flOw

flOw is a meditative game about a microscopic creature that dives ever deeper down a water column, devouring smaller organisms, avoiding larger predators, and gradually evolving into a more complex form. The game was designed by Jenova Chen as a student project at the University of Southern California, inspired by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's theory of the state of flow, after which the game is named. In 2007, his new studio, thatgamecompany, reworked it into a downloadable form for the PlayStation 3, where it launched as one of the first titles on the then-new PlayStation Network. A year later, the same concept also appeared on the portable PSP console.

The PSP version keeps exactly the same core principle of the game – tilting the creature, descending into deeper and more dangerous layers, and transforming based on the food gathered – but it had to deal with the fact that the handheld has no motion sensors or vibration, on which the PS3 version's alternative control scheme built by tilting the SIXAXIS controller. On the PSP, only the classic analog stick remained, the visuals were adapted to the console's smaller screen, and the music and sound effects received minor adjustments due to the weaker speaker. Trophies were also missing, which the PS3 version later gained through a firmware update. Still, the overall feel of playing remained very similar – it's a short, visually clean experience that can be completed in under an hour, but one players liked to return to for its hypnotic pace and calming atmosphere.

The PSP release expanded the game's audience beyond the PlayStation Network environment on PS3 and showed that a simple, elegant concept holds up even on more modest hardware without the need for powerful graphics. For handhelds, it was an unusually artistic and non-commercial effort, the likes of which had barely appeared on the PSP before then. Together with the later ports to PS Vita, iOS, and eventually PC in 2013, the PSP release confirmed that flOw managed to reach players across platforms without having to give up its minimalist character.

Why play it: Fans of minimalist, meditative games will appreciate that the simple concept holds up even on the handheld's more modest hardware and delivers an experience just as elegant as the original.