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Journey
Developer(s)	Thatgamecompany
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment
Director(s)	Jenova Chen
Producer(s)	Robin Hunicke
Designer(s)	Nicholas Clark Bryan Singh Chris Bell
Artist(s)	Matt Nava Aaron Jessie
Composer(s)	Austin Wintory
Engine	PhyreEngine
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3
Release	PlayStation Network NA: March 13, 2012 EU: March 14, 2012 JP: March 15, 2012 Retail NA: August 28, 2012
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player Co-op

Journey is a video game developed by Thatgamecompany for the PlayStation 3. Journey was released on March 13, 2012, via the PlayStation Network. In the game the player controls a robed figure in a vast desert, journeying towards a mountain in the distance. Other players on the same journey can be discovered, one at a time, along the way; the two players can assist each other, but cannot communicate via speech or text and are not shown each others' names. The only form of communication between the two players is through a wordless shout. This shout also transforms dull, stiff pieces of cloth found throughout the levels into vibrant red, affecting the game world. The robed figure wears a trailing scarf which, when charged by approaching floating pieces of cloth, allows the player briefly to fly.

Journey was intended by the developers to evoke in the player a sense of smallness and wonder, and to forge an emotional connection between them and the anonymous players they meet along their journey. The music, composed by Austin Wintory, dynamically responds to the player's actions, as well as building on a single theme to represent the game's emotional arc throughout the story. Journey has been met with significant critical acclaim. Reviewers praised the visual and auditory art direction as well as the sense of companionship playing with a stranger created, calling it a moving and emotional experience. Journey is the last game made under a three-game contract between Thatgamecompany and Sony, the first two being Flow and Flower. A retail "Collector's Edition", including Journey, Thatgamecompany's two previous titles, and additional media, is set for release in August 2012.

Gameplay

In Journey, the player takes the role of a robed figure in a desert. After an initial introductory sequence, the player is shown the robed figure sitting on the sand, with a large mountain in the distance. The path towards this mountain, the ultimate destination of the game, is subdivided into several sections which the player travels through linearly. The player can walk the figure throughout the levels, as well as control the camera, which typically follows behind the figure, either with the analog stick or by tilting the PlayStation 3 controller. The figure can be made to jump with one button, or emit a wordless shout or note with another; the length and volume of the shout depends on how the button is pressed, and the note stays in tune with the background music. These controls are presented pictorially in the beginning of the game; at no point in the game outside of the credits and title screen are any words shown or spoken.

The robed figure wears a trailing scarf. This scarf, when charged by approaching floating pieces of cloth, allows the figure to fly briefly rather than jump. Flying uses up the charge in the scarf, represented visually by glowing runes on the scarf. Touching glowing symbols scattered throughout the levels lengthens the scarf, allowing the figure to fly longer. Larger strips of cloth are present in the levels, and can be transformed from a stiff, dull gray to vibrant red by shouting near them. Doing so may have effects on the world such as releasing bits of cloth, forming bridges, or levitating the robed figure. Later levels also feature creatures made of cloth; while many ignore or help the player, some larger ones can rip off part of the figure's scarf.

In each level, the player may come across one other player temporarily connected to their game. When players approach each other they charge one another's scarves. They cannot communicate with each other beyond patterns of singing. Players can help each other by activating strips of cloth or showing paths, but cannot hinder each other and are not necessary for completing any level. When two players finish a section together they remain together into the next one; otherwise they are connected to new players when they move on. While all of the figures generally look the same, individual players can be told apart by the unique symbols on their robes and shown when they sing. The game takes about two to three hours to complete a full playthrough.

Story

Journey's story is told wordlessly through in-game and pre-rendered cutscenes. The player's character begins on a sand dune in a seemingly endless desert. In the far distance looms a large, forbidding mountain with a glowing crevice that splits its peak. As the character moves towards the mountain, they find remnants of a once-thriving civilization, eroded over time by the sand . Scattered throughout the ruins at the end of each area are stones at which the traveller rests; these give the traveller the vision of meeting a larger, white robed figure in a circular room, with art on the walls describing the rise and fall of the civilization, mirroring the player's journey.

The player continues to journey deeper into the remains of a once sprawling city at the base of the mountain. Eventually making it safely to the mountain, the traveler begins to climb it, struggling as they enter the colder climates and are subjected to deep snow and high winds. With the crevice still a far distance away, the traveler falls and collapses in the snow. Several of the white robed figures appear and grant the traveler new energy, allowing them to reach the summit of the mountain and walk into and through the crevice as the screen fills with white. The player is then shown the game's credits, playing over the ending cinematic showing a shooting star emanating from the crevice and traversing the path the traveler took through the ruins and catching glimpses of other robed travelers headed towards the mountain. Eventually, the star comes to rest at the sand dune where the game started, and the player is given the option of starting the game again.

