Lack of Publisher Financing Forced David Jaffe’s Studio to Shut Down
David Jaffe’s studio, The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency, has officially closed its doors.
Back in January, the company was forced to lay off the majority of its staff after the publisher of their new game pulled funding. Known for directing Twisted Metal and God of War, Jaffe and his team remained positive.
“That was the vast majority of where we were getting our funding from,” Jaffe said of the publisher at the time. “When they pulled the plug, we were forced to do layoffs.”
“There’s anxiety about being such a bare-bones crew now, but I think we’re all determined to work hard for whatever life throws our way,” concept artist Nafisah Tung added.
But despite this positive attitude, the company was forced to shut down.
“Yeah, it’s all true I’m afraid,” Jaffe said in an email to GamesBeat. “Just the nature of the beast.”
“We had a cool game going with a publisher and as that game is no longer happening — and since all of our funding came from publishers — we just couldn’t keep the place going. It was a fantastic ride, however. I so loved our team and loved working with that crew and remain crazy proud of what we created with Drawn to Death. Excited to see where we all land after what has been one of the very best working experiences of my career thus far.”
The studio’s last game was Drawn to Death, a unique third-person shooter with graphics designed to look like a teenager’s notebook.
“We’re intentionally over the top,” Jaffe said of the game. “We’re trying to straddle this line between what a kid in high school would find stupid humour, over the top humour, bawdy vulgarity, but at the same time sort of wink at it.”
“We get that this stuff isn’t necessarily where the target is anymore, but to us — maybe because some of us grew up there, we just started working at the time — we’re still connected to that time. There’s a sense of charm to it, I guess?”