It is no exaggeration to say that Journey is one of the most influential games of the past decade.
The 2012 adventure game was run by a silent protagonist in the desert, sometimes accompanied by an anonymous, silent second player who can jump in and play from anywhere on the planet. Journey is known for using simple social interactions between players who do not know each other, and has become a landmark independent game.
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Nearly ten years later, game companies focused on developers Sky: Son of Light, A game that follows Journey’s footsteps very much. Dozens of players jumped into a wonderful world to solve puzzles and communicate with each other using simple gestures. The game company just released Sky on Nintendo Switch as of the end of June last month.
To commemorate the launch of Sky on the new platform, we interviewed Jenova Chen, co-founder and director of thatgamecompany.
iGamesNews: What prompted you to port Sky to Nintendo Switch, and what was the process of porting to the Nintendo console?
Chen Jienova: When we made “Sky: Children of Light”, we wanted to make a game that players can play with their families. When I say family, I think of children, I think of husbands and wives, and maybe even grandparents. We want to see a game that can be played by a family. This is indeed our first wish after launching Journey on PlayStation. Many gamers say that “this game is the first game that their daughter or wife has played and completed.” That’s why we want to make sure that all our future games are on all platforms that a family usually owns.
The first thing we did was to try to port it to the most difficult mobile platform, because the hardware limitations are much larger and the screen is much smaller. We feel that if we can touch someone on the small screen of our phone, we can still maintain its quality when we bring it to the console and PC. So after we finished our mobile version, we launched it in July 2019, we spent a year porting to Android, we think the first console should really be Nintendo Switch, because it is in all platforms It is the most parent-child platform. We are beginning to see that in the existing mobile community, more than 70% of gamers are women. And on the host, Switch has the healthiest female player group.
iGamesNews: Do you think there is a big gap between the games that the whole family can play together in the field of video games?
Chen Jienova: Yes, that was when we launched Journey about nine years ago, but a lot of feedback was “I can’t find many games that I can play with my kids or my wife.” During that time, I did a lot of research because at that time I have no children, but now I do. I spent a lot of time talking with my parents. Many of them are my age, so we spent a lot of time playing games when we were growing up. We now have children.
The situation is that there are many games for adults to contact and relax after get off work, and to reconnect with old classmates and colleagues. There are many games designed for children to play and socialize together, but few games are designed for me to participate in, and it is very friendly to children, I found this game to be relevant and interesting for me An adult. The older I get, the more picky I get. Many games I played in the past feel very fun. I feel that today is not as meaningful as before.
I played many World War II games and grew up as a hardcore gamer, but if you want me to go back and play another World War II game, I think I’ve been there and did it. So lately I tend to find more amazing things in the independent genre. This is why we have been making art games, because I think these games can touch adults and make them relevant, not when I play When wasting time playing games.
iGamesNews: You first mentioned porting Sky to the most difficult platform. Do you think this new Switch port is just the beginning of Sky, because do you want to introduce Sky to PlayStation and Xbox platforms in the future?
Chen Jienova: Yes, I mean our goal is to make the game available on all platforms. I mean, since we first started the project in 2012, we know that the future will have nothing to do with the platform. If you really look at the very successful games today, they are almost all cross-platform, I believe the future will be like TV.When TV first appeared, people were like “Which cable channel will dominate the United States?” and the ultimate[ly] Everyone watches TV.
So from the point of view of content creators, we really think that the more important thing is the channels on TV. You have a channel for hardcore young male audiences. You have a casual channel. You know, maybe middle-aged women have the same majority as casual game channels. But there are many other channels that do not yet exist. There are always ESPN equivalents, and I think it’s like EA games and sports games. But where is the Disney Channel? Where is the sitcom channel?
So for games, I think it will be everywhere. What I mean is that gaming platforms are almost everywhere, now how can we create correct content related to demographics of different ages and genders. So we can say that video games are for everyone, not just a small part of society.
iGamesNews: Just stick to the game console for one second. Apparently we launched a large number of PlayStation and Xbox game consoles last year. As an independent developer, do you think PS5 or Xbox Series X will fundamentally change game development in the next few years?
Chen Jienova: I mean if you ask me I think there are a lot of exciting technologies out there, I would say it is more groundbreaking than the console itself. Cloud streaming media is becoming mature, VR has finally become an independent consumer quality, and AR is imminent. I personally think that as current developers, we must be fully prepared for future format expansion. But for what we have been building with Sky, we see a very interesting point, as I mentioned before, I see 70% of women playing this game, so for us, we have already touched Many players can reach the console platform, because for players who have never played console games in the past, mobile is indeed a frontier.
I personally think this is also a good frontier field. There are many mobile players in the world who have never touched game consoles. How can we educate them about all the legacy of game culture in the past 34 years, because they kind of missed it all. And how can we turn them into more avid gamers, you know that for me I am going to call myself a communicator of video games, because I want more people to like games, so for me, hardware With faster chips, maybe AI chips as you know, these things are far less exciting than the way we approach new players, at least this is where I am most excited.
iGamesNews: You mentioned cloud streaming there. Do you see Xbox’s cloud gaming plan as a way to push mobile players into the game console space?
Chen Jienova: This is something I don’t think I can comment on [on], But when you use it at home, you know that I have a Switch, a PC, and I also have my mobile phone. Recently I have been using Backbone to play a lot of interesting games. It is a controller that looks like a Switch, which can be connected to your phone and can be transformed into a console-like experience. So to me it’s amazing, because now everyone has a mobile phone and you only need to install these controllers. For me, this is just another step towards the future. Everything in the future is unknowable, and we are platform-agnostic.
iGamesNews: We talked about “Zhengtu” before. Next year, this game will usher in its 10th anniversary in 2022. You look back on this game in particular. What do you think you have done?
Chen Jienova: Every year at the anniversary, many players like “Zhengtu” [who] Will come out to play, there are many people and newcomers online. I mean today’s “Journey” is not only on the PlayStation, but also on the PC now, on the Epic Store and Steam, on the iOS platform, we are really trying to keep the journey relevant because of the video games and collections For works of art, technology has always been a challenge. The game was originally developed on PS3. If we don’t upgrade the game, you will not be able to play it, so we are very happy that we have been working hard to keep the game playable. In addition, as the spiritual successor of “Zhengtu”, Sky is still blooming. Many people who have played “Zhengtu” will pay attention to Sky, and vice versa. To me, every game is like a child, so I love them all.
iGamesNews: You mentioned the upgrade there. Do you think you might upgrade Journey on the anniversary next year?
Chen Jienova: I don’t know, because Journey is Sony’s IP. But I’m pretty sure Sky will still operate normally, and a lot of exciting things will happen next year.
“Sky: Children of Light” is now available on iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch. Check out other upcoming content on our video game release date page.
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