Development

Development of Journey began in 2009, after the release of Flower, the company's previous title. The development team for the game, totaling eighteen people, was composed mainly of the creators of Thatgamecompany's previous titles, including co-founder Jenova Chen as the creative director. Kellee Santiago, Thatgamecompany's previous game producer did not reprise that position, concentrating instead on her role as the company's president, and was replaced as producer by Robin Hunicke. The game is intended to make the player feel "small" and to give them a sense of awe about their surroundings. The basic idea for the game, as designed by Chen, was to create a game that moved beyond the "typical defeat/kill/win mentality" of most video games. The team initially created a prototype named Dragon that involved players trying to draw away a large monster from each other, but eventually discarded it after finding that it was too easy for players to ignore the other people in favor of their own objectives. The developers designed the game like a "Japanese garden", where they attempted to remove all of the game elements that did not fit with the others, so that the emotions they wanted the game to evoke would come through. Due to this minimalism, the game is intended to feel intuitive to the player, so that they can explore and feel a sense of wonder without explicit instructions. The story arc of the game is designed to explicitly follow Joseph Campbell's monomyth, or hero's journey, so as to enhance the emotional connection of the players as they journey together.

The multiplayer component of Journey was designed to facilitate cooperation between players without forcing it, and without allowing competition. It is intended to allow the players to feel a connection to other people through exploring with them, rather than talking to them or fighting them. The plan was "to create a game where people felt they are connected with each other, to show the positive side of humanity in them." The developers felt that the focus on caring about the other player would be diluted by too many game elements, such as quests or tasks, as players would focus on those and "ignore" the other player. They also felt that having text or voice communication between players or showing usernames would allow players' biases and preconceptions to come between them and the other player.

The game was released on March 13, 2012 for download on the PlayStation Network. A PlayStation Home game space based on Journey was released on March 14, 2012 and is similar in appearance to the game. A retail "Collector's Edition" of the game was revealed in June 2012. In addition to Journey, the disc-based title will include Flow and Flower; creator commentaries, art, galleries, and soundtracks for all three games; the minigames Gravediggers, Duke War!!, and Nostril Shot, created during Thatgamecompany's Game Jam; and additional content for the PlayStation 3. It will be released on August 28, 2012.

Music

The music in Journey was composed by Austin Wintory, who previously worked with Thatgamecompany on the soundtrack for Flow. Wintory worked closely on the soundtrack with the game's sound designer Steve Johnson, as well as the programming team, so that the music would dynamically tie in to the actions and sound effects of the player and feel as if it were "unfolding in real time". He felt that having short pieces of music that looped without reacting to the player would be a "missed opportunity", and wanted to create music that would be dynamically changing while still containing a composed emotional arc. Jenova Chen met with Wintory at the start of the game's development to describe his vision for the game, and Wintory went home from the meeting and composed and recorded the main cello theme for the soundtrack that night. He continued to work on the soundtrack for the next three years of the game's development, experimenting and discarding a "huge pile" of ideas.

Unlike many games, where different songs have different themes for each character or area, Wintory chose to base all of the pieces on one theme which stood for the player and their journey, with cello solos especially representing the player. Wintory describes the music as "like a big cello concerto where you are the soloist and all the rest of the instruments represent the world around you", though Wintory describes it as not necessarily "orchestral" as there is "a heavily electronic aspect to it". The cello begins the game as "immersed in a sea of electronic sound," before first emerging on its own and then merging into a "fabric" of a full orchestra, mirroring the player's own journey to the mountain. While the art style of the game is based on several different cultures, Wintory tried to remove any overt cultural influences from the music in order to make it "as universal and culture-less as possible." Tina Guo features as the cellist for the soundtrack. She is a close friend of Wintory and has since performed "Woven Variations" with him, an eight-minute orchestral variation on the Journey soundtrack. All of the non-electronic instruments in the soundtrack were recorded with a live orchestra.

The soundtrack was released as an album on April 10 on iTunes and PSN. The album is a collection of the "most important" pieces of the soundtrack, arranged by Wintory to stand alone as an album without the context of the player's actions. The album comprises 18 tracks and is over 58 minutes long. It features the voice of Lisbeth Scott for the final track, "I Was Born for This". After its release, the soundtrack reached the top 10 of the iTunes Soundtrack charts in more than 20 countries. It also reached position 116 on the Billboard sales charts with over 4000 sales in its first week after release, the second-highest of any video game music album to date.

Journey tracklist

Reception

Journey has achieved both critical and commercial success. The game at release became the fastest-selling game to date on PlayStation Store in both North America and Europe. At the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo the game won awards for Best Download Game from 1UP.com, GameSpy, and GameTrailers.

Journey received high acclaim from critics, who praised the visual and auditory art direction as well as the emotional response playing with a stranger created. Ryan Clements of IGN described the game as "the most beautiful game of its time", saying that "each moment is like a painting, expertly framed and lit." Jane Douglas of GameSpot concurred, calling it "relentlessly beautiful" and praising the "visual diversity" of the world and the depiction of the rippling sand, to which Matt Miller of Game Informer added praises for the animation of the sand and creatures, calling the game a "visual stunner". The music as well was praised, with Miller describing it as a "breathtaking musical score" and Douglas calling it "moving, dynamic music".

