Some sweet online moments of corporation at World of Warcraft's peak had a huge impact on Journey and Sky: Children of the Light developer Jenova Chen, perhaps explaining how we got the serene, wordless multiplayer features of those indie classics.
In an interview with Edge Magazine, thatgamecompany's founder spoke about the emotions that inspired each of his games. Flower, the game where you control a bunch of petals flying through the wind, was "tied to tied to the feeling of me growing up in a concrete city and having the longing towards nature." And Journey was based on Chen's loneliness when he first moved to the US, but a certain MMO that was popular at the time was somewhat of a safe space for him.
"World of Warcraft was a savior for me, but I could not connect with people well to create a real, meaningful friendship," Chen says. "If I used voice chat, people would tell me that my English wasn't particularly good at the time. When my identity was exposed, then they'd treat me differently. But there were these beautiful moments I had in WOW. I was Horde, and then I met an Alliance player and we didn't actually kill each other. You know, in a contested territory, it's wordless communication. At that moment, I felt a connection and some level of respect with others. So why isn't there an online game where you’re not judged by your skin, your accent, your age, your gender?"
That leads us to Sky: Children of the Light, a game that takes Journey's free-flowing, glidey movement and knack for big, beautiful spectacles and puts them into a world that's full of other players. You can hold their hand, sit with them quietly, communicate with movement, and feels very much like an evolution of that judgement-free, anonymous multiplayer Chen experienced in WoW. "Sky is very much the overwhelming thankfulness I felt from the world," he explains.
