Journey, from developer thatgamecompany, has won the GameCity Prize, an award that focuses on the achievement of games as an art form. Jenova Chen, President & Creative Director, thatgamecompany, comments, “I really like the goal of GameCity, to get people to notice games and talk about games, particularly for people who don’t encounter many video games in their daily life. Thatgamecompany has always focused on making games for everyone, so it’s nice to see GameCity recognize our game and give us an award. In the end, we believe that games are a mature media that deserve to be enjoyed and loved by everyone, by people. Thank you very much for this prize.” What a cool dude. Thatgamecompany has been the force behind other thought-provoking games such as Flower and Flow.
Journey was up against some tough competition, including as Fez, Mass Effect 3, and Proteus. The Chair of judges, film maker Lord Puttnam, comments, “Of all the shortlisted titles, Journey presents the player with an especially coherent vision, simultaneously fantastic and familiar. All of the Jury commented on the art direction in particular, the extraordinary sense of size and scale it portrayed.
Whilst it was a short game, it was in no way small. It’s a focused, detailed piece of work – challenging you to measure it in terms other than just the length of gameplay. One of the jury commented that it was like a favourite place, a walk in the country, that she would love to go back and revisit. In particular, Journey was a videogame that had been created by artists immersed in a broad culture. Both obviously a game, but challenging of what a game could be – it displayed an extraordinary level of care and attention.” The organizers of GameCity are taking games and the discussion surrounding games in a great direction.
More about GameCity.
Check out our Review for Journey here
