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 ...is now out. Surprisingly, people are really getting into it.
I say surprisingly not because we thought it wouldn't be a good game. We (myself, That Game Company, Sony) were certain that we'd put out a solid game that would successfully one-up TGC's earlier offering, Flow. That game metacritic'd at a 71. Me, I thought Flower would probably hit 80. Right now, Flower's metacritic stands at 88, with all but 2 of the 26 reviews above the 80 mark, some well above. To put that in perspective, that puts it in the same company as games like Dead Space and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Just 1 point below the much lauded Orange Box and sneaking ahead of games like Virtua Fighter 5 and (my personal favorite) Valkyria Chronicles. Perhaps more impressive is the insanely positive reception on game forums like Penny Arcade's and NeoGAF. Yeah, yeah. Pat myself on the back, whatever. That's not really the point of this post. I'm really glad that people are enjoying this game. Flower's Lead Designer Jenova Chen and I definitely have our differences when it comes to what makes a good game, but I'm happy that he shares at least one of my sentiments about what the game world needs. Game developers should deliver to game players more than just what they want. Out of the box, blah blah... ...really, seriously. It takes a special kind of developer to be willing to create something that is somehow beyond himself as a game player. I know during the development of Flower, there were times when the designers and programmers and artists just weren't certain about what exactly they were crafting. That they were somehow able to let go themselves as veteran game players of many years who (obviously) know exactly what makes a good game to go pursuing this ambiguous ideal in their heads of this PS3 game that evokes emotions in petal storms and grassy environments... I can't respect those developers enough. If you've got a PS3 and haven't played Flower yet, I strongly urge you to give it a try. I think the music is pretty good, and I'm happy that most of the reviewers think similarly... (I'm horrible at selling myself...) Edit: Oh, the Japanese Flowery website is pretty neat!
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