If the title looks like a blatant ripoff of indie fave fl0w, that's because it's actually the same developer. Thatgamecompany, that game company which brought abstract underwater battle to PSN, is working on a new game, announced via a short, artsy trailer at the Tokyo Game Show.
We don't know much (okay, anything) about fl0wer -- only that it's being developed for PS3, and that it's not yet playable. Based on the name, we expect that it will at least be a spiritual successor to fl0w, which started as game designer Jenova Chen's graduate thesis. View the serene teaser after the break, and let the speculation begin.
I'm going off of the way it's written by GameTrailers, whose video we're embedding. Also, the lowercase 'o' in that cursive logo is actually a small zero, in the same typeface as seen in the "fl0w" title screen. I don't like it any more than you do, but it's there regardless.
Agreed! I played for a few minutes and got bored. After all the hubub, I gave it the benefit of the doubt and assumed I didn't play it long enough. Very good for a thesis, but for a full console title?
Well it wasn't really a full console title. It was just a cheap downloadable game which is just casual fun time wasters. I think it was worth the $8 I spent on it recently. Worth way more than this new LocoRoco game anyway.
Looks interesting. I bet its a game/music screensaver. The scenery changes based on what type of music you play and the rate of the wind increases or decreases depending on how fast the song is.
Or it could be a really kickass Miracle-Gro flower growing sim.
You beat me to it; I was thinking the exact same thing!
Cue slo-mo middle-aged woman in white flowing garments skipping through the field and/or riding horses. "It expands to fit my lifestyle! Use Fl0w to keep you Fl0wer fresh!"
Holy $hit, I just realized I've seen waayyy too many feminine product commercials during my short time here on Earth.
I played the free Flash version of flOw. It was fun. I heard the PS3 version was expanded upon. I guess I'll look forward to flOw and flOwer if/when I eventually get a PS3.
On one hand....its a game ...an actual game I think...for PS3.
On the other hand....it could be a friggin' flower sim. Will it have Full Stamen and Pistil exposure??
Because that would be SWEET!!!
You know what would be hilarious..... if someone took this trailer....and at the end had MASTER CHIEF stomp on the FLOWER. Then cut to the typical 360 commercial ending Logo.
Hmmm, am I the only one here getting a Pollen Sonata vibe? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psB0wu9-n38 Seems like those craaazy kids out of Universities just can't get enough of the flowers and the bees
It seems to me that this game is following right in the vein of fl0w. fl0w was a sandbox game, with such an amount of freedom, the player gets to choose how hard or easy the game play is. fl0w was based on the flow theory of games based on the research of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Basically, it says that for the player to feel the most satisfaction in a game, the abilities of the player and the challenge of the game need to correspond. I think these games are so innovative because they allow the player to determine the challenge of the game as their abilities grow or not.
Personally, I’m very excited to see where they go with this. Jenova Chen and his team are incredibly innovative in my mind and their games are so beautiful. It might not be very action oriented, but I’m content to play a game and sit in wonder of the beautiful visuals and simplistic gameplay they make. I thought that the first game was quite a success in what it was trying to do, but I can definitely see how it might have gotten boring if the players didn’t challenge themselves enough or their skills exceeded the maximum challenge the game had. Either way I’m sure this game will be a fuller and more developed game with the same core and feeling as the first. As I said before, I’m very excited to see how this turns out.
