GDC Europe: Thatgamecompany's Santiago On Flower's Emotional Search

Talking at GDC Europe on Monday, Thatgamecompany's co-founder and president Kellee Santiago discussed the design philosophy behind much-acclaimed PSN title Flower, asking of games: "Can we go beyond just excitement.. and frustration?"

In the planning of Flower, Santiago looked at a different style of game -- "an emotional shelter." The game was intended as "an escape from stress and loneliness", and was intended to project positive emotions out to other people. Essentially Flower, made with a team that varied from six to nine employees during the construction of the game, was intended to be "a feel-good game."

Since Thatgamecompany wanted something that was "visceral... but completely imaginary", and it settled on a motif of a field of flowers. A number of prototypes of the game were then showcased to the GDC Europe audience.