Thatgamecompany, Inc. (also called thatgamecompany) is an American company that creates video games. It was started in 2006 by two students from the University of Southern California, Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago. The company worked with Sony Computer Entertainment to make three downloadable games for the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network. Later, it received funding on its own. The first game was a remake of Chen's popular Flash game called Flow, with better graphics, sound, and multiplayer features. It also worked with the PlayStation 3's motion-sensitive controller. This game was released on the PlayStation Store in 2007. The company's second game, Flower, came out in 2009, and its third game, Journey, was released in March 2012. Their fourth game, Sky: Children of the Light, was launched on iOS in July 2019 and on Android in April 2020. It later appeared on the Nintendo Switch in June 2021 and on PlayStation 4 in December 2022.
Jenova Chen said the company makes games that aim to create strong emotional reactions in players. He noted that while the company does not refuse to make action-focused games, it believes many such games are already made by larger companies. When designing games, Chen and Thatgamecompany focus first on what emotions the game should make players feel, rather than starting with game rules or mechanics. Chen also said the company does not plan to make large, high-selling games because it thinks the pressure to sell many copies might stop new ideas from being created.
History
In late 2005, Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago started thinking about creating their own video game company. They were students in their final year of a master's program in the Interactive Media Program at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. They had just finished making a video game called Cloud with other students. The group created Cloud as an experiment to see if they could make a game that showed something different from other video games and to learn if people would like games like it. Because Cloud was very well received, Chen and Santiago decided to start their own company so they could keep making games like Cloud after they finished school.
At that time, more people were using online methods to share games instead of selling them in stores. Chen and Santiago saw this as a chance to make games without the high costs of selling through stores, which they thought would require them to work for other companies first to earn money. Thatgamecompany was started on May 15, 2006, while Chen and Santiago completed their master's degrees. The company soon made a deal with Sony Computer Entertainment, which had been impressed by Chen's Flash game Flow, part of his master's thesis at USC. Thatgamecompany was asked to make three games for Sony's PlayStation Network and received money to start the company and a place to work at Sony's offices in Los Angeles.
At first, Thatgamecompany had five people: Chen, Santiago, Nick Clark (who had worked with Chen on Flow), and John Edwards. Santiago was the president of the company and the producer for its games. Clark was the designer, and Edwards was the lead engineer. Although Chen helped start the company, he worked at Maxis on the game Spore at first. The company thought about using Cloud as their first game for Sony but chose Flow instead because it was more complete as a design. They felt Flow would be easier to develop while building the company, as none of the team had experience running a business or making commercial games. Some outside workers, including Austin Wintory, who composed the music for Flow, helped with its development.
The company believed the PlayStation 3 version of Flow could be finished in four months and ready for the November 2006 launch of the PlayStation Network. However, it was released in February 2007 and did not include "half of the original design." Santiago said the Sony producer working with the team expected delays and was not surprised by the late release. Flow was well received and became the most downloaded game on the PlayStation Network in 2007. It was nominated for awards, including Best Downloadable Game of the Year and Best Innovation at the BAFTA awards. After its release, an expansion pack and a PlayStation Portable version were made by SuperVillain Studios. Thatgamecompany did not help with these projects beyond ensuring they kept the same design and art style as the original, as they focused on their next game, Flower.
Santiago called Flower "the first game outside the safety net of academia." Six to nine people worked on it at different stages. Chen returned to work full-time at the company before Flower was made and served as the creative director. The music was composed by Vincent Diamante, who had worked with Chen and Santiago on Cloud. Flower took two years to develop, but most of that time was spent testing early ideas. Once the team decided on the game's design, it was made in six months. Like Flow, Flower was well received when it was released in February 2009. It sold among the top ten PlayStation Network titles of the year and won several awards. After Flower was released, Thatgamecompany moved into their own building in Los Angeles.
The company's third project was Journey, released on March 13, 2012. It was the last game in Thatgamecompany's three-game deal with Sony and was made by a team of fourteen people. Santiago left the team to focus on her role as president, and Robin Hunicke became the producer. Journey took three years to make, even though it was expected to take one year. The team faced challenges as the company grew from seven to eighteen employees and risked running out of money. When Journey was released, it was both critically and commercially successful. It became the fastest-selling game on PlayStation Store in North America and Europe. After its release, several employees left for other jobs, including Santiago, designer Chris Bell, and Hunicke. Chen said these departures happened because the company's contract with Sony ended and because the company ran out of money, forcing employees to take unpaid time off until revenue from Journey arrived.
