David Jaffe’s verbose indie studio The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency has been struck with layoffs following the cancellation of an unannounced project. The team is perhaps best known for Drawn to Death which, shall we say, divided public opinion. To be honest, we’re probably the only publication on the planet that liked it, but we stand by that 8/10.
As a reminder of how cruel game development can be, Jaffe tweeted about the project mere days ago, stating that he’s “dying” to share it with everyone. The God of War creator also talked candidly about the future of the Twisted Metal franchise last week. It’s unclear who was publishing the latest game or what it entailed, but it is no more unfortunately.
“Heart's breaking for the amazingly talented crew that's out of work,” Jaffe wrote on Twitter. We wish everyone all of the best.
Comments 14
Drawn to Death had a lot of potential but it was held back by its matchmaking issues, microtransactions, unbalanced weaponry, meta writing, stiff animations and, despite being a paid game, there's zero offline content. For a game that had gone from F2P to a paid game, you would think they could have added more other than a platinum trophy.
Honestly, I think it is better off that he and his team just shut the doors for DtD and just make a new Twisted Metal game. Either a new installment that goes back to its roots a la MH World and Sonic Mania, a remake, a 4k remaster collection of the four TM games, or a game-as-service TM game that takes inspiration from Rocket League.
@SoulsBourne128 Yea, you hit the nail on the head. I don't like it when games flop, but you can't expect people to pay 20 for this game.
It's also my critique of the Drawn to Death review on this site. You could defend that 8/10 if it the game was free, but it's really difficult to recommend it for anything more.
Anyway, sad for all the talented devs over there!
This is why becoming a First Party studio isnt always a bad idea. They would have more resources and even if it flopped the option to disperse the talent to other studios in house. I feel horrible for the ppl who are now out of work. I hope they find work very soon.
This proves that even with online multiplayer focus and MT games and even studios can flop too.
Hoping they can find good jobs somewhere else.
Not too surprising as Drawn to Death was a complete flop. I got it for free as part of PS+ and I didn't like it, I can't see anyone spending $20 for it unless they are a huge fan of his work.
I tried playing that drawn game but the connection dropped tons I probably only completed 1/4 of matches.
It's a shame, but honestly drawn to death wasn't very good at all. I gave it an honest try and like others said above, several issues plagued the game that made it just not fun to play. Best of luck to those who got laid off.
Sorry but for me drawn to death just looked like the silly doodles I did when I was going through my teen rebellious art years, those were silly years. I'm more refined now lol!
@bbq_boy While I fully understand why people didn't like it, that was the point of it.
Despite the uniqueness of drawn to death it was still boring.
I think what held drawn to death back was that it was a crappy game. No depth, no fun to play, and the tone was grating. It just didn't work on any level. I'm not happy to hear that people are losing their jobs, but Jaffe caters toward the Juggalo demographic. There's just no room for that anymore. I played Tony Hawk Underground 2 a few months ago and had to turn it off, it's cringeworthy. Same sort of humour.
Times have changed, David Jaffe sadly hasn't.
Twisted Metal 2 World Tour please i would love to see that remastered.
I think these is some creative genius deep down inside Jaffe’s brain somewhere, it just needs to be reigned in and guided in the right direction. Drawn to Death looked so unique and was a fascinating idea, but it ended up a bit of a mess. I couldn’t stand it after about an hour of playing, despite loving the artistic flair. Best of luck to his team. I hope they get a second chance.
@get2sammyb well sadly the game didn't do well as it didn't resound with many gamers. Hey! Do you feel guilty when you give an honest review and give low scores? I mean won't game studios and people lose jobs if a game doesn't do well at retail?
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