As you’re most likely aware, we are looking forward to Journey. Jenova Chen, creative director of thatgamecompany, has been speaking over on the US PlayStation Blog regarding some of the choices they made when designing the game. The first, and most obvious, question that was asked is exactly who do you play in Journey?
“I want the player to find it out, it’s part of the fun. This is a world where there are no plants, no animals, and not even a single water drop to be found. The only things that are moving are these things, these characters, made out of cloth.”
As we have mentioned previously, in Journey there is online multiplayer, but all PSN IDs are stripped away and there is no waiting around in lobbies or voice chat – it’s a very primal affair. Chen says that this is because thatgamecompany not only make games for PS3 owners, but for their family too. There’s a high chance that your grandma won’t know what a multiplayer lobby is, and won’t give a stuff about latency – it has to be accessible. There were also technical issues too:
“We eliminated the lobby concept, we had very few choices — other players have to be able to connect at any time, not just the beginning of the game, and a player has to be able to finish the game by himself he can’t find someone. All these technical issues came in with that one decision to get rid of the online lobby.
If your grandma asked, “what’s Journey?” I’d tell her “Journey is just like hiking. You go to hike a mountain, and there are other hikers you might meet and if you like them you can hike with them.” And that’s it.”
The whole focus of Journey is to get from A to B, but in an interesting way. You can “surf the sand dunes, collect cloth to fly over larger distances, cooperate with another player to get faster travel…sometimes you can ride things.” Originally you could level up in the game, but thatgamecompany wanted you to feel small and weak, so that was replaced with a system where you borrow power. There are special cloth patches that can be found in the wild, and if you call them they will lend you their power for a time, before returning to their resting place.
As of this moment Journey only uses two buttons on the controller – “Calling” lets you collect patches and communicate with another player, a very primal form of communication. And then there’s a “Fly” button.” The camera is controlled via the sixaxis motion sensor. There is also an auto jump feature.
In terms of a bad guy – “Nature is your enemy. If there is an enemy, you can’t do anything about it. You’re small and weak. You can’t slay the Shadow of the Colossus!”
So far it’s sounding like a fantastic experience, and we can’t wait to hear more!
Source: US PS Blog
Dany2Step
Fucking… yes!
Dan Lee
That was my reaction, it sounds so damn interesting!!
sesameseed
Approximate release date?
TSBonyman
I like they way he’s pared the controls down to just 2 buttons and still the game sounds really interesting!
TURRICAN-808
http://share.blog.us.playstation.com/ideas/?s=TURRICAN-808
Well, to me it sounds like an extended version of PlayStation@HOME….
Roger
But not, well, crap.
Grey_Ghost13
Thank god for a games company to go out on a limb with such a high risk concept. Sounds like they actually make games that they want to play and how they want them to play! Good on them, hope its a winner for them!
kevatron400
Just so intrigued by this game. Loved both of thatgamecompany’s previous output, can’t wait to give this a go.
simplebob
Move Support would be nice, with the two buttons being trigger and move button. Guessing you’d need the Navi controller/half a dualshock for ground movement though. Surely Move and Journey would be a natural pairing?
picld
How I would love to be named J – E – N – O – V – A !! :D
I hope the environment will be quite vast, mostly due to it’s simplicity and that it will take a considerable amount of time to traverse from point A to B. Can’t wait for more information.
Grey_Ghost13
Do you think theres issues with Jenova and their son with a big sword?
bunimomike
Much like any news we might’ve read about Flower (before it was released) you’re left thinking “what the hell? How can this possibly work?” but it’s interesting to see how faith comes with great developers. Flow was good, Flower was great. Fingers crossed Journey will be equally awesome.
KeRaSh
I have absolutely no doubt that this game will be great. If someone can pull something like that off it’s thatgamecompany. Can’t wait to get my hands on Journey!
DrNate86
This does sound pretty interesting, I especially like the fact you can never know who you are travelling with, it will make it all the more memorable.
rainydays458
What they make aren’t just games they’re experiences