Note: Only Doc and Dave are actually at E3, so these impressions are based of Gamespot’s E3 Live show. The show features a live video demo played by the developer of the game, questions posed to the developer and discussion of the game, so even though I’m not in LA, these impressions are pretty well informed.
If you know me you’ll probably know how much I want to love Flower, a PSN game thatgamecompany,the creators of Fl0w. Today must be my lucky day as the first ever gameplay has been shown on Gamespot’s Live E3 show. What can I say? It looks like it’s shaping up pretty well.
The problem with Flower is that it’s so hard to explain. I’ve just watched 30 solid minutes of the game, with the developer talking about it throughout and I still have very little idea of anything about it. Oh well, here we go.
Each level focuses around the dream of a flower and is centred around a different urban theme such as colour or wind.
Let’s take a timeout. Yes, the game is weird. Now carry on.
I got to see the wind level in which you control a flower petal blowing around in a field using the SIXAXIS’s motion control. Rather than controlling the flower, you are controlling its environment, a bit like Lost Winds on Wi Ware. Your are in control of the wind, not the flower. The developer wants the player to interpret the game their own way by deciding the goal for themselves. Call me a sceptic, but to me it looked like you were just going through the field trying to turn all of it from a grey boring looking field to a bright colourful flower meadow. The field featured an incredible 200,000 grass blades and the petals really looked like it was being blown by the wind.
Sound is a big part of the gameplay, making up 50% of the game, yet it is not a rhythm game, the sound merely provides atmosphere. thatgamecompany want the player to experience freedom in the wild and feel surrounded by nature, despite these URBAN themes that they were talking about.
This makes nearly no sense to me so I doubt it will to you, but flower looks like it’s certainly going to be a pretty interesting game, even if it only in pre-alpha.
Here’s the video where I got all my information. Have a watch, it’s pretty interesting (just ignore the presenter and listen to the developer):
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An interesting pair, if only they could have synched up their moments of enthusiasm it could have been something special.
As for the game, it seems a lot like they’re adding depth to flOw rather then doing something radically different, but I’m still pretty keen. I’m going to be interested to see what the skills you develop. With flOw it seemed like all you needed to do was learn how to use the SIXAXIS, learn about the skills of each creature and then the game was simple, so hope they make it a little more difficult.
Really disappointed not to hear the music. flOw had such a great early Eno vibe to it and I want to see what they do here.
Jesus Christ that woman was a discrace to gaming conventions! You could see the annoyance and dissapointment in the developer’s face and hear it in his voice.
The game on the other hand looks very impressive, I especially like how you control the wind not the actual petals, its similar to Kororinpa’s (Wii ball/maze game) design where you had to move the environment not the ball.
I’m not sure about this. I prefer my games to be less conceptual and more ‘game-like’.
“Video game poetry”. No thanks.
Note to the developer: If the stupid uninformed dis-interested Gamespot (spit) presenter doesn’t allow audio when 55% of your game’s experience depends on it, DEMAND IT or walk off.