Once money from Journey started coming in, Thatgamecompany brought back some employees and hired new developers. With their contract with Sony completed, the company raised $5.5 million in venture capital funding to make future games for multiple platforms without relying on publishers. They began working on Sky: Children of the Light, and by June 2013, the team had about 12 members, half of whom had worked on Journey. Thatgamecompany hoped to release Sky on as many platforms as possible and to include touch controls in a new way, similar to how their earlier games used controller tilting. On May 27, 2014, it was reported that Sky received $7 million in funding from Capital Today and other investors. While Sky was being developed, Thatgamecompany re-released Flow and Flower on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita and updated Journey for the PlayStation 4. Sky, a free-to-play multiplayer adventure game, was first released on July 18, 2019. Since then, Thatgamecompany has focused on supporting Sky.
In March 2020, Thatgamecompany announced plans to open a second studio in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley area to support Sky. These plans were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2022, the company said it had received $160 million in investment and hired Edwin Catmull, a co-founder of Pixar, as an advisor. Chen also said the studio was working on its fifth game, which he described as "like a theme park" and "the most ambitious game I have built."
Philosophy
Thatgamecompany starts creating games by choosing the emotions and feelings they want players to experience. This is different from most game developers, who usually begin with game rules or types of games. Santiago explains that the company aims to show the many different experiences possible in video games, which she believes are more varied than the few, like excitement or fear, that are often shown. Chen says the company's games focus on making players feel emotions rather than delivering a clear message. He changed the design of Flower after early testers thought the game encouraged green energy. Chen believes he is too young to create games with strong messages and avoids adding clear meanings to the company's games. Santiago states Thatgamecompany's goal is "to create games that expand the way video games share ideas and to make games that many people enjoy." She hopes this approach will change the video game industry, encouraging other companies to see video games as a creative way to share ideas instead of just a product for many people.
Thatgamecompany's employees are not against making action games. As a break from their usual projects, they created "exciting" games that were well received by Sony. However, Chen believes the company should not make these games commercially, as they would not introduce new ideas worth the cost of staying independent. He also does not plan for Thatgamecompany to create "big budget blockbuster games," as he thinks the financial pressure would limit creativity.
Games
In the game Flow, players guide an aquatic microorganism through a series of two-dimensional planes. The microorganism grows by consuming other microorganisms. The game was designed using research by Chen from the University of Southern California about adjusting difficulty based on player skill, and it was inspired by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory about mental focus, called "flow." Flow was released for the PlayStation 3 on February 22, 2007.
Flower was created as a follow-up to Flow. Players use the PlayStation 3’s motion-sensitive controller to control wind that moves a flower petal through the air. When the petal flies near flowers, other petals begin to follow it. Flying close to flowers can change the game world, such as adding color to previously gray fields or starting windmills. The game has no text or dialogue, and the story is shown through visuals and emotions. Flower was released for the PlayStation 3 on February 12, 2009.
In Journey, players control a robed figure who wakes up in a desert with a distant mountain as the goal. Along the way, players may meet other players online, but they cannot talk. They can choose to help each other or not. Journey was released for the PlayStation 3 on March 13, 2012. In 2013, Austin Wintory was nominated for a Grammy Award for the music in Journey, the first time a video game score received such a nomination. He lost to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Journey was released for Windows in 2019.
Sky: Children of the Light is the latest game from Thatgamecompany. It was released for iOS on July 18, 2019, and for Android on April 7, 2020. The game was inspired by the company’s earlier titles. In Sky, players explore a magical kingdom using a cape that allows them to fly. They play with millions of other players online. The game includes seven realms, each representing a different stage of life, and a central area called "Home." Players collect items from spirits by earning in-game currency. The game is free to play, but some items can be bought with real money. Sky was named Apple’s iPhone Game of the Year in 2019 and reached 100 million downloads in May 2021. It was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2021 and for the PlayStation 4 on December 6, 2022. A free PC demo was released on October 9, 2023, as part of the Steam Next Fest event.