won't incorporate any firearms with chainsaws attached to them. [Image]
Gaming renaissance happening now, Flower creator says
"I think right now – in the future, when people look back, I think it's the renaissance of video games." These words were spoken by Jenova Chen – creator of Flower and flOw – to MTV Multiplayer on the role of digital distribution in the industry. Chen believes that digital distribution platforms like PSN, Xbox Live, WiiWare, and Steam are a bastion for new and artistic game designers to flourish. While larger companies are struggling to maintain higher production costs on "bigger and badder" versions of the same games every year, cheap and unique downloadable titles are doing well for themselves. Games like Flower, Braid and PixelJunk Monsters are noteworthy games that exemplify the "rebirth" of diversity and creativity for the industry. While it's nice to hear that digital distribution has been experiencing a renaissance and pushing boundaries, we can only hope that the rest of the industry catches up and gets pulled out of the dark ages.[Image credit: Sklathill]
