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Flower (video game)

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Flower
A trail of red, yellow and white petals arc over a brown-and-green grassy hill. The sun is in the upper left of the image, set in a clear blue sky, and the word "flower" is overlaid across the image, with the top of the "f" sprouting orange petals as if it were a flower itself.
Developer(s)thatgamecompany
Publisher(s)Sony Computer Entertainment
Designer(s)Jenova Chen
Platform(s)PlayStation 3
ReleaseFebruary 12, 2009
Genre(s)Poetic Adventure[1]
Mode(s)Single-player

Flower is a PlayStation 3 video game. It was developed by thatgamecompany, designed by Jenova Chen, and announced at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show. Flower was released on February 12, 2009 via the PlayStation Network. The game was intended as a spiritual successor to flOw, a previous title by Chen and thatgamecompany. In Flower, the player controls the wind, blowing a flower petal through the air using the movement of the game controller. Flying close to flowers results in the player's petal being followed by other flower petals. Approaching flowers may also have side-effects on the game world, such as bringing vibrant color to previously dead fields or activating stationary windmills. The game features no text or dialogue, forming a narrative arc primarily through visual representation and emotional cues.

Flower was primarily intended to provoke positive emotions in the player, rather than to be a challenging and "fun" game. This focus was sparked by Chen, who felt that the primary purpose of entertainment products like video games was the feelings that they evoked in the audience, and that the emotional range of most games was very limited. The team viewed their efforts as creating a work of art, removing gameplay elements and mechanics that were not provoking the desired response in the players. The music, composed by Vincent Diamante, dynamically responds to the player's actions and corresponds with the emotional cues in the game. Flower was a critical success, to the surprise of the developers. Reviewers praised the game's music, visuals, and gameplay, calling it a unique and compelling emotional experience. It was named the best independent game of 2009 at the Spike Video Game Awards and by Playboy.

Gameplay

A group of pink flower petals are displayed above a green grassy field with the viewer seemingly amongst them. The sky is pink-toned, and a light yellow sun is shown above the horizon on the right side.
A screenshot of Flower, showing a trail of flower petals as viewed by the player as they are blown through the air

Flower is divided up into six main levels and one credits level. Each level is represented by a flower in a pot on a city apartment windowsill, and upon selecting one the player is taken to the "dream" of that flower.[2] Once inside a level, the player controls the wind as it blows a single flower petal through the air. Changes in the pitch and roll of the floating petal are accomplished by tilting the PlayStation 3 controller. Pressing any button blows the wind harder, which in turn moves the petal faster.[3] The camera generally follows just behind the petal, though it sometimes moves to show a new objective or consequence of the player's actions.[4]

Groups and lines of flowers are present in each level; approaching these with the petal causes a new petal to trail the first. When the player approaches certain flowers or groups of flowers, changes are made to the game world. These can range from opening new areas, transforming dead grassy areas to bright green fields, or turning on windmills. These changes generally result in new flowers sprouting for the player to interact with. Flying through each flower results in a musical chime which harmonizes with the music. The music itself dynamically adjusts as changes are made to the world.[3] The more flower petals the player has trailing the lead petal, the faster the petals move.[2] It is impossible for the player to lose a level or even lose any progress. The game features no enemies, hit points, or time limits. A single play-through of the game takes approximately one hour.[4]

Although no text or speech is used anywhere in the game besides the credits, the six flower dreams follow a narrative arc.[3] The player's starting location in each stage appears to be near the ending location of the previous one, and through the course of the game the player approaches a distant city. The first levels focus on restoring life and color to the landscape. After starting up a series of windmills the player flies through a nighttime field, illuminating darkened strings of lights until they reach the city. The city is full of menacing metal structures, small arcs of electricity, and washed-out buildings; the player enlivens the city in the final two levels and transforms it into a bright and cheerful place.[5][6]

As the player progresses through the levels, the city viewed through the apartment window in the level selection screen gradually becomes more vibrant and colorful.[5] If the player triggers three secret flowers in each level, the cityscape is replaced with a bright field with mountains in the background. The music changes in scope as the game progresses, growing in scale and complexity and adding to the narrative arc.[7] The credits level is played in a similar manner to the main levels, but as the player flies through each flower the name of a person involved in the game appears above it. Flower includes PlayStation Network trophies in keeping with the game's feel. While some are objective-based, many are centered around relaxing and watching the scenery.[4]

