page_title: Journey (2012 video game)
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Journey (2012 video game) / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: Jenova Chen in 2007. 中文（简体）‎: 陈星汉(2007年) 中文（繁體）‎: 陳星漢(2007年) Français&#160;: Jenova Chen en 2007.
context_page_description: Journey is an indie adventure game co-developed by Thatgamecompany and Santa Monica Studio, published by Sony Computer Entertainment, and directed by Jenova Chen. It was released for the PlayStation 3 via PlayStation Network in March 2012 and ported to PlayStation 4 in July 2015. It was later ported to Microsoft Windows in June 2019 and iOS in August 2019.
  In Journey, the player controls a robed figure in a vast desert, traveling towards a mountain in the distance. Other players on the same journey can be discovered, and two players can meet and assist each other, but they cannot communicate via speech or text and cannot see each other's names until after the game's credits. The only form of communication between the two is a musical chime, which transforms dull pieces of cloth found throughout the levels into vibrant red, affecting the game world and allowing the player to progress through the levels. The developers sought 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 the way.
context_section_description: Journey was the last game made under a three-game contract between Thatgamecompany and Sony Computer Entertainment, the first two being Flow and Flower. Development of the game began in 2009, after the release of Flower. The 18-person development team for Journey was composed mainly of creators of the company's previous games; co-founder Jenova Chen was the creative director and Nick Clark returned as lead designer. Kellee Santiago, producer of Flow and Flower, did not reprise her duties, concentrating instead on her role as the company's president, and was replaced by Robin Hunicke.
  When development began, Sony expected the game to be completed in a year, rather than the more than three it finally took. Thatgamecompany always expected to need an extension; according to Hunicke, they believed finishing the game within a year was "unrealistic". Development ended up taking even longer than anticipated, as the team had difficulties paring down their ideas for the game and maintaining efficient communication. Over the course of development the team grew from seven to eighteen people. At the end of the second year, when Sony's extension had run out, the game did not spark the emotions in the player that the team wanted. Sony agreed to another one-year extension, but development ultimately exceeded even that.
  The stress of the project led to the feeling there was not enough time or money to complete everything the team wished to, which added to the stress and caused arguments about the design of the game. The developers ended up reducing the overtime they spent on the project to avoid burning out, though it meant further delays and risked the company running out of money as the game neared completion. In a speech at the 16th annual D.I.C.E. Awards in 2013, Chen admitted the company had indeed been driven to bankruptcy in the final months of development and that some of the developers had gone unpaid at the time. Hunicke described the solution to finally finishing the game as learning to let go of tensions and ideas that could not make it into the game and be "nice to each other".
  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 other players but eventually discarded it after finding it was too easy for players to ignore each other in favor of their own objectives.
  The developers designed the game like a Japanese garden, where they attempted to remove all the game elements that did not fit with the others, so the emotions they wanted the game to evoke would come through. This minimalism is intended to make the game feel intuitive to the player, so they can explore and feel a sense of wonder without direct instructions. The story arc of the game is designed to explicitly follow Joseph Campbell's monomyth theory of narrative, or hero's journey, as well as to represent the stages of life, so as to enhance the emotional connection of the players as they journey together. In his D.I.C.E. speech, Chen noted that three of their 25 testers had cried upon completing the game.
  The game's desert setting is largely based on the Middle East, and incorporates Arabic culture, art and architecture. Jenova Chen and art director Matt Nava did not want the setting to be too Western or Eastern, so they felt the Middle East was an ideal middle ground. In addition, the game also incorporates Chinese and Tibetan cultural influences, drawing from Chen's childhood in China.
  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 wi
caption: Jenova Chen, the director of Journey, in 2007.
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