GoW dev's blog reveals all

By Ellie Gibson Published 20 July, 2005

Jaffe working on PSP title.

David Jaffe, creator of top PS2 action adventure God of War, has confirmed that he's currently working on a new game for PSP.

An entry on Jaffe's blog reveals he's developing the game concept with Incognito, the studio behind Downhill Domination, War of the Monsters and Twisted Metal: Black.

"We (myself and Scott at Incog) are fleshing out our key 5-10 ideas and then we plan on taking those 'on the road' to focus test the concepts," Jaffe wrote.

"The goal is to get them all fleshed out and tested by mid-August."

An earlier entry states that Jaffe has already worked with the studio three or four games and is "eager to jump back into the 'bluesky' phase with them. I've had lots of ideas over the break and I know they've got some stuff they are jazzed about as well.

"So the first month or so - as we lock the concept - should be really fun."

The news should come as a relief to fans who have been following Jaffe's blog - not long ago he wrote that developing God of War had proved such a strain that he was considering leaving the games industry all together. Glad you changed your mind, sir...

More news on Jaffe's PSP title as soon as we get it.

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 (20) Latest comment 7 years ago

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

  • Sid-Nice #1 7 years ago

    /offers Jaffe Cake.
    /leaves.



    :)

  • Tweakmonkey #2 7 years ago

    I think the title "dev" should be reserved for the code monkeys and not the designer.

  • marilena #3 7 years ago

    "I think the title "dev" should be reserved for the code monkeys and not the designer."

    I can't think of a single reason for that.

  • mustardkid #4 7 years ago

    yeh like filmaker should be reserved for the dolly grips and best boys and not the director?

  • Tweakmonkey #5 7 years ago

    Jaffe Cake should be known as GoW's director or designer but definitely not dev. Did he write a single line of code? I think not.

  • drumbaby #6 7 years ago

    Sigh...so many months until a PSP game comes out that I actually 'need'.

    :(

  • Floppy #7 7 years ago

    "Jaffe Cake should be known as GoW's director or designer but definitely not dev."

    Comments like this show you know absolutely nothing about software development cycles then.

  • Tweakmonkey #8 7 years ago

    Comments like this show you know absolutely nothing about software development cycles then

    How come?

  • Floppy #9 7 years ago

    Software development (dev) spans a wide range of areas. Concept, scripting, software design, art, programming, audio, motion capture, testing, to name but a few off the top of my head. All these things fall under the development process.

    Programming/coding is not the sole part of development. To say dev is restricted to 'code monkies' is rather short sighted.

  • towser #10 7 years ago

    "Software development (dev) spans a wide range of areas. Concept, scripting, software design, art, programming, audio, motion capture, testing, to name but a few off the top of my head. All these things fall under the development process.

    Programming/coding is not the sole part of development. To say dev is restricted to 'code monkies' is rather short sighted."


    agreed.... in principle :-)

  • Kiigan #11 7 years ago

    ... but let's be honest - only the coders are truly indispensible :)

    As for the "focus test" comment... gah. Gamers have no clue what they want until it is in front of them. If everyone relied on focus tests, games like God of War wouldn't get made at all. Stuff focus testing, I say.

  • Tweakmonkey #12 7 years ago

    Your explanation of software development is fine, but in my experience "a dev" is a codemonkey. A development team may encompass a greater range of activities, but when someone is referred to as a "dev" it almost exclusively means programmer.

    But then I don't work in the games industry. So if some of you guys like to call the art guys or whatever "devs" then fair enough. I still stand by my original comment though.

  • mustardkid #13 7 years ago

    without the creative input there would be no games - the code monkeys are like ghost writers they bring the vision to life - they on their own are by no means devs - hell some code monkeys arn't even part of the team that developes the games - ie would you say that the codies that wrote renderware are the devs of burnout, gta etc

  • penhalion #14 7 years ago

    Did I miss something? Where is Jaffe described as a dev? Even his blog says designer and the article refers to him as the creator or GoW not the developer.

    As for the stand on game makers. The designer is the overall captain of the ship. He/She decides what's in and what's out, what things look like, the overall story etc. etc. The programmers and artists just follow these guidelines to create the end product.

    This is why Kojima is said to be the Father and definitive authority on Metal gear solid games. This is why Myamoto is the mario creator, even though he doesn't write the mario game code directly. Games play the way they play because of the designers, not the programmers.

  • Tweakmonkey #15 7 years ago

    The article title is: "GoW dev's blog reveals all"

    Quite rightly in his blog his credits are director and designer. It is Eurogamer's headline which is misleading.

  • belziah #16 7 years ago

    argumentative monkey

  • inpHilltr8r #17 7 years ago

    Games play the way they play because of the designers, not the programmers.

    Actually it's largely a collaborative effort.

  • Teeth #18 7 years ago

    Tweakmonkey, stop trolling :) It doesn't matter.

    And if he works for the developer then he is a developer IMO. I would call my boss a developer even though he doesn't write code these days; his is a management role. Without him the studio would be screwed.

  • Bezzy #19 7 years ago

    Exactly.

    There's a strong compulsion in games studios for one group of people (be they artists, coders, designers, musicians, producers) to elevate their worth above the others. It's not healthy. It helps nothing.

    A designer who thinks he's in a master/slave situation is a wanker. It's that simple. A good designer knows how to make the most of each area without one area impingeing unreasonably upon another. So yes, it's a position analogous to a director, but in an artistic medium which is fundamentailly different from cinema.

    Actually it's largely a collaborative effort.

    Yep, and it varies wildly depending on the skillsets of designer and implementors. Some designers work more intentionally than others, with detailed specs. Some programmers have such natural understanding of game design that they only need cursory blue sky design (though I've yet to meet a coder who enjoys that).
    Edited by 2 at 21/07/05 @ 10:42

  • volb #20 7 years ago

    I do not mind the word dev being used for a designer as much as I dislike it being put into the singular. It is quite unpleasant indeed.