Despite the din of a HighBall stuffed to the gills with hi-def screens bleeping and blooping for players’ attention, the headphoned ambiance of Journey is a respite. The shifting sand of the expansive world reveals its secrets slowly, but the beautifully rendered landscapes are open to the player from the onset.

The producer for Journey, Robin Hunicke, has a background making unique games including Steven Spielberg’s Boom Blox and sat down for a brief interview to discuss designing games for the heart instead of the adrenal gland.

Austin Chronicle: When you start to design a game what are you looking to accomplish?


Robin Hunicke: We try to create feelings and experiences that are different from what you get from a typical video game. The marketplace of video games is filled with really entertaining products, really great stuff, but we want our games to feel different, to give people a reason to think video games can do more than they already do. With Journey we really wanted to create a sense of smallness, a feeling of awe and wonder toward the unknown, that was our original goal. The process shows us what the game’s going to be. It’s really an artistic experiment every time, but the overarching goal is always to give players something new that they didn’t expect.

AC: Do you find that experimental strategy toward game design takes longer than goal-based design?

RH: We start small with a lot of different prototypes, but we’re always aiming for the same goal: A full and unique experience where the art and music combine. Everything comes together in this really clearly motivated holistic experience. But first we start with small prototypes and test them and then as we get feedback we drop things and add things. Sometimes it will take us a long time to realize we really need to leave something out or change it. It takes longer than if you know exactly what you want to make.

AC: What do you mean when you say a “holistic experience”?

RH: Game design can be thought of as just a series of mechanics or rules that create an experience in a player. But we approach it as both the rules themselves and also the artistic qualities of the game which create these dynamics. If you play Flower -- the motion of the controller in your hand, the motion of the cluster of petals as they dance on the air, the music is rising and swelling with the movement -- everything about the experience is trying to drive you to this place where you’re flowing through the experience; where you’re calm, but you’re not bored, where you’re really emotionally effected by changes in the environment. When a storm comes and the wind starts you really feel it. It’s about taking the simplest parts of your brain and activating them. We spent a lot of time thinking about the whole person, the whole experience: your eyes and your ears and your hands touching the controller. And your heart.

AC: How do you design for the heart?

RH: Journey’s a really good example. A lot of online games pit people against each other, they’re shooting one another. There’s a lot of tension and anxiety in those games. Or they’re ganging up on something else together, like a big monster they’re going to take down. So when people go into an online experience, that’s the base level of understanding: you’re either going to be competing or cooperating to take down a giant monster and feel really powerful. We wanted to change that behavior and that base feelings that people have about each other and the environment. So designing Journey was about removing all of those powers, removing everything until we got to this baseline where there was just this other person and then trying to connect them. The way they call to one another, the way they can dance on the air. … There’s this whole level of conversation. They’re so used to thinking about another character in the world as AI or as a thing that’s there to vanquish or ignore. The idea is to give people that chance. How do we really get to their heart? It’s by removing a lot of the things they expect and surprising them.

AC: It’s interesting how other games strive to make the player feel big while yours wants to do the opposite.

RH: It’s a unique feeling when you’re out on a hike in the wilderness and you pass a person. When they’re walking toward you, you think, “This is another human being coming toward me on a path.” Especially in nature they seem really important. When you’re walking on the street and people are walking by you and there’s a lot of other people around and cars and other things on your mind, that person won’t seem so special. We felt that sense of smallness was critical in opening up your heart to us and making you want to care for a stranger.