BigPete7978
PSLS Level: Silver
Looks absolutely epic. Can't wait.
ABZU Announce Trailer
- Thread starter BigPete7978
- Start date
I don't know what they're doing with this game, but looking at the likes of the creators - I'm going to guess an undersea exploration game. Whatever it is, I'm getting it.
BigPete7978
PSLS Level: Silver
It is the same people who made Journey correct?
Jacky
PSLS Level: Silver
Possibly, i found journey kinda boring.
BigPete7978
PSLS Level: Silver
I believe it is. Journey definitely wasn't for everyone. Some people didn't care for it, others loved it. I was one of the ones that really enjoyed the game.
Kind of. The art director and music composer split from thatgamecompany and made Giant Squid Studios. So it's basically some solid talent from thatgamecompany without Jenova Chen.
BigPete7978
PSLS Level: Silver
Any reason why they left?
Austin Wintory, the person who composed the soundtrack, is a union worker associated with AFM (American Federation of Musicians). I don't know if he's formally associated with thatgamecompany at all, but he's listed on the staff list at Giant Squid's website.
Matt Nava, the creative director for Journey, started Giant Squid Studios after Journey being the first full game that he ever worked on. This article at gamesindustry says that he also pulled Nicholas Clark (one of the Journey developers from thatgamecompany) to help out as well. He said about Journey, "We started out with eight people and most of them were programmers actually. So for a long time I was the only artist on the team. And I started at the very beginning on the project and the very first day was nothing more than an idea, it was a sentence on the board and we just talked about this idea of a game that could connect players in a new, interesting way."
Essentially, thatgamecompany had to get two extensions from Sony during the development process for Journey. The staff was paid half salaries for a while because it was taking so long, and the company essentially went bankrupt during development. It's kind of a miracle for them that it did so well! My guess is that these mishaps really drove Nava to create a new company based around what he conceived to be a better business model for the employees.
In Nava's words, "Thatgamecompany is a great studio and I learned a lot when I was there but after Journey shipped I felt like, actually a lot of the team felt like, it was time to do something new..."
Sources: PushSquare, Giant Squid Studios, gamesindustry
