Interviews

Getting Twisted With Eat Sleep Play Co-Founder David Jaffe
By Louis Bedigian

“The Easter Egg in the game reveals the next game Eat Sleep Play is working on.”

Known as the mastermind behind God of War and Twisted Metal, David Jaffe has been an integral part of building the PlayStation brand. Both games are known for revolutionizing their respective genres (action and vehicular combat), and are ranked by many as two of the best series created during the PSone and PS2 generations.

But while Jaffe’s leading titles were developed during his time at Sony, he is now producing games at his own studio, Eat Sleep Play, which he co-founded with the head of Incognito Entertainment, Scott Campbell. Despite being an independent studio, Eat Sleep Play’s founders have remained dedicated to the console(s) that helped them get where they are today. Their first in a legion of PlayStation brand titles is Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition, an upgraded version of the PSP classic for PlayStation 2.

The game is certainly twisted, telling the [true?] story of a plane crash that killed six developers who were working on the now-cancelled sequel to Twisted Metal Black (known as Harbor City). Though we’ll never get to play that game, its work has not gone to waste – completed levels and vehicles from Harbor City are featured in the Extra Twisted Edition of Head-On, giving fans an extra reason to play through the game a second time.

That’s far from the end of the story, and this is far from being a minor upgrade. Upon the game’s February release, players will be overwhelmed by the depth and replay value the Extra Twisted Edition has to offer. For more, check out our full hands-on preview.

But don’t go away just yet – not until you’ve heard from the twisted mind of David Jaffe.


TMHO: Extra Twisted Edition includes new stages that are apparently from the unreleased Twisted Metal Black. These environments are enormous, with unique themes, tons of pathways and hidden areas. Tell us how these came together.

David Jaffe: Back around 2005, the team at Incognito Studios started work on Twisted Metal: Black – Harbor City. This was to be a full-fledged sequel to 2001’s Twisted Metal: Black. At the start, there were around 10 levels – including the four we chose for this game – all linked up via freeways and back roads, streaming off the disc, giving the player one seamless play experience. It was really cool. For a variety of reasons, some practical, some tragic (as explained in the intro movie of the Lost levels of the Head On PS2 port), the game was never completed.

When it came time to add bonus content to the PSP-to-PS2 port, we knew we wanted the game to be overflowing with value and cool things for players to enjoy. So we took a few of these levels and did some major redesign on them. There had been little in the way of play design when these Harbor City levels were originally created. The levels were mainly made by artists who were focused on cool environments and great art, and less concerned with the moment-to-moment play. It was a new way of working on a Twisted level. Usually we start with very basic shapes and find the gameplay before any real artwork begins. In this case, we began with completed levels and went in and put up walls, added roads, moved buildings around, and tried to find the play within a level that had already been created. It was actually a great way to work and I’m eager to try this method out again in the future.


What inspired the designs of the new stages, such as the horrific carnival/amusement park? You're driving through bowling alleys and movie theaters and up roller coasters – it's not your common, everyday game content.

DJ: Twisted Metal has always been about flipping-off authority and sacred institutions. From blowing up the Eiffel Tower in TM2 to shooting down airliners in TM: Black, we’ve always enjoyed the kind of spirit that the game embodies. So for us, setting the new levels in places that players see in their everyday lives, places where they could actually imagine driving a car through, just seemed more fun to us.

From start to finish, how long does it take to put together a Twisted Metal stage?

DJ: I would guess, on average, it takes about 5-6 months to do a level. There’s usually 2-3 months of finding the play. Around the end of the second month, art begins while we are wrapping up play. Then the last few months of that time window, is just art. But we are still tweaking the level for that 100% Twisted Metal gameplay vibe until the day the game is pried out of our hands (sometimes a year or two beyond when the level was first designed).

Do you know what you want from the stages right away, sketch them on paper, and then build them? Or is there some experimentation involved in getting 'em just right?

DJ: It’s an evolving process. For a long time, we used paper maps and blocks. And to an extent we still do. But nothing beats having a rough idea and just going for it, mocking it up in 3D and getting some cars in there to see what works. I’ve made four car combat games. The guys out in Utah have made eight vehicle combat games. And we STILL don’t really know what is going to work until we get the cars in the levels and just let them loose.

On the Shipyard level of this game, we spent several days doing paper maps and testing out ideas. Finally, when nothing worked, I just went over to Dave Hilden – one of the key modelers and level builders on the series – and him and I just started placing some ships around, scaling some ships up and down, and then seeing how it played. And you know, that little ‘level design jam session’ ended up being the level we went with…NOT one of the levels we spent days agonizing on via paper maps. So you just never know.

But nothing ever beats just getting the cars into the 3D world and seeing what happens. Some call this kind of process ‘dumb luck’ or ‘fumbling in the dark’…I prefer to think of it as ‘gameplay magic.’

I've only just begun playing the game, but thus far I haven't come across any brand-new weapons. Will there be any featured in the Extra Twisted Edition?

DJ: No, we did not add any weapons to the game. One of the things I realized after Black came out was that Black was – for me – too chaotic and noisy. I really enjoyed the more strategic power up game that came with TM2. So while we kept the speeds of Black, we went back [and] took out some of the weapons for the Lost levels. The theory is, with fewer weapon types to compete with each other, the remaining weapons take on more importance; they are able to differentiate themselves from one another. This not only helps in the moment-to-moment battle, but makes the pick up game more exciting because key pick up locations become strategic mini-battlegrounds as players race to get the power missile or battle over the health pick up. With too many weapon types, the attacks all start to feel the same and there is no value to anything anymore. I’m eager to see if players agree with this philosophy and enjoy this blend of TM2 and TMB play styles. But for me, I like it a lot more.

Do you think this game could wind up on PSP or PS3 as, say, the Really, Really Twisted Edition?

DJ: No plans at the moment. I think if we made another TM title, we’d want to stop doing ports and upgrades and rethink the whole series. If TM is to survive, it’s time for it to evolve.

There's a lot of DVD-style bonus content in the game. Will there be any Easter eggs to hunt for?

DJ: Only one. But we think it’s a good one. The Easter Egg in the game reveals the next game Eat Sleep Play is working on and answers and question TM fans have been asking us for several years now. Good luck finding it though...

Is there any new content in the Head-On portion of the game?

DJ: Yes. There is a brand-new level in Head-On (Transylvania) plus the port runs at 60fps now with new, higher-res texture maps.

Twisted Metal has been increasing its multiplayer content, but this port scales back to old-school, two-player gaming. Is this a technical restriction that comes with porting a PSP game to PS2?

DJ: Sort of. PSP games don’t have a need for split screen. So all the levels for Head On were pushed to the max in terms of processing. When it came time to do split screen, all of those levels- which had previously been designed for single screen PSP play- had to be redesigned to run at split screen with a good frame rate. Chopping a level designed for single screen to split screen is bad enough. Going to four screens would have compromised the play too much for our tastes. The other issue was that we felt the effort- both technical and play balance wise- that would need to go into making the game 4 split vs. 2 split didn’t seem worth it given the small number of players who own multitaps for the PS2.

Can you talk about the new story for the "lost" stages? It's portrayed as something more than fiction.

DJ: It is more than fiction. It’s a sad truth. It’s been some years and the sting is gone out of it, but when we let ourselves think about those guys, it’s painful. This project makes us proud because it’s a testament to their work. But it also makes us really sad.

If those stages had been completed as planned for Black 2, do you have any idea what the resulting story would've been like?

DJ: The story – sadly – died along with our teammates. The writer of the stories – Mark Berry – was part of the ski trip.

Thank you for your time David. It’s been great hearing from you.