Bombastic Developer Details New Twisted Metal

Now that the cat is out of the bag, developer David Jaffe has gone from denying the existence of a new Twisted Metal game to spilling beans about it.

In a series of Twitter posts and replies to questions, the famously bombastic developer detailed some of the upcoming vehicle combat game.

While Twisted Metal will include a story, its strength will be in the multiplayer modes of the game.

“The stories and world and characters are VERY important to us,” Jaffe wrote, “BUT the bread and butter is (multiplayer) so made more sense to put much effort into the levels and design and modes and balance vs. tons of time making more and more factions that really don’t affect play at all. And individual characters would not work in Team modes for us (i.e. factions easy to distinguish which team is which).”

Jaffe says the game’s four factions will be Clowns, Dolls, Skulls and Holy Men. Each car will be driven by one of the four chosen factions with a driver and gunner.

“You will not have 16 unique characters for each of the 16 vehicles,” he writes.

The game will also feature local multiplayer, which Jaffe calls a very strong aspect of the new game.

“We would never abandon it,” he writes. “It’s a KEY aspect of any TM game.”

While Jaffe was tight-lipped about the game’s single-player campaign, he did say that we will learn a bit more about Twisted Metal lead character Calypso.

“Yes, he’s still a ‘be careful what u wish 4’ kind of prick :),” Jaffe writes. “Can’t say without giving too much away. But NOT (Twisted Metal Black) Calypso at all. Really didn’t love that spin on him.”

The game’s story won’t be as dark as Twisted Metal Black nor as cartoony as Twisted Metal 2, Jaffe says.

“More like Creepshow? Edgy Twilight Zone.”

Jaffe also talks a bit about some of the game play mechanics, telling Twitter followers that the players will be able to switch vehicles in a game by dying.

Other tidbits:

“If you freeze the copter it drops out of the sky and smashes in the ground,” he wrote. “Takes a bit of damage but more than that: opens itself up for a devestating turbo ram.”

“The plan is to toss debris and flip cars when a big ram occurs but it’s not happening yet.”

“We are hoping to support custom soundtracks but it’s not for certain yet. Depends if we have time to hook it up.”

More, official details will be hitting over the course of the year, Jaffe says, with new vehicles and characters being revealed as the year goes on.

He also says that the game will be at the upcoming San Diego Comic Con.

“We’ll be at the con with- hopefully- a cool ass panel and other stuff but we’re still trying to get it all together,” he wrote. “Probably no playable demo though as we can’t get that many screens on the floor. Space is limited at the con.”

Perhaps that’s where we will be hearing more about Jaffe’s desire to have graphic novel about the series made.

“Looking into it along with other stuff but no news yet,” he writes. “Graphic novel wud rock!!!”

Jaffe says he hopes that the game could become a classic when it hits.

“Who knows where we will end up – but we’re going to all bust ass to entertain the fuck outta ya’lls!”

David Jaffe’s Twitter [Via Scrawl FX]