flOw and Cloud fan art is somewhat hard to find, especially with all the Flower and Journey fan art that’s making the rounds, so this time we present you only with Flower and Journey art.  Without further adieu, here we go!

Creative-Theory, while sick and drowning in Midterms, made this Journey fan art:

NinePageApology made this Flower fan art

Pixiv user fu kka made this Flower fan art:  (One thing you’ll notice about the Flower fan art, is that on Pixiv, they pretty much always add in a character/avatar.)

Cursors added some much needed rain to the desert:

TheSpudonkey doesn’t stay in the lines with this Journey fan art:

What would happen if you crossed Journey with Bioshock?  deviantART user Evolvyn figures it out in this unique fan art:

A Pixiv user adds a little character (did you get it?) to Flower(y):

sihu shows the world some “Cat People in Hoods”:

RpgFantasysquare made this shortly after the release of Flower, but it’s still pretty good:

The same thing goes with this fan art by UNICOMICS-Chowkofsky:

Gekidami made this Journey art that I thought was a screenshot of the game the first time I saw it!

Although this fan art is from Pixiv, a Japanese art website similar to deviantART, it doesn’t have an added character!

Last, but certainly not least, is this Flower fan art by DeadlyNightfall:

We certainly hope that you enjoyed all of this fan art, as we certainly did!
If you have any fan art that you’ve made, e-mail it to us, post it on our Facebook page, or tweet us it on Twitter!

The game was featured on several stations at the Highball Lounge – which is just next to the Alamo Drafthouse (where the festival takes place). The Sony portion of this event featured several of PSN’s upcoming indie releases – including Retro/Grade, Okabu, Papo y Yo, PixelJunk 4am and Closure. And the Fantastic Arcade showcased even more indie greatness!

It was great to have this opportunity to share the game to the Austin public – and to host our third fan meet-up.  We shared the game with some fantastic people, and also met developers from Junction Point, Arkane, BioWare, and several other local studios. Thanks to everyone who came out – especially folks who drove long distances to come and play the game!

A heartfelt thanks goes out to the staff of the Highball and of course, the organizers of Fantastic Fest & it’s Arcade showcase. Their hospitality and excitement about Journey was visible in every aspect of the event. If you live in/near Austin, definitely put it on your calendar for next year!

For more info on the event, check out the panel coverage over on Gamasutra, and our chats with the Austin Chronicle,  G4, and VG24/7.

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.

Cross-Posted from the PlayStation Blog

Hi all,

This is Jenova Chen from thatgamecompany. First of all I would like to thank you for your support during the closed beta for our upcoming game Journey. It was a great success!

For the past few months, we kept getting asked about Journey’s release date. Yes, we haven’t said anything about our release in a while mainly because we really couldn’t tell. And we don’t want to throw out a date that we are not sure about, and later disappoint our players.

Fortunately, the online beta went very well, and our continued playtests have given us great feedback on the work we have left to complete. While there is still a ton of care and polish needed, we can’t wait to finally deliver Journey, TGC’s take on an online adventure game.

Like all our games, Journey is an experiment. In the end, it’s what you think that matters. We are happy to announce Journey will be released Spring 2012, so you can experience the adventure for yourself.

(Posted by Aaron on behalf of Jenova.)

Being a fan-focused event, PAX was the perfect place for our second official meetup. After enjoying lunch with these delightful folks, and chatting about all things TGC, fellow indie Kevin and I headed to the conference center, to see about handing out a few Journey t-shirts.

My first stop was to check out Warp and FEZ, who had a slick stand-up booth on the 2nd floor, just outside the main halls. Great to see kids and parents enjoying these fun puzzle games, together. Venturing further into the main hall, a quick peek inside confirmed that The Bohemoth’s booth (and everything nearby) was jammed with fans, so after a quick t-shirt drop, I jetted up to the 6th floor indie area.

Upstairs was definitely hopping! In addition to visiting with Alexander Bruce (developer of Anti-Chamber) and other teams of the Pax 10, I had the chance to stop and stop in at the booths for Retro/Grade, Monaco, Minecraft and Skulls of the Shogun. Hooray, t-shirt swaps! Even bumped in to Amir Rao of SuperGiant Games, and congratulated him on shipping their very first title, Bastion – featured in last year’s PAX 10.

With so many great people and games to see, the day really flew by. But it was great to get out and remember just how vibrant and exciting the game community is these days. It’s probably our last trip for a while… but we’ll keep you posted on future meetups and Journey events, including my upcoming trip to Game City in Nottingham this fall.  Till then!  - r

Robin Hunicke and Kellee Santiago went to Germany to speak at GDC Europe and Gamescom and to present Journey to the European press and fans.  At Gamescom, Kellee spoke about the next ten years of gaming on a panel with Sony executives and other famous developers and Robin spoke about the history of Journey.

One of the highlights of the trip was the TGC Community Meetup held during Gamescom.  With just a few days’ notice of the event, about a dozen people came to the event.  You can see most of the attendees in the picture above.

