Development
Cloud was designed and released in 2005 by a team of seven students in the Interactive Media master's degree program at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. The game was not made for a specific class. Development began in January 2005 and the game was released in late October, receiving its final update in December. The group was headed by Jenova Chen and included Stephen Dinehart, Erik Nelson, Aaron Meyers, Glenn Song, composer Vincent Diamante, and producer Kellee Santiago. The game won the 2005 Game Innovation Grant of $20,000 from the USC, which is intended to support the production of experimental games. The idea for the game was partially based on Chen's childhood experience, as he was often hospitalized for asthma and would daydream while waiting for the doctors.
According to Chen, Cloud was designed to "expand the spectrum of emotions video games evoke." Chen had the first idea for the game; while walking to school one day he looked up at the sky, noticing the difference between the fluffy clouds there and the "polluted and gray" clouds of Shanghai where he was born, and thought about making a game about clouds. It was given a story to "create the premise and help player to be emotionally invested"; however, the team avoided making the story too strong, as it would "distract the player from the core experience" of flying freely and shaping clouds. In the early stages of development, the game had an involved backstory about an alien who attempts to clean up the environment, but this was cut down to "a simple 'poetic' introduction to the cloud child trapped in a hospital bed." The team intended Cloud to "communicate a feeling of youthfulness, freedom, and the wonder of imagination." It was built on a modified version of a game engine developed by several team members for their previous game, Dyadin. At the 2006 Game Developers Conference student showcase, Chen and Santiago pitched Cloud to Sony representative John Hight as the first game in the "Zen" genre. Hight was interested, but Sony declined to publish the game.
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