Journey was the last game made under a three-game contract between
Thatgamecompany and
Sony, the first two being
Flow and
Flower. Development of the game began in 2009, after the release of Thatgamecompany's previous title
Flower. The 18-person development team for
Journey was composed mainly of creators of the company's previous games; co-founder
Jenova Chen was the creative director and Nick Clark returned as lead designer.
[8] Kellee Santiago, producer of
Flow and
Flower, did not reprise her duties, concentrating instead on her role as the company's president, and was replaced by
Robin Hunicke.
[9]
When development began, Sony expected the game to be completed in a year, rather than the more than three it finally took.
[10] Thatgamecompany always expected needing an extension; according to Hunicke, they believed finishing the game within a year was "unrealistic".
[11] Development ended up taking even longer than anticipated, as the team had difficulties paring down their ideas for the game and maintaining efficient communication.
[11] Over the course of development the team grew from seven to eighteen people.
[8][10] At the end of the second year, when Sony's extension had run out, the game did not spark the emotions in the player that the team wanted. Sony agreed to another one-year extension, but development ultimately exceeded even that.
[12]
The stress of the project led to the feeling there was not enough time or money to complete everything the team wished to, which added to the stress and caused arguments about the design of the game. The developers ended up reducing the overtime they spent on the project to avoid burning out, though it meant further delays and risked the company running out of money as the game neared completion. In a speech at the 16th annual
D.I.C.E. Awards in 2013, Chen admitted that the company had indeed been driven to bankruptcy in the final months of development, and that some of the developers had gone unpaid at the time.
[12] Hunicke described the solution to finally finishing the game as learning to let go of tensions and ideas that could not make it into the game and be "nice to each other."
[10]
