Catching up with Thatgamecompany

by Ross Miller { Jul 13th 2007 at 6:43AM }

FlOw has come a long way since being part of a master's thesis for then-University of Southern California student Jenova Chen. Now the title is the number one download on the PlayStation Network. We had the chance to speak with Chen and fellow Thatgamecompany co-founder Kellee Santiago about what's been going since we last heard from them at the Game Developers Conference.

The developer is still very positive about their decision to sign a 3-game deal with Sony and say they have been very good to them, according to Santiago. They are still working inside the Sony offices. When we mentioned the success of flOw, Chen remarked that they see it more as a challenge.

Though they can't reveal any information on the upcoming project, Chen considered it ambitious, with no previous reference material. He used an illustration metaphor, that they can always illustrate known game mechanics, "but now we're trying to sketch it ourself," he said. We thought flOw was a pretty ambitious title, so it'll be interesting to see what they really consider far out of the norm. According to the duo, information concerning their next title is hopefully going to be released this fall.

Tags: e3, e307, flow, thatgamecompany

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Martez @ Jul 13th 2007 7:03AM

Flow is good. It is creative and relatively unique. But ambitious? Not really.

Travis @ Jul 13th 2007 9:55AM

So I bought Flow with high expectations of something new and fun. I was really bummed out when I played through it in 2 hours and then realized that, unlike people on internet forums claim, that's it. There really is nothing more to it. I thought maybe if I played it again I'd evolve my creature into different forms and figure out cool little tricks. Nope. It's an insanely short and boring game with absolutely no substance.

To make matters worse, I was listening to Insomniac Game's podcast a while ago and Kellee Santiago (that girl pictures above and co-founder of ThatGameCompany) was on as a guest. She let slip the fact that they cut a TON (her emphasis, not mine) of content out of the game to meet the deadline.

So now I'm not only bummed that Flow sucked, I'm actually a bit pissed at ThatGameCompany for releasing a crap game and knowing that it was a crap game and nothing close to what they planned on releasing.

I definitely won't be buying future ThatGameCompany games, no matter how cheap they are, unless reviews come out saying playing the damn thing is actually fun.

Jackson Pritt @ Jul 13th 2007 1:41PM

flOw is a cute idea and an interesting thesis project, but ultimately I think it falls too far on the side of casual pick-em-ups and ends up lacking in engagement. What little engagement there is with the game lies in the simplistic, design-oriented graphics. People who like the design sensibilities tend to love the game, while people who don't like them tend to find the game boring.

flOw is a great project for housing in a MoMA or an art gallery, but it falls a little flat when sharing shelf space space with the hypersaturated thrillers filling the market today, and relies too much on being "different" rather than just being fun to play.

J.L.Jones @ Jul 13th 2007 2:18PM

I played Flow alot when it was just a flash game and thesis project. And I've played it alot since it came out on PSN. It's something that I really enjoy and just use it to chill out and relax.

I'm really hoping that the next game that they bring out is Cloud... That was a fun title by Jenova Chen and I believe that it would make a fine addition to PSN