Journey E3 2011 Preview Wrapup
Posted by Aaron on June 21st, 2011
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.
Journey Interview Video Wrapup
Posted by Aaron on June 14th, 2011
Wow! That was one heck of a week! I’ve been busy tweeting and Facebooking about all of the awards and nominations that Journey has been getting, and there are a couple that the winners haven’t been announced yet.
Anyways, a “News Roundup” thing wouldn’t really work that well for E3, because there were dozens of articles all over teh interwebs from big sites, and even more from little indie sites. So, I’ve decided to put up something that is more awesome than words! Videos! Here are five video interviews from GameTrailers TV, G4TV, IGN, and GameSpot.
Click on each image to open the video in a new tab/window:
GameTrailers TV
G4TV
thatgamecompany is Five Years Old!
Posted by Aaron on May 19th, 2011
thatgamecompany turned five years old today (Editor’s mistake: Yesterday, oops!), so here’s some cake that’s not a lie!
It’s been a great five years, with our third game coming out soon, and we are looking forward to another five great years making games that challenge the traditional meaning of games and appeal to hardcore, dormant, and non-gamers.
flOw PC and Flower will be at The Smithsonian!
Posted by Aaron on May 5th, 2011
The Smithsonian American Art Museum just announced that flOw PC and Flower (Pictured) will be part of the exhibit taking place next year called The Art of Video Games!
Flower was up against Super Stardust HD (one game I have played many, many, many times) and PixelJunk Shooter, and flOw was up against Shatter and Everyday Shooter (one game I have played many, many, many times). All awesome games and really fun, and congratulations for Q Games, Jonathan Mak/Queasy Games, Sidhe Interactive, and Housemarque for being nominated! And congratulations to every other game developer who has had their game nominated or chosen to be part of this amazing exhibit!
Here are some links:
Art of Video Games website:
http://www.artofvideogames.org
PDF of all the winners:
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/winninggames.pdf
The exhibit page at the American Art Museum’s website:
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/#games
Again, all of these games nominated and voted in are showing everyone that games can be so much more and have impacted millions of lives. We would like to sincerely thank each of you for playing our games, supporting us in your emails and comments, and sharing our games with your friends and family. You truly do inspire us.
Get To Know thatgamecompany’s Michael Peddicord
Posted by Aaron on April 25th, 2011
This week, we bring you another interview, this time of Michael Peddicord:
What do you do on a day-to-day basis for thatgamecompany?
Michael Peddicord: I’m a tools engineer here at thatgamecompany. I’ve been here about a year. Basically, I’ve been working pretty closely to tools, the artists, and the designers, trying to create a workflow that is quick and effective, so they can get their stuff done!
Simone Di Gravio/@AltairJp3: How did you get into the game industry? Inspirations etc.
This is my first actual full time job at a game company, but [my history in game development] started around high school. I learned that a friend was making games for mobile phones, and I was like, “That’s amazing! Tell me how you do that!” He gave me some references and I started learning C++ and started making games. In college, I entered contests, specifically the “Experimental Gameplay” contests. I was able to win myself a summer internship at EA Tiburon in Florida. That led to another summer internship with Robin Hunicke at EALA working on Boom Blox 2. Then I took a summer off and then I started working here.
Yeah, absolutely. It definitely helped working with her, she got a good feel of my personality and she thought I was a good fit for the company.
Samantha Vick: What is your favorite part of game development?
Michael: I think my favorite part is to be able to explore new ways of doing things, new ideas, and being able to communicate those ideas to a player. Game development is a really neat way of giving your ideas to other people. I do a lot of thinking in my own head, and it’s nice to have a medium to convey those thoughts to other people.