Development

Flower was developed as a spiritual successor to flOw, a 2006 Flash game created by Jenova Chen and Nicholas Clark while the two were students at the University of Southern California. flOw was later developed into a PlayStation 3 game by thatgamecompany in 2007 and a PlayStation Portable game by SuperVillain Studios in 2008. Flower was thatgamecompany's "first game outside the safety net of academia".[8] It was first announced at the Tokyo Game Show on September 24, 2007,[8] and was released on the PlayStation Network on February 12, 2009 for US$9.99.[9][10] Flower was intended primarily to provoke positive emotions in the player, and to act as "an emotional shelter".[11] Six to nine people were involved at varying stages of development.[11] Chen, who co-founded thatgamecompany with game producer Kellee Santiago, was the lead designer.[12] He described the game as "an interactive poem exploring the tension between urban and nature".[9] Chen decided on the "nature" theme early in the development process, saying that he "had this concept that every PlayStation is like a portal in your living room, it leads you to somewhere else. I thought; wouldn't it be nice if it was a portal that would allow you to be embraced by nature".[13]

Before beginning work, the development team commissioned two pieces of music that they felt would inspire the right emotional tone for the game to guide their efforts.[8] They created a number of prototypes, including concepts focused on growing flowers and based around human consciousness. The team decided that a prototype centered on petals floating in the wind best captured the emotions they wanted to evoke. They made keeping the player in a peaceful emotional state their design focus, and removed elements that frustrated players such as petal collection requirements to unlock levels and game mechanics that were too traditional and made the players too excited.[11] The team tried to not place any barriers in the levels, allowing the player to go anywhere in an open world, but realized that without a few guidelines, such as the camera focusing on new flowers or segmenting the levels, players became confused and frustrated. Chen described the process as "almost like we wanted to throw away the traditional game design, but we end up picking up all the pieces we threw away and putting them back because we know those are actually needed to deliver a good guided experience".[14] The overall development time was two years, but the team spent three-fourths of that time in the prototyping stage. After deciding on the game elements, Flower was produced in only six months.[15]

The game's focus on emotions was sparked by Chen, who felt that the primary purpose of entertainment products like video games was the feelings that they evoked in the audience, and that the emotional range of most games was very limited. To make Flower have the "emotional spectrum" that he wanted, Chen looked at the development process as creating a work of art, rather than a "fun" game, which would not provoke the desired emotions.[16] He summarized this view by saying that the only gameplay mechanic is hitting a flower to trigger something. The team specifically cut out deeper gameplay elements because they added "challenge" to the game, which, while fun, was not relaxing.[14]

Music

The music for Flower was created by Vincent Diamante, a video game music composer and professor at the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Division.[17] He had previously scored the music for Cloud, Chen's first game, and Dyadin when they were both at the University of Southern California. He worked directly with the development team to integrate the music into the game by adjusting the placements of flowers and the tones that each type played when they were reached. He did this by harmonizing the gameplay with the music, and adjusting the music dynamically to correspond to changes in the game world.[7] Diamante used his music to influence the development team in adapting ideas he had for the game.[18]

The music and instruments in each level were chosen to correspond to the game world and the level's placement in the overall emotional arc. The music is composed of multiple layers of acoustic instrument tracks that rise and fall in correlation with the player's actions.[7] The instruments used include pianos, string instruments such as classical guitars, and woodwinds such as bass flutes and bassoons.[7][19] The number of instruments playing increase in correlation with the amount of petals that the player gathers.[19] The music is meant to suggest natural sounds like wind. The instrument tracks were intended to be able to stand on their own, even when used in a large orchestrated group as in levels three and six.[7] Several times in the development process, Diamante became so attached to a piece of music that needed alteration that he composed a new piece to replace it.[18] Although Diamante is in talks with Sony to produce an album of music from the game, no such album has been released to date.[7][17]

Reception

Flower was well received by critics. Alice Liang of 1UP.com applauded the game, saying that "the freedom of movement makes the game feel as relaxing as a gently wafting breeze". She felt that "fun" did not fully describe the game experience, saying that it had a "well-constructed movie's emotional arc" and that the game's music, visuals, and gameplay all drew the player into a compelling emotional experience. She also felt that it was very replayable, which offset its brevity.[2] Ryan Clements of IGN agreed with Liang's opinion, saying that it provided "more enjoyment, emotion and enlightenment than any game" he had played in years. Though he noted that the game would not appeal to everyone, he described it as "something very unique and very powerful", referring to it as a "must-play".[20] Michael Kontoudis of PALGN called it an "utterly unique, brave and moving game brimming with personality and intent", though he noted that as it was closer to a work of art than a game, many players would not be interested in it.[22] Gerard Campbell of The Press similarly described it as something more than a game, calling it a "perfect foil" to "ultra-violent shoot-'em-up" games and summarizing it as "one of the most refreshing and relaxing games around".[25]

Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell had similar praise, describing it as "pleasantly innocent and uplifting", though he awarded it a lower score than other reviewers as he felt the US$9.99 price was too high for the game's length.[21] This criticism was not universal, as reviewers such as Jason Hill of The Age called the AU$13 Australian price "reasonable" and described the length as not "overstay[ing] its welcome".[26] Critics such as GamePro's Terry Terrones and GameTrailers echoed the same praises as other reviewers for the game; GameTrailers said that it was "less a game and more an experience. You don't necessarily "play" Flower; you interact with it," while Terrones noted the music as the best part of the game's presentation.[3][4] Tom Hoggins of The Daily Telegraph felt that Flower would "reignite the 'video games as art' debate" and was of the opinion that it was a "wonderful work of art" in addition to a game.[27] The positive reception surprised the developers, as they had expected a mixed reaction.[14]

