PayDay 2 game director David Goldfarb departs Overkill to form indie studio

PayDay 2 game director and former EA Digital Illusions dev David Goldfarb has announced he will leave Overkill to form his own studio. Based in Stockholm, the as yet nameless enterprise already boasts four staff. It's part of Goldfarb's determination to "abandon AAA", preferring instead to work on new titles that shrug off in-vogue development trends.

No amount of seniority in big development can allow for the creative freedom he'll be pursuing as part of a smaller studio, Goldfarb continued.

"I was game director [at Overkill] but I guess at some point you go like 'What does that actually mean?' 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. It just felt like the right time."

On the topic of what he'll be doing with the new studio, Goldfarb said he'd be veering as far away from current trends as possible. "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."

As for Overkill, it appears to be on the brink of announcing something new shortly.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.