PayDay 2 game director departs to form his own studio

PayDay 2 game director David Goldfarb has packed up his bag of loot and announced that he’ll be leaving developer Overkill to form his own indie studio - as yet unnamed, but with four staff already employed.

”I have decided to move on,” Goldfarb told Polygon. ”It’s all on good terms and I think (Overkill) is well positioned to succeed. They’re doing great. They’ll continue to succeed as the last Steam sales indicate. Super smart people over there.”

Goldfarb joined Overkill back in 2012 after a stint with EA Digital Illusions, the team behind Mirror’s Edge and Battlefield 3. It seems like after so long working for triple-A studios on blockbuster titiles, he’s looking forward to the challenge and freedom of indie development. ”I knew that at some point the thing that I always wanted was to make my own thing,” he said. ”It doesn’t matter who I work with: the desire was never to make other people’s games, no matter how good they are.”

”I was game director but I guess at some point you go like ‘What does that actually mean?’”, he continued. ”If I start fighting with people or I’m restless, you start to see the same things happening. After a while I was just like ‘Maybe it’s just time to admit the thing I’ve been fighting all of my career,’ which is the fact that the only thing that will make me happy is just doing this myself and not deferring that desire because it’s scary.”

Not that he’s expecting to do all the work himself. Goldfarb was a poet and writer before he entered the games industry, and he’s well aware of the stress the role of lone artist can put on you. As part of a small creative team, though, he’s looking forward to stretching his creative muscles once more. ”The damage that writing tended to cause in me, it’s difficult and it exacts a certain price. Now I felt after making games for 15 years that’s actually missing from my life. I had to find something I wanted to make that really mattered in a way that was very specific to the way that I needed to express something that I think I had buried for 15 years.”

Goldfarb also confirmed that his plans definitely don’t include another MOBA title or any other current trends. ”No MOBAs, no comic book styled art, no pixel art. Like, those are things I will not do. And there’s nothing wrong with those things, those things are all awesome, I just don’t want to do any of them. I love role-playing games so I will probably make one.”

Meanwhile Overkill will continue to plow on. The studio is set to announce a new project next month, according to a countdown timer on their website.