Halo 4 Creative Director Calls It Quits

[RossRaymondEdwards]

Halo 4 Creative Director Calls It Quits

Ryan Payton isn't "going to waste one more day" working for Microsoft.

OK, it's not quite as harsh as it sounds. Payton didn't exactly rip his former employers after walking away from his job as creative director for Halo 4. He simply decided he had better things to do.

Payton had been a part of the project since 2008 as a member of 343 Industries, the in-house Microsoft Studios developer that took over work on the Halo franchise after Bungie's departure. Eventually, it became clear that his vision for the game wasn't shared by everyone on the team, and Payton decided it was time to move on.

"There came a point where I wasn't creatively excited about the project anymore," Payton told Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5837475/]. "The Halo I wanted to build was fundamentally different and I don't think I had built enough credibility to see such a crazy endeavor through."

The last straw came several months ago, when Payton awoke one morning and found himself utterly "drained," unwilling to even get out of bed. He was later diagnosed with severe depression.

"That was when I knew I had to do something else," he said.

Payton's previous experience includes a stint at Kojima Productions, where he helped in the development of Metal Gear Solid 4. Now, he's hoping to take what he's learned working on triple-A titles and apply it to his own fledgling studio, Camouflaj. He says he already has two games in the works.

Whether or not you think he's crazy for turning his back on one of the most popular FPS franchises of all time, you really have to admire Payton's desire to blaze his own trail.

"I think time is the most valuable thing we have," he said, "and I've decided that I'm not going to waste one more day working on something that doesn't speak to my values."

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5837475/]


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[ThatLankyBastard]

So... Halo causes severe depression?

...still gonna end up buying it...

 

[Kekkles]

Seems like a viable opinion. Though I'd like to at least hear his idea? Halo is one of those stories that's easily driven and can so easily be generic but under the right reins it could be a powerful story.

 

[WarBossTilt]

"one of the most popular FPS franchises of all time"
halo will lose that title without bungie making it just saying.
probably the best move he could make moving away from what is probably gonna be a train wreck

 

[duchaked]

can't really blame 343, they still got lots of creativity and energy behind them. but it's understandable when you're the black sheep of a group. makes it especially hard in any project scenario

Halo 4 is in good hands, but dunno how much 343 will change exactly. will just have to wait and see (does this mean Frankie's the new boss??)

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

Good for him. It's a gutsy move, leaving what may end up a sure-thing for financial success to do something more personally meaningful. 'Following his dreams', in a sense.

I can't say I'm excited to see what he comes up with, nor that I'm particularly interested in his future, but he's probably made the right move for himself.

 

[xXDeMoNiCXx]

"one of the most popular FPS franchises of all time"
halo will lose that title without bungie making it just saying.
probably the best move he could make moving away from what is probably gonna be a train wreck

IMO, it lost that title years ago.

 

[brodie21]

so he 'helped' make one AAA game and jumped ship on one of the most popular franchises? 'helping' make MGS4 does not impress me in the slightest. this guy is not developing a good reputation and his new studio is going to suffer for it

 

[Jumwa]

Severe depression is a cause, not a result.

Exactly. Clinical depression isn't caused by some minor downturn in your life, or things not going your way. Clinical depression is a cause, not a result of many of life's problems.

Clinical depression doesn't just vanish because things start suddenly going your way.

Sure, like this man seems to think, you can do things to alleviate it and live your life in a way better suited to yourself that will better combat it, but it's not always guaranteed. I hope it works out for him.

 

[Hagi]

He was diagnosed with severe depression because things weren't going exactly how he wanted them to go?

The guys lucky he's got a job in the gaming industry. Because I think he'd have a hard time doing any normal job. Were you don't have any say over what you do.

Severe depression is a cause, not a result.

I dealt with it at one point. And you'd think that it comes out of nowhere.

That's what the article said, not me.

He was later diagnosed with severe depression.

And things such as manic depression or clinical depression (which is another name for severe depression.) are indeed mental disorders... i.e. diagnosis's. Not causes.

A disorder doesn't start when it's diagnosed....

You have a disorder, you may not know when it started, you may not even know you have it.

Then something goes seriously wrong as a result of you having this disorder, and you don't understand why it's going wrong because you don't know you have the disorder.

So you see a medical expert and you get diagnosed.

Your disorder caused your problems which caused your diagnosis.

 

[josemlopes]

Shit happens, it can be quite depressing for a creative director to work on something that was already created by another team, it doesnt leave a lot of creativity to work with.

 

[snfonseka]

By reading some of comments above, I just found out there are "Game Industry Specialists" in this forum.

 

[MorphingDragon]

Severe depression is a cause, not a result.

Exactly. Clinical depression isn't caused by some minor downturn in your life, or things not going your way. Clinical depression is a cause, not a result of many of life's problems.

Clinical depression doesn't just vanish because things start suddenly going your way.

Sure, like this man seems to think, you can do things to alleviate it and live your life in a way better suited to yourself that will better combat it, but it's not always guaranteed. I hope it works out for him.

Depression is a mixture of physical and mental illness. It might be any number of things, including being bored with his job and the consequent lack of stimuli.

 

[Seishisha]

The depression thing aside if your unhappy with the work your doing and have the option to do somthing else then why shouldnt you?

From reading that you'd asume that halo4 is basicly the same retreading of the previous titles and the room for creativity was probably minimal, it seems to me atleast that isnt the real reason for his departure, i guess it was more likley he wanted to change things and other people wouldnt let him for the fear that the changes would affect sales negativly, call me paranoid if you want but that seems more believable.