Click the “More” button to check out some links from the week:

Gamasutra | Gamescom: Sony Panel Charts The Next 10 Years In Games
“Following its press conference at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany this week, Sony hosted a panel discussion between its execs and developers such as Kellee Santiago and Mark Cerny to peer into their visions of the next 10 years of gaming. “ [Overview of the Panel]

Develop | PlayStation: The next ten years
“Distinguished Sony panel discusses wild technologies, once unimaginable possibilities, and oncoming obstacles” [Full Transcript of the Panel]

IGN | Gamescom: Journey — From Flash to Finale
“On February 12, 2009 the team at thatgamecompany released the critically acclaimed PS3 downloadable game Flower. After sitting back and watching the positive reviews pour in, it was time think about their next game.” [Robin's Panel on Journey]

Desconsolados | “The journey of Journey” – sobre el desarrollo y emociones de Journey
“El desierto. El viento sopla con fuerza levantando arena en las dunas. Tras una estructura que vivió tiempos mejores, una figura envuelta en tela se refugia ante el azote de los elementos. “

Videogame.it | Il viaggio verso Journey Una presentazione un po’ speciale per un gioco molto speciale.
“L’appuntamento legato a Journey alla Gamescom 2011 si è rivelato un evento molto particolare, in cui si respirava aria da Game Developers Conference. Il team thatgamecompany, nel corso dell’ultimo anno e mezzo, ha mostrato più e più volte il gioco, facendolo anche provare all’E3 2011 e a questa stessa Gamescom, e ha comprensibilmente deciso che non c’era altro da mostrare senza rischiare di svelare troppo.”

We’ll have another Community Meetup in Seattle this Saturday during PAX, so stay tuned to our Facebook, Twitter, and Forums for more information on that in the coming days.

Here’s our latest Ask TGC interview, this time with Aaron Jessie:

What do you do on a day-to-day basis for thatgamecompany?

I’m one of the Environment Artists here at thatgamecompany, so I make everything outside of characters: the rocks, the dirt, the ground, the trees, the sky, just about everything off in the distance, and on and off the beaten path of the player.

How long have you worked for TGC?

I’ve been here for about eight months. Prior to this, I was working on God of War III at Santa Monica Studios.

Samantha Vick: What is your favorite part of game development?

I liked this idea of collaboration and I have always loved video games.  That’s kind of the icing on the cake, getting to work on things you’ve always loved as a kid. To me, the greatest part in development is getting to be a part of something that is really exciting and you hope that people will love.

Alex P.: What is the process you follow to create emotional engaging experiences?

Before anything we start off with a general mood scale that we want throughout the game. Whether it’s curious, excited, struggling, etc. Once that’s established we get the level blocked out and establish the mood as visual artists through lighting, fog (atmosphere), scale of the world, faster or slower animations along with music and sound to back it up. Because emotion is so strong at this studio most of our time is spent getting all these elements to feel cohesive and make sense on top of being fun to play.

Teddy D.: Do you do any paper design on your projects, and does it happen exclusively happen at the beginning, or later on as well?

In the beginning, we usually map out a general idea of what we want in the game, but when you play it, it’s different than what you expected in your mind. So what will happen is we’ll make the game from what we blocked out on paper, and then we’ll play it and find out if it’s too big, too small, or if we should rearrange it and see if it works out. Anything on paper is to just see if it works out, but when things actually get into the game, things change.

@NinjaShteve What is the design philosophy of thatgamecompany? That is, what is the driving force of your creativity?

This studio is really about an emotional experience. Experience is the number one thing the studio goes for. Some studios start off with a cool gameplay mechanic, others go with a visual style and they try to add on a story, but this studio is more about the experience.  Some of the best games have always been about the experience. Beyond just experience, it’s about the emotional experience. It’s about putting someone in a unique experience that they have never been in before.

@BmFGrimReaper: What is one aspect of the game industry you would change today?

Unfortunately, the way the entertainment industry is we have to stick with what people like, and what people like is not as original or creative as it could be. I would personally love to see us go in a more original venue than we have been going in the industry. Sometimes originality has its risks, because sometimes you don’t make any money, which is why we don’t see many games like Shadow of the Colossus, Rez, or Katamari.

Weston H. Alvers: How do you feel about the future of gaming being so focused merely on violence and extreme graphical achievements?

I got into the games industry because I was tired of it, and what better reason to get into something other than to say, “I am ready to change it.” When you really start to see the games out there, you see there are a lot of violent games, but there are a lot of games that aren’t violent, and those need to be recognized. A lot of the most popular games are violent, and I don’t care for that. I’d like to see more maturity in our industry. People like violence, people like sex, and those are what we throw into entertainment as much as possible, and it tends to be the easy venue for good money, and that’s why I think this industry needs to be pushed more by creativity and less by what’s going to make money.

@8bitbeard Will your goal of creating emotions always result in simplistic games, or could you imagine this effect in more complex ones?

I think emotion can be applied in simplistic and complex games, but what makes it easier in simplistic games is you have fewer things distracting the emotion. To convey emotion, you can’t have to many thoughts or actions conflicting the emotion you are trying to convey.

Kieran R.: What do you do apart from gaming in your time off?

