Thatgamecompany Co-Founder Resigns

Thatgamecompany has really made an impact on the gaming community in the last few short years. Their games, which are probably the closest things to perfect interactive digital art, have all been relatively small projects, but each and every one has made a resounding impact. Titles such as Flower and the recently released Journey are some good examples, so it’s said to hear that the Co-Founder of this amazing studio, Kellee Santiago, has decided to depart.

In an interview, Kellee explained why she felt it necessary to leave and venture off with different studios:

“So much of my work at Thatgamecompany was really supporting Jenova [Chen's] visions for the types of games he wanted to make.

“And I felt like I have done everything I needed to do there, and that he’s in a great place now to go on and continue with some of the other people at Thatgamecompany to take that to a whole new height.”

She also said the parting had taken place “amicably”.

Kellee and Jenova Chen founded Thatgamecompany all the way back in 2006, when the two first met at the University of Southern California. Kellee is also very optimistic about her future, and hopes that she can continue working on growing games as a medium:

“My hope is that I can take what I’ve learned and use it to support more teams, more projects, and really, hopefully, help in accelerating the growth of video games as a medium.”

Thatgamecompany issued a statement regarding her departure as well, wishing her all the best for the future:

“After the hard struggle behind Flow, Flower and Journey, we’ve finally reached our goal. Awaiting at the mountaintop are new enlightenments and new sets of milestones for our life.

“While we want to continue the path of Thatgamecompany, Kellee has found a new direction in her career. Though our path in the future may be different, as TGC begins our next project, we wish Kellee a good journey and that our paths may cross again.”

While it is sad to see such an influential mind leave such an influential studio, the future may still be bright. Who knows, maybe soon we’ll have two studios capable of delivering truly phenomenal art centric titles such as Journey.