Flower received the "Best Independent Game Fueled by Dew" award in the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards.[28] It was similarly named the "Best Indie Game" of 2009 by Playboy.[29] It has also been nominated for the 2009 "Outstanding Innovation in Gaming", "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design", "Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition", "Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction", and "Casual Game of the Year" awards by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.[30] It was nominated for the "Artistic Achievement" and "Use of Audio" video game awards by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.[31] Its soundtrack was awarded the 2009 "Best Original Soundtrack" prize from G4.[32] Its gameplay debut at the 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo resulted in multiple awards, including "Best E3 Download Game" from 1UP.com, "Best Original Game" from UGO, and "Special Achievement for Innovation" from IGN.[33][34][35]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Flowery（フラアリー" (in Japanese). Sony. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
  2. ^ a b c d Liang, Alice (2009-02-09). "Flower Review for the PS3 from 1UP.com". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
  3. ^ a b c d Terrones, Terry (2009-02-10). "Flower". GamePro. Retrieved 2010-01-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ a b c d "Flower: Review". GameTrailers. 2009-02-25. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
  5. ^ a b Thomspon, Clive (2009-02-23). "Flower Power Blooms in First Climate-Change Game". Wired. Retrieved 2010-01-26. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ Rose, Michael (2009-02-12). "Review: Flower (thatgamecompany)". Indie Games. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Jeriaska (2009-02-27). "Interview: A Beautiful Flight - Creating The Music For Flower". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-01-06. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ a b c Boyer, Brandon (2007-11-29). "MIGS: First Details On Thatgamecompany's Flower Debut". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-01-05. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ a b Santiago, Kellee. "Stop and smell the Flower on PSN February 12th". Sony.
  10. ^ Szadkowski, Joseph (2009-02-22). "Simanimals Too Simplistic". The Washington Times. pp. M18. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  11. ^ a b c Carless, Simon (2009-08-19). "GDC Europe: Thatgamecompany's Santiago On Flower's Emotional Search". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
  12. ^ "Thatgamecompany - About". thatgamecompany. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
  13. ^ Ostroff, Joshua (March 2009). "Petal Power - Flower Seeds the Winds of Change". Exclaim!. Retrieved 2010-01-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ a b c Sheffield, Brandon (2009-05-27). "Interview: Jenova Chen and ThatGameCompany's Vision of the Future". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
  15. ^ Dugan, Patrick (2010-01-26). "Interview: ThatGameCompany's Santiago, Hunicke, On Designing For The Love". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
  16. ^ Kumar, Matthew (2009-07-15). "Develop 2009: Thatgamecompany's Chen On How Emotion Can Evolve Games". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
  17. ^ a b Diamante, Vincent. "Vincentdiamante.com - A One Page Website". vincentdiamante.com. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
  18. ^ a b Jeriaska (2009-10-15). "Roundtable: The Indie Game Composer Scene, Explored". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-01-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ a b Barnholt, Ray (2010-01-08). "2009's Finest: The Suitably Breezy Music of Flower". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
  20. ^ a b Clements, Ryan (2009-02-09). "IGN.com's review for Flower on the PS3". IGN. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
  21. ^ a b Bramwell, Tom (2009-02-09). "Eurogamer - Flower review". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
  22. ^ a b Kontoudis, Michael (2009-02-15). "Flower Review". PALGN. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
  23. ^ "Flower Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  24. ^ "Flower (ps3:2009): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  25. ^ Campbell, Gerard (2009-02-24). "Sit Back, Relax and Enjoy". The Times. p. 7. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  26. ^ Hill, Jason (2009-03-12). "Flower". The Age. p. 32. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  27. ^ Hoggins, Tom (2009-02-14). "Flower Power Will Give You Play Fever". The Daily Telegraph. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  28. ^ "Best Independent Game Fueled by Dew | Spike Video Game Awards". Spike. 2009-12-12. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
  29. ^ "thatgamecompany - Flower". thatgamecompany. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
  30. ^ "13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards Finalists" (PDF). Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. 2010-01-22. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
  31. ^ "Video Games Award Nominations - Video Games - Awards - The BAFTA Site". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. 2010-02-16. Retrieved 2010-02-16.
  32. ^ "Best of 2009: Best Original Soundtrack". G4. 2009-12-15. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
  33. ^ "1UP's Best of E3 2008". 1UP.com. 2008-07-25. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
  34. ^ "Best of E3 2008". UGO. 2008-07-22. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
  35. ^ "IGN's PlayStation 3 Best of E3 2008 Awards". IGN. 2008-07-25. Retrieved 2010-01-06.

External links


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