David Jaffe to deliver GDC keynote

By Ellie Gibson Published 6 February, 2008

Will discuss his career history.

God of War creator David Jaffe has been confirmed as a keynote speaker for this year's Game Developers Conference.

The conference is taking place in San Francisco from 18th - 22nd February. Jaffe's speech is titled 'From Grunt to God to Startup: Career Lessons From the Edge of Game Development'.

It will focus on the lessons he's learned during his time in the games industry. Jaffe, of course, was the brains behind God of War and Calling All Cars. He now runs his own indie studio, Eat Sleep Play, and is working on several unannounced games for PlayStation 3.

We'll get to, "Find out what was on his pros and cons list, as well as what blowback he got from the reality of running his own shop, as well as other insights from the edge of game development."

Should be interesting; Jaffe is well known for his outspoken views. Most recently he hit the headlines following an interview with Wired.

The interviewer said, "Apparently when Miyamoto first went to Retro Studios, they were making a car combat game. He said, "Why would you make that? Why would you put a gun on a car?" And they stopped development on the game. So maybe you should answer that question. Why would you put a gun on a car?"

Jaffe's response: "You know, honestly, I've been too busy recently trying to figure out why the f*** go-karts shoot banana peels."

Eurogamer will be in San Francisco to bring you all the latest GDC news as it happens. And do some shopping.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (9) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • afray #1 4 years ago

    Zing!

  • Triggerhappytel #2 4 years ago

    Please let him announce another GoW project, and no more fucken Twisted Metal.

    Or, better than that, an all-new third-person swords and sorcery adventure IP.

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #3 4 years ago

    @Arbiter

    I agree. There are many more developers who deserve the kudos and limelight that Jaffe has. I really like the guy too and I absolutely love GoW but he hasn't done that much, really.

    Although they mention Twisted Metal, had he not done GoW they wouldn't be talking about him anywhere near as much. So all this is based upon one series, which isn't fair to many developers who've done a lot more than Jaffe.

  • groovychainsaw #4 4 years ago

    I don't understand why twisted metal is so popular. It seems to be getting so much coverage of late, but its never been very good? Maybe it sold big in america... The only thing I was aware of David Jaffe doing was GoW, which was good, but hardly makes him a figurehead producer? Meh - I don't know, maybe he's a business genius or something...

  • oreillymj #5 4 years ago

    I too like Jaffe, simply for the fact that he's a real handful for his PR handlers once he gets a few brews inside of him.
    Hopefully he'll decide he needs some Dutch courage before he makes his speech.

    Having said that, he could become a tiresome cock like Molyneaux unless matches his words with some decent games.

  • Triggerhappytel #6 4 years ago

    Arbiter, redneon, groovychainsaw - despite being really rather shit, apparently the Twisted Metal games sell very well in America.

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #7 4 years ago

    I have only played Twisted Metal 2 but I remember really enjoying it at the time. I was only about 13, though, so I would have been easily impressed.

  • kangarootoo #8 4 years ago

    "Why would you make that? Why would you put a gun on a car?"

    What an utterly bizarre question for someone like Miyamoto to ask.

    "Because its fun" is the only answer you ever have to give in game development when asked for justification at that level.


    I also have to agree with the general sentiment here, he produces good products (regardless of coming across as what I shall politely call "spirited" at times), but I'm not sure many would really be interested in his life story.

    I just have an aversion to "here is my journey and vision" type speeches. I'd much rather such things just be slashed down into a concise "here is what I learned on the way, stuff to repeat and stuff to avoid" delivered in half the time.

  • SeesThroughAll #9 4 years ago

    Why the f**k is the guy who only made God of f*****g War f*****g gonna make the f*****g keynote speech at GDC?

    Fuck!!
    Edited by 1 at 06/02/08 @ 17:41