I try to play games as much as I can. I’ve noticed that when you start working in games, your exposure to them decreases, and you get so busy you never get time to play games. So for me it’s been playing games, spending time with family, going out on hikes, going out with friends, going to bars when I can, and things like that.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grow up?

The first thing I wanted to be was a scientist. Which is kind of weird, because what is a scientist, really? It’s not really a field of study and it’s very general, but I just knew I loved science. I loved researching, doing electronic things, mixing chemicals, plugging two things together to see what happened. Once I grew older, near the tail end of high school, I just knew I wanted to collaborate with a team of guys to make some entertainment product. That came over working on the computer a lot and just really being fascinated by the computer and the digital world. I just always loved electronics and tech.

Simone Di Gravio/@AltairJp3: How did you get into the game industry? Inspirations etc.

It first started with that idea when I said I wanted to work with a team of people on some entertainment product, whether that be animation or games. Once I had to make that decision on choosing for school, I chose game art just because it had a lot more room for different areas. It wasn’t so specific like animation, but games you can do just about anything. You could go for programming, you could do 2D or 3D, you could program your own website; you can do so much with it. I just started growing excited about video games as I started doing more research about the industry about what help it needed and how I fit in.

Mihir S.: What games do you play for inspiration?

The games that inspire me were back on the PlayStation 2. I always loved the games that gave me a chuckle, some type of interesting moment that was different from other games out there that really made me excited to be a part of the industry. That was Rez, Katamari Damacy, Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, games that were always doing something original. For me it was never Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty. I just really liked games that were doing something different or really had an emotion that they just pushed really well. God of War was a really great game in that regard.

The Golden State Pops Orchestra played an arrangement of Journey’s music called “Woven Variations.” Journey composer Austin Wintory wrote the piece specifically for the concert.  Tina Guo, the cellist for the game, is also featured in the orchestra rocking the cello.  This was the first ever live performance of music from Journey, and it couldn’t have been any better!  Four different camera angles of the orchestra make up this video, and it has amazing audio, so we hope you’ll like it!

Sound Byte, the music blog over at GameSpot.com, has the video exclusively, together with a brand new interview of Austin Wintory about composing for Journey and the specific arrangement made for the Golden State Pops Orchestra performance.

Click on the image to read the interview and watch the video, or click this link:

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6326086/sound-byte-journey

The Golden State Pops Orchestra’s website

Tina Guo’s website

Keep checking on our blog, Facebook page, Forums, and Twitter account for more info on Journey in the future!

In case you missed the onslaught of news articles about Journey over the past two-and-a-half weeks, here’s a roundup of Journey previews from E3 2011:

IGN: Journey: The Basics
“It’s hard to know what Journey is just by looking at screenshots or watching the trailer, so let’s take a closer look at one of the most beautiful games we’ve seen in years.”

G4TV: Journey Hands-On Preview
“Since Journey doesn’t feature dialogue or text-based info of any kind, you’ll have to piece together what catastrophic event has befallen the game world and left in its post-apocalyptic ruin.”

GameSpot: E3 2011: Journey Hands-On Preview
“Whether you decide to meet up is up to you. Like when you bump into someone during your trek up a mountain, you can decide to make the journey together or continue at your own pace, and there’s always the possibility of bumping into the person at another point.”

GamesRadar: Journey Hands-On Preview
“One of the first things you’ll notice when exploring Journey’s vast desert is the pleasure of movement. Everything from sliding down steep dunes to gliding is smooth, joyous, and playful, making the long trip towards the ever-dominant mountain in the distance really quite fun.”

GameInformer: Uncover The Vast Mysteries Of A Desert In Journey
“Even though I was given no explicit directions, Journey’s environmental design did an excellent job of leading me toward my next goal without any handholding which was refreshing and appreciated.”

Check out more interviews in English as well as nihongo, Italiano, and Português by clicking the “more” button below.

GameRant: E3 2011: ‘Journey’ Preview
“The environment is as much a character as the one controlled by the player. The rolling hills of sand and unfamiliar architecture begs for exploration.”

Multiplayer.it: Journey – Un ultimo viaggio su PSN
“Dopo gli ottimi flOw e Flower, Jenova Chen e i ragazzi di Thatgamecompany si preparano a salutare il PSN con un’ultima e promettente esclusiva. Noi l’abbiamo provata all’E3 di Los Angeles.”

A Horda: Journey: Lindo Game de PS3 Dos Criadores de flOw e Flower
“Parte vital do tema do jogo é, segundo os autores, essa “beleza de encontrar outro ser humano” que se perde com o aceleramento da vida cotidiana contemporânea. Os personagens do jogo são tudo menos humanos, mas provavelmente isso é de propósito: controlar um ser sem voz e sem rosto…”

And because WordPress isn’t set up for Japanese characters, here are just a couple links to Japanese websites:

Game Watch - http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20110612_452739.html

4Gamer.net - http://www.4gamer.net/games/134/G013491/20110609036/

We’ll have one final E3 blog about Journey before we (finally) put up the interview of Aaron Jessie.  (We are waiting until all of the winners have been decided for the last news organizations, so we don’t have to update the list a bunch of times.)

Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you soon!