Journey scoops top prize at GameCity 2012

Journey, the whimsical walk-em-up from Thatgamecompany has bagged the top festival prize at GameCity 2012, the annual showcase that champions creativity in games.

Now in its second year, the GameCity event's first winner in 2011 was Minecraft. Now Jenova Chen's Journey joins it as a fine example of creativity. Other nominees in the shortlist included Fez, Catherine and Mass Effect 3.

GI.biz reports that Journey creator Jenova Chen said of the win, "I really like the goal of GameCity, to get people to notice games and talk about games, particularly for people who don't encounter many video games in their daily life."

"Thatgamecompany has always focused on making games for everyone," Chen added, "so it's nice to see GameCity recognise our game and give us an award. In the end, we believe that games are a mature media that deserve to be enjoyed and loved by everyone, by people. Thank you very much for this prize."

Film maker Lord Puttnam was one of the judges on the panel, who added, "Journey was a unanimous choice for the GameCity Prize 2012, many of the jurors were un-experienced in playing videogames and it confounded their expectations of what videogames were."

"Of all the shortlisted titles, Journey presents the player with an especially coherent vision," Puttnam continued, "simultaneously fantastic and familiar. All of the Jury commented on the art direction in particular, the extraordinary sense of size and scale it portrayed."

"Whilst it was a short game, it was in no way small. It's a focused, detailed piece of work - challenging you to measure it in terms other than just the length of gameplay."

What did you make of Journey? Is it deserving? Let us know below.