ThatGameCompany reveals "social adventure game" Sky for iOS
A "constantly evolving space" that will premiere this winter.
Journey and Flower developer ThatGameCompany just announced its first project outside of Sony's stable. Now it's making its mobile debut with the iOS "social adventure game" Sky.
Revealed today at Apple's press conference, Sky allows up to eight players from anywhere around the world to team up, explore floating islands, and summon spirits.
"I think true happiness comes from a person who is genuinely wanting to help others, and there's a lot of the mechanics of the game involving giving," ThatGameCompany president and creative director Jenova Chen said in an interview with Geoff Keighley on the studio's YouTube page.
While Sky's specific mechanics are shrouded in mystery, Chen suggested that it will feature more types of player interactions than simple cooperation and companionship.
"If you really think about the player-to-player interaction in Journey, it's very minimal," Chen said. "It's almost like playing one one single tone across the whole melody. But now with many people we have all kinds of parameters. Like the number of people in a scene, the type of mechanics [in which] they engage with each other. Are they helping each other? Are they competing with each other? Are they potentially protecting each other? That interpersonal gameplay is now a new element that we could utilise to add a new feeling to the game."
Chen likened Sky to a TV series that changes over time, unlike ThatGameCompany's previous titles that launched once as a complete, packaged product.
"We want to make it a constantly evolving space, where things that you experienced before might change, and there might be new places open," Chen stated.
While Sky will premiere this winter on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, there's nothing to indicate that it won't migrate to other platforms later down the line. Keighley kept calling it a "mobile first" title, suggesting it could be a multiplatform affair, eventually.