God of War developer and current Creative Director for SCEA blogs about design, emotion and the next generation of the God of War series.
In his personal blog, the developer updates his readers on the status of God of War 2. “But after last week, I can say I am very confident of our chances to be able to complete the GOD OF WAR trilogy. You never know, but that’s me just putting it out there.”
But Jaffe began his most recent post in a completely different vein. “I have changed as a game designer and as a game player,”
He continues by saying that, recently, he has become immersed in single-layer games. “…it took making an action adventure game to realize that making one and playing one are terribly different things.”
He describes the cool factors in playing such a game. “But when you make one, you struggle for days, working alone and with the team, to just create ONE of those cool moments; just ONE of those ‘oh sweet’ events. And then, when it’s done, you gotta get back to work and make another one and then another one.”
Jaffe says he realized last year “that electronic games have always had an amazing ability to evoke emotion. They are not the emotions that many of us – including me – have been pursuing. But they are emotions nevertheless; they are feelings that the best pure games can always evoke.”
He continues by citing feelings of tension and release, feelings of fear and anxiety, feelings of triumph and defeat, feelings of confusion – sometimes follow by joy at having overcome the challenge.
“These are REAL emotions,” Jaffe insists, “And they are not to be denied or ignored or belittled.” He further says they are to be embraced, and are the only true path for developers.
Jaffe concludes, by modifying his position, “Well, wait a sec…it’s the path for me. For now.”
Blog, found here.
