David Jaffe On Making God Of War

At GDC this year, the hottest man at Sony and God of War creator David Jaffe sat down to have a little chat with Oddworld Inhabitant’s founder Lorne Lanning about the ups and downs of games development, and the difficulties inherent to the creative process. Here are a few snippets from the conversation:

Jaffe told the story almost all frustrated developers wanted to hear. God of War was almost shot down before it got started. Jaffe proposed the game to Yoshida, who simply said, “There’s nothing innovative here.” After pleading with him to the game a chance, Yoshida bent, and the project continued.

He then talked about how the game was almost canceled countless times, with a buggy build of God of War being presented alongside well-polished versions of Naughty Dog’s Jak & Daxter and Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank.

“We would show our little game [at marketing meetings], and it would crash, it would look like crap, and [the game’s hero] Kratos was this very Rasta-looking guy with dreadlocks, and it looked just terrible. I was expecting my boss to tell me, ‘You know, it’s time for a new Twisted Metal.’ But they kept it going,” he recalled.

He then passed on his lesson learned to the aspiring developers in the audience. “Just because it’s not working now doesn’t mean that it won’t eventually work. There’s a real magical art to knowing when to pull the plug and when to keep it on life support.”

It’s a really interesting insight into the tumultuous and chaotic world of the developer and gives you a little bit of an idea what kind of person Jaffe is.

(Kratos had dreadlocks once!? This is not a good thing. I have also recently been advised by an expert in ancient Greek mythology that the correct pronounciation of the name Kratos, is closer to “Krah-tahss”… um, yeah).

Be sure to check out the rest of the interview after the jump!
At GDC this year, the hottest man at Sony and God of War creator David Jaffe sat down to have a little chat with Oddworld Inhabitant’s founder Lorne Lanning about the ups and downs of games development, and the difficulties inherent to the creative process. Here are a few snippets from the conversation:

Jaffe told the story almost all frustrated developers wanted to hear. God of War was almost shot down before it got started. Jaffe proposed the game to Yoshida, who simply said, “There’s nothing innovative here.” After pleading with him to the game a chance, Yoshida bent, and the project continued.

He then talked about how the game was almost canceled countless times, with a buggy build of God of War being presented alongside well-polished versions of Naughty Dog’s Jak & Daxter and Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank.

“We would show our little game [at marketing meetings], and it would crash, it would look like crap, and [the game’s hero] Kratos was this very Rasta-looking guy with dreadlocks, and it looked just terrible. I was expecting my boss to tell me, ‘You know, it’s time for a new Twisted Metal.’ But they kept it going,” he recalled.

He then passed on his lesson learned to the aspiring developers in the audience. “Just because it’s not working now doesn’t mean that it won’t eventually work. There’s a real magical art to knowing when to pull the plug and when to keep it on life support.”

It’s a really interesting insight into the tumultuous and chaotic world of the developer and gives you a little bit of an idea what kind of person Jaffe is.

(Kratos had dreadlocks once!? This is not a good thing. I have also recently been advised by an expert in ancient Greek mythology that the correct pronounciation of the name Kratos, is closer to “Krah-tahss”… um, yeah).

Be sure to check out the rest of the interview after the jump!