Playing through Journey without shedding a tear or two is like eating a cinnamon doughnut without licking your lips. Yep. Impossible.
But for a game with such a simple premise, an ambiguous narrative and little-to-no mechanics, how does it know just where to hit us where it hurts? It may surprise you to learn that the answer is all in the visuals, and how they determine our agency and sense of place within the extraordinary virtual worlds they depict.
SUBSCRIBE to ClosePlay for more talk on the games you love:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBU_ed9UfuR-1as28_GpPGg?sub_confirmation=1
Check out meh socials:
TWITTER – https://twitter.com/ClosePlay1
INSTAGRAM – https://www.instagram.com/clairey_corbs/
Juicy references 🤓
ARTICLE 📝
Johnson, Daniel 2017, “Worlds in and of motion: Agency and animation at the margins of video game aesthetics”, Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 225-241, DOI:10.1386/jgvw.9.3.225_1
Access sample of article here: https://www.academia.edu/33213006/Worlds_in_and_of_motion_Agency_and_animation_at_the_margins_of_video_game_aesthetics_2017_
RESOURCES 🔎
Top 50 Cyberpunk 2077 Glitches & Bugs #1 (Funny Random Moments Compilation) (2020). Alphyx. Video sent by Jb Mid. Accessed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H7MRGdVDHk
Flying to Guarma (Bridge Glitch) – Red Dead Redemption 2 (2020). Arthur Morgan Esq., Accessed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSRt7FPGItE
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – Ascension of the Jackdaw glitch HD (2014) Invisible Man, Accessed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgKTxLpvkh4
Assorted images collected from Pixabay
MUSIC 🎶
Music By: “KaizanBlu”
Track Name: “Remember”
Music released by: Chill Out Records @ https://goo.gl/fh3rEJ & https://www.LoFi-HipHop.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLyKJ1Gyu9E&list=PL06diOotXAJLAAHBY7kIUm5GQwm2ZinOz&index=5
Song: “Nascence”
Composed by Austin Wintory
Game: Journey (2012)
Developer: ThatGameCompany
Song: “Atonement”
Composed by Austin Wintory
Game: Journey (2012)
Developer: ThatGameCompany
Song: “Threshold”
Composed by Austin Wintory
Game: Journey (2012)
Developer: ThatGameCompany
Song: “Apotheosis”
Composed by Austin Wintory
Game: Journey (2012)
Developer: ThatGameCompany
Song: “To The Ancient Land”
Composed by Kow Otani
Game: Shadow of the Colossus (2005)
Developer: Team Ico
Copyright claim: I wish to use these wonderful works of music under Fair Use/Dealing to support my educational take on ‘Journey’. I do not claim ownership over the material.
Austin Wintory is an absolute legend and low-key humble genius so please follow his channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/awintory) and enjoy the marvelous soundtrack here
— https://open.spotify.com/album/5fEkyTeRzYV32RcT8c5tTn)
#Journey #EmotionInGames #GameAnimation
Source
What moment in Journey brought on the waterworks?
What a fantastically edited and spoken video!
Only a few rare people can give a well thought out articulated analysis of video games and you are one of them! This is great stuff! Although I don’t play any video games this makes me think about even films that capture the same certain “negative space” and “looking to the horizon” as part of their filming style. Absolutely AMAZING!