flOw dev Jenova Chen: incentives of being an Indie Dev

Can you still remember the microbial game flOw? Its dev Jenova Chen left Spore to pursue this indie game which was released in February of 2007. Looking back, Chen weighs on the incentives of going indie. Now if you have similar fantasies to go indie, you may want to check Chen’s insights over at the full article.

Developer Jenova Chen left the team behind Will Wright‘s Spore (PC, Nintendo Wii, DS, Mac, and Mobile) to pursue his indie aspirations starting with the February 2007 release of the microbial game flOw.

Now that his team Thatgamecompany is working on its follow-up game Flower, can Chen say that the career move was worth the risk? In an interview with Gamasutra, Chen relates to us the incentives of being an indie developer.

For Chen, it’s very hard to change a certain company’s mindset from within, thus, his venture into the indie scene where there is unlimited freedom on game concepts:

Why would I start a company just to make the same kind of game which I can get a much better life in another company? You know, the reason we started this company [Thatgamecompany] is because nobody is making this kind of game, and to expand that emotional spectrum of video games — having more people be able to enjoy video games. The only way to do it is to just do it yourself.

Chen doesn’t regret taking part in the development of Spore though and he actually believes “it’s the perfect game for a designer.” Chen was just more concerned with contributing more to the development of the gaming industry by doing it on his own.

Jenova Chen and Thatgamecompany’s latest project Flower is expected to be another example of innovation by taking on the role and actions of a flower. Is this the “emotional game” they were talking about last year?

No release date has been handed out for Flower as of yet but rest assured that QJ.NET will be on top of it. In the meantime, read more on Chen’s thoughts on the development process and importance of a story in an indie game over at the via link.

Via Gamasutra