Reviewers were laudatory of the emotional experience of playing the game, especially with other players. Christian Donlan of Eurogamer described it as a "non-denominational religious experience" that, with the addition of another player, moves beyond metaphors and becomes to the player a "pilgrimage". A reviewer writing for Edge magazine said that the emotional arc of the game hits with "occasionally startling power", while Patrick Shaw from Wired said that the game made him feel a "wide range of emotions... wonder, fear, even sadness." Miller said that all three times he played the game, "each time, without fail, individual moments... managed to give me goosebumps, and those moments have remained on my mind for weeks afterward." The addition of an unnamed second player was described by Donlan as a "truly brilliant move" and a "master stroke", and Edge said it made for "a more absorbing, more atmospheric experience."

The few criticisms for the game centered on its length and pacing. Clements noted that not all players would appreciate a game with a "deliberate, melancholic pace" and short duration, comments echoed by the Edge review. Miller noted the lack of a "complex gameplay experience" in Journey, and Shaw said that it was "a shame" that the game was only a few hours long, though Douglas said that the length was "exactly right". Shaw concluded that the game could be compared to "a musical concert, a well-directed film, or a long-awaited book", while Clements concluded that "completing Journey will create memories that last for years."

References

1. ^ Miller, Matt (2012-03-13). "Journey Review: Beauty Trumps Complexity". Game Informer. Retrieved 2012-06-27. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
2. ^ Douglas, Jane (2012-03-02). "Journey Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
3. ^ Clements, Ryan (2012-03-01). "Journey Review". IGN. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
4. ^ Donlan, Christian (2012-03-01). "Journey Review". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
5. ^ "Journey Review". Edge. 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2012-06-27. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
6. "Journey: Development Team". Thatgamecompany. Retrieved 2012-07-20.
7. Sheffield, Brandon (2009-07-01). "Interview: Kellee Santiago Talks Thatgamecompany's Road Ahead". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 2010-05-09. Retrieved 2011-02-01.
8. ^ VanOrd, Kevin (2010-06-18). "Journey Impressions". GameSpot. Retrieved 2011-05-23.
9. ^ Gera, Emily (2011-02-11). "Journey Hands-on Preview". VideoGamer.com. Retrieved 2011-05-23.
10. ^ Smith, Ed (2012-05-18). "A Personal Journey: Jenova Chen's Goals for Games". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
11. Alexander, Leigh (2012-03-01). "In-Depth: Journey's rare and magical success". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
12. Sheffield, Brandon (2012-03-06). "GDC 2012: How Journey was designed to facilitate friendship". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
13. Chen, Jenova (2011-09-27). "Your Journey Begins Spring 2012". PlayStation Blog. Retrieved 2011-10-01.
14. Gallagher, James (2012-03-13). "PlayStation Home: Every Journey Starts From Home". Sony. Retrieved 2012-04-03.
15. Yin-Poole, Wesley (2012-06-25). "Journey Collector's Edition innards confirmed". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2012-06-25.
16. ^ C., Alex (2012-03-15). "Interview: Composer Austin Wintory On Journey". TheSixthAxis. Retrieved 2012-06-28.
17. ^ Kuchera, Ben (2012-03-02). "Musical DNA: How Austin Wintory wrote the song that helped create Journey". Penny Arcade Report. Retrieved 2012-06-28.
18. ^ Jeriaska (2012-02-28). "Q&A: Sound in Thatgamecompany's Journey". IndieGames. Retrieved 2012-06-28.
19. ^ Stuart, Keith (2012-05-28). "Are video game soundtracks the new concept albums?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-06-28. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
20. Grommesh, Aaron (2012-04-11). "Journey Soundtrack Now Available". Thatgamecompany. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
21. Caulfield, Keith (2012-04-19). "Chart Moves: 'Newsies' Cast Album Debuts, 'MTV Unplugged' Returns, and a Video Game Soundtrack Sizzles". Billboard. Retrieved 2012-06-28. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
22. "Journey". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2012-06-27. Cite error: The named reference "GR" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
23. "Journey". Metacritic. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
24. ^ Shaw, Patrick (2012-03-01). "Review: Mesmerizing Journey Weaves a Wordless Game Story". Wired. Retrieved 2012-06-27. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
25. Chen, Jenova (2012-03-29). "Journey Breaks PSN Sales Records". Sony. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
26. "Journey: Awards & Recognition". Thatgamecompany. Retrieved 2012-06-27.

External links

• Official website Template:En icon

• 2012 video games
• Adventure games
• Indie video games
• PlayStation 3-only games
• PlayStation Network games
• Sony Computer Entertainment games
• Thatgamecompany