It’s been more than five years, but the flOw soundtrack is finally available for purchase on iTunes and the PlayStation Network!

To thank people for waiting so long for the soundtrack, Austin made some completely new tracks and improvements, such as having Tina Guo, who played the amazing cello music for our latest game Journey, in one of the tracks!  The soundtrack has ten songs on it and is available for around US$5 worldwide on iTunes, and on the PlayStation Network for the same price in North America and Europe.  Here’s the link for iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/flow-original-soundtrack-from/id518403684

Journey Soundtrack Update:
The soundtrack to Journey has become of one the best selling video game albums on iTunes ever!  It is the second-highest ranking game soundtrack on the Billboard Hot 200, and the highest ranking original audio game soundtrack on the same chart!  It has been  on the Top Ten Overall Albums list in multiple countries, even amounting to the top album sold in Japan for a couple days!  The soundtrack also ranked #1 on over a dozen Top 10 Soundtracks charts on iTunes, and was in the top ten for at least 20 countries!

On a random note, thesixthaxis ran a completely free ad for the Journey soundtrack just because they loved it so much!  Thanks so much to everyone over there!  We love you!

AmazonMP3, Bandcamp, etc.:  We don’t have any update on whether or not the soundtracks will be available on these, or if the Flower soundtrack will be available outside the PSN.  It seems highly unlikely that the soundtracks will be released outside the PSN or iTunes in the near future.

CD Release of Journey:  We don’t have any info on when the CD will be available or how many copies will be available.  Keep checking our Facebook and Twitter pages, this blog, and the Forums to see when we do announce the details of these.

So, it’s been a year since we posted the last piece of fan art on the blog, as we’ve been posting them on our Facebook and Twitter pages instead.  Here are some highlights of the past few years, but there are plenty more where that came from!  Check out our Facebook Fan Art album and the deviantART Fan Art group to see even more amazing fan art!

As seen above, we’re starting out with a Journey costume made for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion by forum user Natterforme.  Even though his computer crashed, he still remade and finished the costume for public use!  As a mod, it’s always a work in progress, so keep looking at the thread here if there are any more updates.   And click on the image after the jump to download the file:

Check

Here’s some fan art of flOw from deviantArt member Hisui-Lipo:

Here’s some Journey art by dA member cherryblossomcolor that reminds me of something by Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Samurai Jack:

dA user Diamond4444 gives some interesting cloth texture on this Journey piece:

dA user Trapiki thought it would be cool to make a Chibi version of the Journey world:

Here’s a huge piece inspired by Journey by dA member IMAGINeye:

Natterforme also has a couple more pictures he made up on deviantArt:

Here’s a big piece by MisteriaXIII on dA:

Loweak gives an Art Deco look to Journey:

hesit8in puts some emphasis on the journeyer’s scarf:

Next up is this AWESOME Flower action figure made by NecroDoll and AStRAL:

Here’s a piece by Pixiv user tamon:

And last, but not least, here is a piece by Pixiv user muse:

We always look forward to seeing new fan art of our games, so if you have any, please post the link(s) in the comments or e-mail them to us at info (at) thatgamecompany (dot) com.

I tried having a longer title for this post because there are just so many things covered in this two part interview, but there’s a limit to what one should do.  (And each part is a lot bigger than most other recent interviews.)  Even though this article was published back in December, it still has a lot of great information about TGC and our members’ views on gaming.

What topics are talked about?

Artistry, prototyping, the industry as a whole (and compared to other industries), TGC’s culture, and that’s just on the first page!

If you’d really like to educate yourself on progressing the game industry or just like to hear what thatgamecompany has to say, here is one great two part article:

http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/2010/12/20/4cr-interviews-that-game-company/

http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/2010/12/23/4cr-interviews-that-game-company-part-2/

If you are as big a fan of finding out how the creative process works in all kinds of media as I am, make sure you read part 2!

Between March 16th and September 30th, 2012, The Smithsonian American Art Museum will have a gallery called, “The Art of Video Games.”  The Smithsonian is exploring the 40-year evolution of video games.  From the humblest of beginnings on things nowhere near as powerful as your cell phone you stopped using 10 years ago, to these chunks of metal and plastic that would beat out any supercomputer just a few years ago.

http://www.americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/

What The Smithsonian has done is opened up a website where the public can vote on what they would want in the exhibition.  There are already games nominated, and each game only has two competitors, so don’t worry about having too much trouble deciding which game you should vote for.

The reason we’re telling you this is because flOw and Flower have both been nominated for inclusion in this!  flOw is up for the Next Generation Era/Modern Windows category and Flower is in the Next Generation Era/PlayStation 3 category.  So, go ahead and vote for two of your favorite games right here:

http://www.artofvideogames.org

And if you didn’t notice, the banner for the The Art of Video Games voting website is surprisingly familiar…

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen a really unique application of the dark magic-fueled creation tools behind StarCraft 2, so we’re glad the video posted below could come along and decisively end our dry spell. Behold: Origins, a recreation of thatgamecompany’s microcosmic PSN title, flOw.

The game, created by Battle.net user Malu05, follows the familiar “eat or be eaten” structure of its inspiration, allowing players’ organisms to grow and gain new abilities as they consume smaller prey. It looks pretty neat and, with any luck, will be available to download when StarCraft 2 launches next week.”

Happy hunting!

Happy flOwing!

Here’s the rundown:

“The PlayStation Network Collection releases, unearthed by Siliconera, consist of one Power Pack, containing flOw, Syphon Filter: Combat Ops and Beats, and the Puzzle Pack, featuring Lemmings, Go! Puzzle and Go! Sudoku.”

So… yeah, it has been confirmed here (after some hectic phone calling and emailing), but no, we don’t have a price point as of yet. This could be a good thing, though, as the current method of downloading games to your PSP is pretty complicated, and not Mac-friendly, so all of these games could benefit from exposure through the more traditional UMD format. It is SCEE-only right now, with no word on other territories following Europe’s lead on this one. But it seems like you’ll hear about it before we do, so if you pick up on something feel free to post it on our forums.

And hopefully people who wouldn’t have thought of flOw before might give it a whirl and find out they kinda like it, too. =)

We are honored to announce that a flOw screenshot has been selected!! We are also honored that we have the distinction of having the only in-game screenshot in this year's collection (the other works are concept art pieces – amazing, amazing, concept art pieces).

You can view the image here:
http://www.intothepixel.com/artwork-details/winner_details.asp?idArtwork=657

You will also be able to see the print at E3, Leipzig, and a number of other conferences this year, until the D.I.C.E. summit, at which they auction off the works! So start saving your pennies!

Great Games for Small Budgets

from the article:
“Gas prices got you down? Mortgage rates keeping you up at night? As the country teeters on the brink of a recession, are you feeling the pinch? Never fear: although your entertainment budget might be strained, you don't need to go without fun altogether. Check out this collection of cut-price classics — including a few Best of 2007 game nominees — all widely available for under $30.”