What makes journey so good

Yeah, this is how dominant the game is. In , the subgenre grew at a fast pace. This might have had something to do with what happened in December On the other hand, older hidden object titles e.

During its lifetime, the game got to:. This is mostly thanks to U. What does this game do to be this successful? First, it attracts the right players with the right advertising strategy.

From then on, it has a tough job of retaining and monetizing players. When players launch the game, they are welcomed by immersing cut scenes. After the intro, players are thrown right into a scene to find clues.

They get a contextual lesson pointing but they need to finish the scene themselves. This is the best and fastest way to teach players how to play the game — by doing, not reading about it. After that, the tutorial is spread across the game. Therefore, as players unlock new mechanics, they gradually learn new things. This is done with short written explanations. They are forced, so players have no other choice but to follow them.

As a part of the tutorial, players are introduced to the in-game market. All in all, the tutorial is simple, clear, and effective. There are two settings where players spend most of their time: building their island and solving scenes. The island is set on a map where players simply build and move objects. The scene setting is even simpler — players need to spot objects from the list they get and just tap them. This game is more than just seeking and finding hidden objects.

To start playing a hidden object scene , players need energy. Once they finish playing a scene, they get completion rewards — coins, diamonds, stars, loot boxes, etc. After they complete a scene, players can see a PvP leaderboard. Here, they can see if they were faster and better than others. However, this does not affect progress in any way. Coins and diamonds help players build their islands.

Once they make some progress on the island, they earn daffodils. They can then use daffodils and stars to unlock new scenes and chapters. Every single aspect of the game is dependent on one another. They have to engage with both the hidden object core and the world-building meta. As you can see, this game is really feature-rich. This game is all about progressing and unlocking new content. There is one more meta layer that enriches this game — the narrative. The world building-meta is an integral part of gameplay.

The narrative layer helps players dive deep into the game and connect all the dots. For some players, keeping up with the story is the main reason to keep playing the game. Since this game is so diverse, it attracts players with different interests and motivations. Most of them are in it for the thrill of solving mysteries.

Some play it to sharpen their problem-solving skills, while others strive to be more successful than others.

All of these players are potential spenders. The game is driven mainly by IAP revenue, and in-app ads are here to monetize the non-paying audience. The first of the two currencies are diamonds. Players can use them to speed up construction timers in the meta layer. They can also exchange them for energy. This number of offers and price points are the industry standard , so this part is done well.

The second of the two currencies are coins. Players earn them by finishing levels and need them to build their islands. Two purchasable currencies can be confusing for players. For this reason, most games in the casual category stick to one premium currency. In this case, that would be diamonds. Therefore, it is expected that they may be willing to spend more than other players.

Finally, the store offers three packs of energy that can only be bought with diamonds. In similar games, the cheapest packs usually sell best. To find out how this game monetizes its players, I played it for 5 days straight. Instead, it makes players want to make in-app purchases.

My first two days of playing the game were really enjoyable. I had an abundance of currencies and was able to enjoy gameplay to the fullest. Here's why Journey is absolutely worth the time. In the old "video games as art" debate , few games make a stronger argument than Journey. Take a screenshot at nearly any moment, and it will look like it was deliberately constructed to be displayed that way. There is no dialogue in Journey , so the game's entire story is told through its visuals and music - which happens to be the first video game soundtrack ever nominated for a Grammy Award.

Journey' s story isn't a grand tale by any means, but it's still best left unspoiled. The simple, titular journey can have a disproportionately complex effect on many of those who experience it, making some players cry without really knowing why. Journey' s surprising emotional impact is its main draw. It's not a game that's worth playing because of its deep lore or complex mechanics though its seamless, wordless multiplayer is still among gaming's most unique.

That particular demographic has a very strong thirst for the feeling of freedom and empowerment. I started to realize there is an emotion missing in the modern society, and of course missing in the online console games. And so our focus for Journey was to make the player feel small and to feel wonder, so when they run into each other in an online environment, rather than thinking about how am I supposed to use my gun on the other player, we wanted them to feel a connection to another player.

We really wanted to have a real social experience. We talk about social games today, but most people think social games are just games on Facebook. But really, social means emotional exchange between people. For Journey to create a sense of smallness and a sense of awe will encourage the players to be together and exchange emotions.

When you put the two players together online, and put them in a difficult environment, they will create a bond. But just being difficult is not a complete and entertaining experience. So you get two players who will go through the transformation of life together.

Compared to your previous games, this seems to have more of a story, though very experiential. Why did you finally embrace that? I would say Flower had a story. It is told through the environment. But it is different, because Flower is more like poetry, where the story comes from the symbolism and the narrative arc of things you see in the sequences. Journey is more like a story broken apart. I think all of my games are very experience based.

I think when we were arranging the world, we were trying to create an arc that is mimicking the different stages of life. You are born into the world not knowing everything, everything is fresh and new. Everything is very safe. And then a teenager is risk taking and adventurous and fun, exhilarating. You are rediscovering yourself, focusing yourself. Eventually you find your direction and you walk toward it, the responsibility and the trials of adulthood. You go through all the difficulties and in the end you get to transcend.

That is the story we talked about. When you direct a film or game, visuals are one of the elements that are very useful to help communicate an arc of emotion. You want to make sure all the sounds and visuals and gameplay and music all work together. Journey started relatively peaceful and calm. So when we choose the color we like to keep it low contrast, overcast lighting and everything is very yellow.

When it gets slightly exciting in the first act, when the players are surfing through the sand, we want the sand to be more contrasting, using the color to make it feel exciting. Then when the player is lost in the underground, we want the color to feel cold, cyan and blue and green, to give you this lost and underwater feeling.

And during the mountain level we wanted the player to feel lifeless, their energy and use is gone, so the white color works great there. And then in the end, the climax, we wanted a color that brings a sense of freedom, a sense of liberation, and so the blue sky and the mountain streams are the right fit.