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Journey Features Co-Op For The Casual Crowd
Journey, the next game from arthouse favorite indie developer thatgamecompany, was first revealed at E3 last year, but we're only recently beginning to get more info on how you play this visually striking downloadable game. Creator Jenova Chen explains more in a new interview with the PlayStation Blog.
Among the most interesting bits of the interview is Chen's explanation for Journey's unique multiplayer, which allows you to bump into other players without ever entering a lobby or messing around with the various menus and options hardcore gamers have grown used to with multiplayer games. Chen said this allows players of any skill level or familiarity with games to jump right into Journey:
"We make games for PS3 owners, but we also make games for their relatives or children. I don’t think your grandma is going to know what a [multiplayer] 'lobby' means. I don’t think most children will understand what [internet] 'latency' means. So after we eliminated the lobby concept, we had very few choices -- other players have to be able to connect at any time, not just the beginning of the game, and a player has to be able to finish the game by himself he can’t find someone.... We didn’t try to redefine multiplayer, we just wanted to create a more intuitive experience. If your grandma asked, 'what’s Journey?' I’d tell her 'Journey is just like hiking. You go to hike a mountain, and there are other hikers you might meet and if you like them you can hike with them.' And that’s it."
Elsewhere in the interview, Chen revealed that the primary gameplay of Journey will consist of moving from one point to the next while gathering cloth pieces that briefly give you access to new powers allowing for faster movement. For example, you'll be able to surf on sand dunes or use cloth to fly.
Currently the game only uses two buttons -- one for calling to a piece of cloth and one for flying. There was a jump button as well, but Chen said it was removed to simplify the control scheme and because "When you can jump, during the boring walk [laughs] people would keep jumping." The camera will be controlled using Sixaxis motion rather than the right thumbstick, another move that Chen pointed to as opening the game up for a wider audience.
Jenova Chen is always a fascinating interviewee, so I suggest reading the full interview to get a glimpse at his point of view in the development of Journey. It's definitely a unique title from the sounds of it, but does it sound like a game you'll want to check out because of its strangeness?
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