Ex-Battlefield 3 lead designer joins Starbreeze

The former lead designer on Battlefield 3 has joined Syndicate developer Starbreeze, Develop can reveal.

David Goldfarb, who left EA DICE last month, will take up the role of game director, and will work with the studio’s current creative director Ulf Andersson on the development of Payday 2 and an upcoming unannounced project.

Goldfarb will be based at the company’s recently established Stockholm base, which was opened in the wake of Starbreeze’s acquisition of Payday developer Overkill.

“I’ve worked on these huge games, and that was great, but I really wanted to work on smaller, tighter, and more intimate projects that are more gameplay driven, and I saw the opportunity to do that here,” Goldfarb told Develop.

“I talked to a lot of places but I felt the best fit for me was Starbreeze and Overkill because they have a really interesting history and a lot of games I really like.”

The former DICE designer revealed he left the Battlefield developer as he had had become exhausted by working on big projects, and wanted the chance to do something on a smaller project and related more to his own personal interests.

“There were a lot of different reasons. As I said when I tweeted a while ago, it was just time to move on,” he said.

“I feel very fortunate to have worked at the studio with those guys and a lot of amazing people, and I’m very proud of the work that we did. For me it felt like I’d been there for five years, I’d worked on four games and sometimes you just feel like you want to do something else.

“Making big projects is really exhausting and for me, I felt like I needed a change of venue and I really wanted to work on something that I personally felt I was interested in, which apparently is crime. I just wanted to get closer to things that I love and this was a great match for me.”

Creative director Andersson added that the studio made the decision to hire Goldfarb as he was one of the most talented developers he had ever met.

“I’ve recruited and fired a lot of game designers in my day, and I’ve never met anybody who’s at the skill level that David,” he said.

“I’m really looking forward to this to see if we can make something really cool together.”