If you’ve been playing Overwatch or are just familiar with Blizzard, then you’ve probably heard the name Jeff Kaplan. People call him Daddy Jeff because he is the father of Overwatch. After working for Blizzard (even before Overwatch) for almost 20 years, he left them back in 2021. There has been no news or updates for the past five years, until recently, he came back with a new game.
Jeff Kaplan’s venture into Blizzard and Overwatch
Jeff was born on November 4, 1972, in the United States. Before entering the gaming industry, he studied creative writing at university and initially hoped to become a writer. Kaplan later became interested in online gaming communities, which eventually led him toward a career in video game development.
Kaplan joined Blizzard Entertainment in 2002. He first worked as a quest designer for the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft. His work on the game helped shape many of its memorable quests and gameplay systems. Over time, he became one of Blizzard’s most recognized developers.
Why do people like him, and why did he leave Blizzard
Jeff was one of those developers whom people consider the cool type. He was a gamer, and he knew what gamers wanted. He listened to fan feedback, so that’s why Overwatch thrived under his watch. He emitted that aura that people liked, and his work showed it.
He left Blizzard in 2021 and has been radio silent ever since. That was until he did an interview recently for his new game. Naturally, topics about Overwatch and why he left came out. He said that the CFO at the time wanted him to meet a financial quota for Overwatch.
Failure to do so would mean that a lot of the staff would be laid off from Overwatch. Seeing the writing on the wall, he just quit. We’re not saying that his leaving screwed up Overwatch 2, but there were already a lot of things going on with that.
He’s back with a new game
This new game is called Legend of California. This is a fun and alternate take on the Gold Rush period of California back in the 1800s. It looks like a first-person and open-world adventure game. From what we’ve seen, the game has you play someone who can do the following things listed below.
Fight or Steal
We see combat where the player uses a gun and melee weapons. Perhaps players can do missions where they either kill bandits or just be the bandit and start stealing and terrorizing.
Harvest Resources
You can cut down trees and mine ores from caves. It has the elements of a survival game where you gather resources and build something. Maybe build your house or a settlement, or just do some odd jobs.
Horses and Traveling
We do see characters riding horses and the open-world mechanic may require you to do so. Perhaps exploration can be a good thing, and one would wonder how the fast-travel system would work on this. There are a lot of locations and towns to go to in this game as well.
