Recently, former Overwatch development lead Jeff Kaplan gave an interview to GameSpot. During the conversation, he spoke about working on his new game, as well as how his life changed after leaving Blizzard Entertainment.
According to Kaplan, despite his almost 20 years of experience at Blizzard Entertainment and participation in the creation of Overwatch and World of Warcraft, many representatives of the gaming industry refuse to communicate with him: There are many people [in the gaming industry] who don't respond to my emails and don't even want to give me a little bit of their time.
At the same time, Kaplan explains, when he worked at Blizzard Entertainment, these same people treated him differently — they were interested in his connections:
You know, you can look at things either pessimistically or optimistically. The optimistic option, which I really like, is that [the current situation] shows where the truth is, where loyalty is, and what the true nature of people is. It makes you realize that many people use you as a means to achieve their goals.
Nevertheless, Kaplan still finds it “a little strange” that people don't respond to his emails:
At such moments, I think: “I earned you a billion dollars. You'd think you could at least answer my emails.”
Currently, Jeff Kaplan is developing The Legend of California — a first-person survival shooter set on the mythical island of California during the Gold Rush. In his studio Kintsugiyama, everyone works remotely.
The Legend of California team consists of 33 people, 32 of whom are developers. According to Kaplan, they are all creators:
Out of 33 people in the studio, 32 are game developers, one person handles operational activities — that's Angela. And even she contributes to the development. We are all creators here. And I think if I approach most of these people and say something like: “Hey, you really need to think about the financial result,” “How do we earn X dollars by a certain date?” — they won't understand how to calculate that.
However, Kaplan explains, if he approaches artists, designers, and engineers and says:
“You need to create a truly cool system for this game. For example, we will add horses to Legend of California, and they should feel AAA-level — in terms of controls, graphics, design...” — they know how to approach solving such a problem.
You can add The Legend of California to your Steam wishlist here. After testing, the developers decided to postpone the beta launch and early access release to 2027.
The feedback received helps to refine the game. The number of players on the server was increased from 30 to 100, and Jeff Kaplan personally spent “all weekend” fixing ladders — some players complained that they were inconvenient to use.