David Jaffe
Born (1971-04-13) April 13, 1971 (age 52)
Birmingham, Alabama, United States
Known forTwisted Metal series
God of War series
WebsiteBlog

David Scott Jaffe (born April 13, 1971) is an American video game designer best known for directing the Twisted Metal and God of War series.[1][2] In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.[3]

Biography

Jaffe is originally from Birmingham, Alabama and currently resides in San Diego, California.[4] He was born to a Jewish family. Jaffe graduated from Alabama's Mountain Brook High School, located in Mountain Brook, AL, a suburb of Birmingham. Jaffe then attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.[5]

Jaffe is known for directing the Twisted Metal series and God of War. Jaffe's Twisted Metal: Black and God of War have both ranked into IGN's "Top 25 PS2 Games of All Time", with Twisted Metal: Black in ninth place and God of War winning first place as IGN's best PS2 game of all time.[6] In 2007, Jaffe left SCEA to found Eat Sleep Play. The studio signed a multi-year deal with Sony to create games exclusively for PlayStation platforms. He left Eat Sleep Play in February 2012 due to creative differences.[7][8]

In 2014, Jaffe announced his first project on his new studio The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency called Drawn to Death as a PlayStation 4 exclusive.[9] The game received mixed reviews, and due to the cancellation of an unannounced title, his newfound company shut down a year later. Jaffe expressed disdain for the mixed critical reception and insisted the reception from players who played the game was more positive.[10][11]

Since leaving his previous company, Jaffe now primarily live streams his show, Gabbin' + Games, formerly The Jaffe Stream, via Twitch and YouTube. Here, he openly converses with his audience via live chat and Discord about the past and current state of the video game industry, world events, pop culture, politics, metaphysics, the paranormal and existentialism, among other topics.

Jaffe has served as a creative consultant for Polish developer Movie Games.[12]

Works

Games
Year Game Console(s) Credited as
1993 Cliffhanger NES, Super NES, Mega Drive/Genesis, Mega CD/Sega CD Tester
1993 Skyblazer Super NES Tester
1994 Mickey Mania Super NES, Mega Drive/Genesis, Mega CD/Sega CD Game designer [13]
1995 Twisted Metal PC/PlayStation Game designer [14]
1996 Twisted Metal 2 PC/PlayStation Game director, producer, and designer [14]
2001 Twisted Metal: Black PS2 Game director, lead designer [14]
2001 Kinetica PS2 Game designer
2005 God of War PS2 Game director, lead designer [14]
2005 Twisted Metal: Head On PSP Game director, designer
2007 God of War II PS2 Creative director [14]
2007 Calling All Cars! PS3 Game director
2008 Twisted Metal Head On: Extra Twisted Edition PS2 Game director, designer [15]
2012 Twisted Metal PS3 Game director [14]
2017 Drawn to Death PS4 Game director [14][15]

References

  1. ^ "Twisted Metal Studio Hit With Massive Layoffs". CINEMABLEND. 2018-01-27. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  2. ^ "Spider-Man PS4 and Why We're in a Golden Age of Licensed Games - GameRevolution". GameRevolution. 2018-05-02. Retrieved 2018-05-11.
  3. ^ "IGN - 71. David Jaffe". IGN. Archived from the original on 2014-04-20. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
  4. ^ "David Jaffe Opens Up," GamePro 235 (April 2008): 23.
  5. ^ Staff Writer (2022-12-04). "Who Is David Jaffe, Creator of God of War?". Sportsmanor. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  6. ^ IGN PlayStation Team (2007-03-16). "The Top 25 PS2 Games of All Time". IGN.com. Archived from the original on 2007-06-05. Retrieved 2007-04-01.
  7. ^ Sliwinski, Alexander. "David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update]". Joystiq. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  8. ^ Jaffe, David (8 June 2012). "Why I Left Eat Sleep Play". DavidJaffe.biz. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  9. ^ Matulef, Jeffrey (2014-12-06). "David Jaffe reveals arena shooter Drawn to Death". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  10. ^ "David Jaffe's The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency closes down". GamesIndustry.biz. 28 February 2018. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  11. ^ Staff Writer (2022-12-04). "Who Is David Jaffe, Creator of God of War?". Sportsmanor. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  12. ^ Adams, Robert N. (2021-05-04). "God of War Creator David Jaffe Joining Movie Games". TechRaptor. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  13. ^ Jaffe's Blog with Project Listing Archived 2010-06-09 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ a b c d e f g "David Jaffe". IMDb. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  15. ^ a b "David Jaffe". MobyGames. Retrieved 2023-07-30.

External links

Categories