Support our journalism. Subscribe today.arrow-right Working out of a similar set of principles, “Abzû” is the first game from Santa Monica-based Giant Squid. The studio’s creative director Matt Nava previously worked as the artistic director of thatgamecompany, where he assisted in the development of both “Flower” (a game about using a windblown petal to bring flower patches into bloom that revitalize their surrounding areas) and “Journey” (a game about wandering mystics). “Abzû” draws liberally from the motifs of “Flower” and “Journey.” Similar to “Flower,” it is a hymn to ecology, to bringing things into a more vibrant state of being. And like “Journey,” it gives the sense of a spiritual pilgrimage amongst consecrated spaces. In fact, the word “abzu” traces its origin back to the ancient people of Sumer — the earliest known urban dwellers — who believed that the abzu were the primal waters between earth and the underworld. As with a fugue, where the themes of a musical piece are sket...
