“Small developers struggle to compete in a $20 billion video game industry dominated by behemoths such as Electronic Arts and Activision. But one of them, thatgamecompany, has found both commercial success and critical acclaim by making games that don’t play the way anything else on the market does.

Thatgamecompany debuted in 2006 with Flow, a game in which gossamer microbes grow and evolve by consuming rival organisms. Next came the 2009 game called Flower, which challenges players to collect flower petals by using wind gusts and flying through a vibrant audio-visual landscape of fields and wind turbines.

‘Why make a game that’s going to compete with an EA or Epic-style game, when they have so many more people and more time and money to accomplish their projects?’ says Kellee Santiago, president of thatgamecompany. ‘There’s no way we can compete.’”

For the full article, click here.

The last few weeks we had been having problems with the server on which Cloud was hosted. For those who pinged us during that time – thanks for letting us know, and the issue is now fixed!

http://thatcloudgame.com

Thanks so much to the people at GamingUnion.net for listing thatgamecompany in its Honorable Mentions. Yeah, nothing really more to say. Just blown away by the company we’re keeping on that list!

Click here for the full list.

Found on deviantart.

via Designing Sound

Vimeo videos have surfaced of  Composer Vincent Diamante and Sound Designer Steve Johnson discussing their process on developing the audio-scape on “Flower.”

Definitely check them out to learn more on the development of Flower, and how these two handled creating a unique soundtrack for a unique game that no one really knew how to make. You’ll also find out why we have a hard time with the titles “composer” and “sound designer” when it comes to creating interactive audio!

Click here for all 8 videos.

Sound and Music as Narrative in Flower (1 of from Jeriaska on Vimeo.