Gianfranco Di Giovanni
During his tenure at thatgamecompany, Matt Nava collaborated with composer Austin Wintory to create the acclaimed video game Journey, which was released in 2012 and quickly became a defining experience for gamers.
Set in a visually stunning landscape, Journey features a robed character navigating a vast desert toward a remote mountain, all while accompanied by a powerful and emotive musical score.
The game begins as a solitary quest, but as players progress, they can encounter one another, interacting solely through musical notes, as the game famously lacks dialogue.
Despite Journey’s significant cultural legacy, Nava reveals that the game was born from a challenging development process. “Internally, there were numerous conflicts and issues related to the work culture within the team,” he noted.
“This wasn’t widely recognized, but once Journey was completed, nearly everyone on the team chose to leave, leading to the studio’s eventual dissolution.”
Now, the original American team that developed Journey has come together once again for a new venture: the highly anticipated Sword of the Sea.
Video games have often struggled for recognition as an art form, but Journey’s nomination for Best Score Soundtrack at the 2013 Grammy Awards — a first for the industry — solidified its artistic status.
Although Journey did not win the award (the honor went to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), its celebrated soundtrack has since been performed by prominent orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra.
A decade later, Nava, now serving as the creative director at Giant Squid, and Wintory received the 2026 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media for their latest project, Sword of the Sea, which serves as a spiritual successor to Journey.
In Sword of the Sea, players glide across a desert landscape on a hoversword — an innovative combination of snowboard, skateboard, and hoverboard — as they strive to restore the ocean to the arid terrain.
The connection between Sword of the Sea and Journey is unmistakable, with Wintory acknowledging that much of his creative output in the past decade has been influenced by Journey. “Everything I do has some relationship to Journey, and the majority of it is overwhelmingly positive,” he stated.
Nava, who began his career as an artist in the gaming industry, noted that at an artist-driven studio like Giant Squid, the visual elements of a game often take precedence. However, he realized that he had been subconsciously avoiding the orange hues of the desert, a color scheme he associated with Journey.
It was only with Sword of the Sea that he felt comfortable revisiting this palette, blending it with aspects from his previous underwater title, ABZÛ, which Wintory also scored.
“I came to the realization that I had been steering clear of orange because I created Journey early in my career, and the thought of following that up with something comparable was intimidating,” he explained.
Nava expressed satisfaction with the positive reception of Sword of the Sea, describing it as the culmination of all his previous efforts since its release in 2025.
Wintory elaborated on the symbiotic relationship between music and gameplay, explaining that the soundtrack’s development is closely integrated with the game itself, with early versions influencing the score. “Matt might express that a particular section of the game is only halfway to his vision, and he invites music to fill in the gap very early in the process,” he remarked.
This collaboration allows the gameplay and music to evolve together harmoniously.
In a recent Instagram post celebrating his Grammy win, Wintory commented on the limited recognition of musical scores in interactive media, pointing out the complexities involved in creating such compositions. “When composers are tasked with writing a score, particularly for a game, we have to balance two main aspects: is the music enjoyable? Does it feature memorable melodies and solid orchestration? Then there’s the more significant issue of whether it functions effectively as a score,” he noted.
Wintory emphasized the necessity of subtlety in video game scores, which can lead to the more ostentatious compositions receiving more attention. “We tend to notice the most striking and bold scores, so it’s always incredibly gratifying when a score gains recognition, especially from a prestigious award like the Grammys,” he added.
“Collaborating with Giant Squid on a project like Sword of the Sea is a dream come true, and working alongside Matt Nava and this team over the past 15 years has been a lifelong joy. I can only hope to continue this journey.”
