Cory Barlog, who is one letter away from an awesome last name, recently rejoined Sony Santa Monica after many years away, and upon his return, he let out his some information about the project he is currently working on:
What am I working on, you ask? Good question. Sadly, I cannot tell you…yet. But I can say that it is freaking huge, and it will live up to the standards that I helped establish here at SMS. We’re putting together a team as I type this, an Ocean’s 11 kind of thing. We are searching the world high and low for the best of the BEST to come and be on the ground floor of this endeavor. So, hey, if you are a freaking rock star unafraid to roll your sleeves up and take risks, reading this thinking that your current digs are feeling…well…a bit small, a bit dull and in need of some excitement – you need to contact me at Sony Santa Monica.
While he still wasn’t very forthcoming with specific details, Barlog was recently interviewed by Gamasutra and gave out some teasers about the project he’s now a part of:
I want to make something that feels instantly familiar yet completely different; something that feels like home on an alien planet with a nitrogen atmosphere. As lame and ‘PR’ as this sounds, the landscape of console gaming is at a pretty freaking awesome point right now. The next generation is going be a chance to really stretch our legs from a design and creative thinking perspective.
That’s not to say that we will all be making games about love-struck poo, but I really believe people are hungry for games and experiences that offer them something more than just “shoot the guy the head.” At the very least, this new generation will be a motivator for us, as creators, to greatly increase context and reason to all of our creative decisions.
Or we’ll just play pieces of poo shooting people in the head. I’m sorry; I think having a child flips some switch in your brain that makes you far more comfortable working the word “poo” into conversation than ever before. I’ve no choice but to simply go with it. So must you.
Cory was also asked if he had ever thought of branching out an creating his own studio:
Perhaps one day I’ll branch off to make a small studio, and make some of the crazy ideas I’ve been scrawling in my notebook during the rare moments of lucidity. I already have a studio name picked out — or the name of my first game, I’m not sure. It’s from a mistranslation of a sign in some park in China. They meant to say “New grass is growing” but it ended up, in English, “Tiny Grass is Dreaming.” After reading those few words, I wrote like 20 pages of an idea; I love how random the creative process is. Perhaps, one day, you’ll all be playing Tiny Grass is Dreaming on your PS6es.
With Cory saying, “I want to make something that feels instantly familiar yet completely different,” do you think he’s working on a brand new IP? Or maybe re-inventing the God of War series? Let us know in the comments below.
