 The next game , Flower , was Chen and Thatgamecompany 's " first game outside the safety net of academia " . Chen was the creative director in charge of the game , while Santiago was the producer and Clark was the lead designer . The company ranged in size from six to nine people at varying stages of the game 's development . Flower was intended by Chen to primarily to provoke positive emotions in the player , and to act as " an emotional shelter " . Chen described the game as " an interactive poem exploring the tension between urban and nature " . He decided on a " nature " theme early in the development process , saying that he " had this concept that every PlayStation is like a portal in your living room , it leads you to somewhere else . I thought ; wouldn 't it be nice if it was a portal that would allow you to be embraced by nature . " Chen designed the game around the idea that the primary purpose of entertainment products like video games was the feelings that they evoked in the audience , and that the emotional range of most games was very limited . To make Flower have the " emotional spectrum " that he wanted , Chen looked at the development process as creating a work of art , rather than a " fun " game , which would not provoke the desired emotions . In 2008 , during Flower 's development , Chen was named to the MIT Technology Review <unk> as one of the top 35 <unk> in the world under the age of 35 . 
