thatgamecompany's Kellee Santiago

Well, we iterated and playtested and were very happy with the game that we shipped - but you're never sure if the world at large is going to be into your game. When flOw was fairly well reviewed and then became one of the top-downloaded games of 2007 that was incredible. The best word for it is that it was validating - it validated our process, our mission, all of the blood, sweat and tears that we put into the game.

We're probably one of the few game companies that say we want people to copy us, because we don't want what we do to be niche - we want it to be something that every publisher and developer is exploring, new ways to communicate through videogames.

You're using a lot of flattering vocabulary - it's really wonderful. I guess part of it is the talent, and having a team of people who are dedicated to communicating a new emotion, to trying new things, to figuring out better ways to make games.

I think something that I hope to see grow in the upcoming years of our industry is the ability to spot that kind of talent, and recognise it.

The other component of this style of game development is that it's really hard - and continues to be really hard. Friends in the development community, when we're sometimes venting to each other, are surprised about the frustrations we're having on the team or with Sony... because flOw did so well, and Flower did even better, and people think we should be trusted.

But it doesn't stop being difficult to look into the face of your game that you're trying to make, when it's around the feeling of being in a giant field of flowers, and telling your publisher that you don't know what the game is going to be, what you're going to do in it - but that we'll figure it out.

Similarly on our own team, it's only been very recently that we've been able to really accept a certain level of anxiety as being a part of what we've signed up for - and being able to have some joy in that. To trust ourselves and each other that we'll get to the other side, and it'll be worth it.

I don't anticipate that our team, in a single project, would grow much more than it is now. We have about 10-15 people if we were to bring some of the contractors in house. There's definitely an element of our process that's rooted in rapid iteration, and it's very difficult to do that with people outside of the office.

Right now that's been a real grounding aspect of our team size - we really rely on a lot of iteration and polishing which requires people in almost the same room with each other, and very tight communication loops.