God of War and Twisted Metal dev David Jaffe is starting work on a free-to-play third-person shooter.
Jaffe’s been pretty quiet on new projects since he left the studio he set up four years ago, Eat Sleep Play.
“I had people saying, ‘Hey Jaffe, we want you to come work on this big triple or quadruple-A next-gen thing’,” Jaffe explained to Gamesindustry. “The kind of team you need for that is very different from what we’re ultimately doing, which is a free-to-play, browser-based, third-person shooter.
“I hate free-to-play but I love aspects of it. I love the instant-on, I love the low to no barrier of entry to get all kinds of people to jump in and play, I love the fact that you’re sitting there at lunch and can play for five minutes or you can get sucked in and play for three hours.
“You don’t have to sit there and power up your f***ing machine and go through legal screens and load screens and load the game.”
Jaffe was full of fighting talk when discussing the free-to-play games that arguably lean towards the exploitative end of the scale:
“I hate how it’s like the tail wagging the dog and it’s the business model and all about getting people to pay [with more micro-transactions]. You can listen to developers all day long tell you it’s not pay to win, but you know, it kind of is pay to win.
“I’m not saying they’re evil or they’re lying – but one of the things they like to say is pay with your time or pay with your money. Well both of those are really s****y.”
While it’s possible Kickstarter could be a good source of funding for Jaffe he’s a little reluctant to go to it due to fears fans dislike him for his reputation as an outspoken dev. He’s discussed the joys of the funding tool with Double Fine’s Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert but it’s not been enough to convince him.
“I just don’t want to disrespect people and say ‘oh it’s free-to-play and give me 15 bucks’ because as a gamer I’d go ‘it’s f***ing free-to-play dude.’
“I’m kind of scared to go Kickstarter, truth be told. Because I’m kind of divisive. Schafer’s not only known but he’s loved. Who doesn’t love Tim Schafer? He’s a super nice guy and has given the world great entertainment. And while there are people who love the stuff I’ve worked on and I love that they love that, but there are probably an equal number of people who just think I’m an asshole.”
