The art director of the video game Journey, Matthew Nava, covers the timeless design of the traveller in the art book, The Art of Journey.
Journey's gameplay was about running and travelling. However, we got feedback that players wanted the character to be climb around the ruins in the environments. The team decided that implementing climbing would be too large an effort. We realized that the reason players wanted to climb was because our character had hands that made it look like it could climb. I was asked to create a character that had no hands.
Finally, the character design was finished. It incorporated the best aspects of the previous designs and gave players a good immediate sense of its abilities. The character's lack of arms meant it did not climb, and its lack of a mouth meant it did not speak. Its legs, which had finally lost their feet, had just enough there to demonstrate the ability to move. Its body had a simple, triangular shape but the simulated cloth gave it an evolving level of detail. The character had become iconic in that its features directly symbolized its abilities.
