PS3 Fanboy

One of the founders of thatgamecompany, the team behind flOw and the upcoming Flower, has been recognized by Technology Review's TR35 awards. Jenova Chen is being called a "top young innovator" for his work on game design, focusing on how "gaming can be an emotional journey for many different audiences and not just an aggressive experience for young males."

"Jenova Chen exemplifies what it means to be an innovator. He pushes the boundaries of his industry, questioning assumptions about what gaming can be. Because of his breakthrough vision, the impact from his approach to gaming will be felt for generations to come," said Krisztina "Z" Holly, USC Vice Provost for Innovation and Executive Director of the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation.

The upcoming flOwer took multiple accolades at E3, including our own award for Best PSN Game. Gamespot also awarded it Best Downloadable Game and Best Graphics.

A carefully typed PowerPoint presentation had Jenova Chen's next PSN game's title as Flower. No, not flOwer, because that would suggest it was flOw+er, which would do an incredible disservice to this surprisingly ambitious title. Sure, there are a number of similarities between flOw and Flower: both use SIXAXIS tilt-controls, both are technically "single button games," and both fuse music and intuitive gameplay to evoke emotions rarely found in any other game. But, Flower does much more than we could have expected.

Jenova Chen described flOw as a gaming "haiku" -- but Flower is a "poem." It comes as an incredible surprise that Flower tells a story, told through the dreams of various flowers. When a player begins a new game, they aren't treated to lush green fields of grass. No, we see a colorless dying cityscape, one with a lone flower sitting in a cracked, dirty pot. Trigger a flower's dream, and we're treated to abstract watercolor paintings of a city that hint at a much bigger story.

So what's the gameplay like? You control a flower pedal, and you must tilt the PS3 controller to guide it to other flowers. It's a simple premise that's instantly accessible, but figuring out what must be done in each level requires exploration and experimentation. Each playthrough is meant to be a "performance," and players will want to tilt their controllers and create music through the various flowers in these fields. Each flower creates its own unique sound, depending on the background music, the speed of the wind and the player's timing. The mix of lush visuals and synesthetic gameplay is nothing short of mesmerizing.

flOwer still seems like a mystery. Perhaps that's part of its charm. A sort of hazy daydream -- I'm-floating-high-in-the-sky kind of whimsical fairytale. We feel soothed when we watch these clips, though we can't help but wonder how to play this game, and really, what's the point of it? What do you do? Where do you go? It's funny ... we ask these things and have yet to walk away. If you too are somewhat mesmerized by the aloofness of flOwer, then hit the break to watch the second clip.

Not much is known about thatgamecompany's mysterious flOwer. The PSN downloadable was revealed at TGS as their big follow-up to the best-selling flOw, but few gameplay details have been unearthed. Jenova Chen talked to Gamasutra about developing another PSN title, and how the team has finally come to grips with the incredible power of the PS3.

"When we were working on flOw we didn't really use any SPUs, which is the biggest asset of PS3. Or, even if we used them, it was done by other programmers, not the programmers on our team," explained Chen. "But now, the team has caught up, and they've all started doing SPU programming. So that is really making a difference. We actually used the power of the PS3 this time."

After flOwer's release, thatgamecompany is still obliged to producing at least one more game for Sony. Thankfully, it appears that Sony has been incredibly respectful of the development process. "So far we have had a great relationship with Sony. They totally understand what we are doing, and they appreciate what we are doing." Sony's quest for artistic games is something that resonates with both parties: "I think Sony is much more interested in making games stylish and artistic; more appealing to adults. On that aspect, I think they are the same as we are. Because we are making games for people who are, I would say, like grown up gamers, who expect to see more out of a game than traditional actions."

First revealed a while back, Sony's The Agency is touted to be the first major MMO title to get released exclusively on a console. It takes some stealth, some action, some FPS, and some RPG elements to make a pretty decent looking title that could swerve either into the "overhyped junk" pile or the "hidden gem of the PS3 universe" pile. We won't know until it gets a release date.
Read More


Saying that Final Fantasy XIII is a major PS3 exclusive is an understatement. Even if you don't like RPGs, it's ignorant to believe these games haven't shaped the console world as we know it -- the titles on the SNES rocketed the success of that console, the release of FFVII cemented the original PlayStation as the best console released and FFX greatly assisted in the adoption of the PS2. This latest installment looks drastically different from the others, but we're hoping it turns out as stellar as the other titles have been.
Read More


That Game Company made a weird title with flOw. They weren't scared to try new things and they're not scared to do it again with the spiritual successor, flOwer. We still don't know what you're supposed to be doing -- guiding a flower in a field? Guiding pollen from a flower in a field? Guiding the sunlight to vitalize flowers spouting pollen in a field? Who knows. Until it gets a release date, the mystery continues.
Read More


It's been a while since we've seen anything on The Getaway -- one of those PS3 titles announced long ago and subsequently swallowed up in the black hole of vaporware. We aren't giving up, though -- little drips of information appear every now and then and until we know when the game's coming out, we can only imagine what's in store.
Read More


Shown off at E3 as a secret surprise title, we don't know what to make of Infamous other than a sandbox hero/villain creation story where you can protect or destroy a city. We're making assumptions, but it's probably not too far off the mark. We've seen and heard nothing since the original trailer, so a release date is anyone's guess. Fall would be our assumption. Since we've made enough of those so far.
Read More

Ever since we first got wind of Thatgamecompany's next project, Flower, we've wondered what the game actually was. With flOw, we learned that there's more to gaming than explosions and storylines, and with this game, we figured there was some sort of similar cathartic mechanism in the works. The first "details" of the game have been released and all we can say is there's certainly a lot of emotion to go around, but we've still no idea what to expect.

You raise flowers in a field, but the game aims to make you "experience a field in a way you couldn't in real life," according to Thatgamecompany's Kellee Santiago. During the game's development cycle, the team constantly wondered what the emotion interaction would be with the field if you played as the wind, or the sun, or the "emotional impact of flying petals around" as well as the emotions felt when growing a flower.

The game originally had you controlling petals in the wind in an early prototype, but it's unclear whether or not that's still part of the game. Initially, there were even magical elements and special abilities in the game, but those were removed since they got in the way of your emotions. No matter what Flower ends up being, we know it's going to be an experience that will be difficult to explain to friends, but once we give them the controller, they'll understand. Maybe they'll shed a tear. Or not.

It's amazing to see what adding two letters to the end of a word can do. thatgamecompany, creators of the fan-favorite fl0w, is working on a brand new project. Not much is know about the new project, but considering the unique atmosphere created by the team's previous endeavors, we're excited to see what they can bring to the table.

[Via Joystiq]