Trying to copy what’s working for someone else is a race to the bottom. Doing what only you can do, and seeking mastery in it, is a race to the top.

119 lessons learned after studying the making of God of War by @SonySantaMonica for the last 8 months: 1. Make things for an audience, but don’t make things because of an audience. 2.Create out of passion, not fear. 3. To think like a fan you must be a fan. 4. You create the macro vision, your team creates the micro vision. 5. Simplicity on the surface, complexity underneath. 6. Protect your vision at all costs. 7. Let the best ideas win. 8. Research fills in the details, it does not tell the story. 9. Don’t reinvent the wheel, make it better. 10. Good intros get attention, great intros make people want to consume the rest. 11. “Cut the ideas you really like to make the ideas you love shine even brighter” — @davidscottjaffe 12. Every great piece of art sucked at one point. 13. There’s a difference between struggling to make something, and hating the process. 14. Do not reflect your life in your art, refract it. 15. Quality does not guarantee success. 16. Hard work does not guarantee success, but it makes you better, which increases your chances of success. 17. If you plan for success you lower your odds of achieving it. 18. The whole goal is to inspire the next generation. 19. The idea isn’t to have no influences, it’s to hide your influences well enough no one even knows they’re there. 20. The sequel should continue the story, not retell it. 21. If it does not service the story it does not belong. 22. Make your first draft long so you have lots to cut. 23. Untested art is unfinished art. 24. If you don’t beat the shit out of your art while making, the audience will when you release it. 25. Lean into the strengths of your medium. 26. Die hard fans are made in your back catalogue. 27. Use your constraints to tell a unique story. 28. Don’t make cuts before reality forces you to. 29. The difference between good and great is made at the end. 30. A good story can be ruined by a bad ending. 31. Those who seek out pressure are the ones who rise to the occasion. 32. Use technology to tell a story, don’t tell a story to use technology. 33. Great art is achieved when every piece of your art is great. 34. The little details combine to make the biggest impact. 35. Fear is the signal of what you should do next. 36. The harder something is, the less competition there will be. 37. When you focus on one improvement, everything around tends to gets better as a result. 38. Evolution for the sake of evolution is pointless. 39. Disagree and commit. 40. Those who can articulate their vision well, see it brought to life. 41. The details do not matter if they are not consistent. 42. A few great things is better than a lot of good ones. 43. Deadlines force you to decide what is truly necessary. This is a good thing. 44. Sprint through the finish line. 45. You art can impact someone’s life, take that responsibility seriously. 46. It’s better to be delightfully rediscovered as opposed to having an uninterested audience. 47. Your brand is an extension of your art. 48. Do not copy great art, be inspired by it. 49. Respect your competitors, but don’t try to be them. 50. A little healthy insecurity never hurt anyone, but it has led to great art. 51. “Creative ideas don't necessarily make good business ideas.” — @Ru_Weerasuriya 52. You’ll never outdo past success by trying to recreate it. 53. our life supports your art, not the other way around. 54. You can’t be all in on more than one thing. 55. Pre-production sets the tone. 56. Don’t give away too much too soon. 57. Getting people through the door is one thing, but making sure they leave feeling good is another. 58. Reinvent when you have nowhere else you want to take your art in its current form. 59. Success does not guarantee future success. Keep learning. 60. If you’re not putting what you learn to use you aren’t learning, you’re information gathering. 61. Care gives stamina. 62. To most effective way reinvent your art is to “reinterpret” it — take the information you have and look at it in a new way. 63. “If you’re going to reinvent, commit fully, nothing is sacred.” — Eric Williams 64. Evolve your art alongside yourself. 65. Chasing will never lead to innovation. 66. The small details most people don’t notice are the most impactful details to the ones who do. 67. The mess is where the magic happens. 68. You can’t plan for creative inspiration. 69. You Don’t Always Need THE Answer, You Need AN answer. 70. Trust your gut. 71. The creative process is figuring it out. It’s not creative if it’s formulaic. 72. Get clear on the experience you’re seeking to create. 73. Everything must justify its existence. 74. Story gives your spectacle meaning. 75. Scale does not impact how personal a story is. 76. Simple story, complex characters. 77. Interesting characters have clear weaknesses. 78. Drama comes from character change. 79. Don’t settle with your art, you have to live with it forever. 80. Storytelling is balance of gut and analytical. 81. If your audience doesn’t believe in your story you’re dead. 82. “Hating on something doesn't take you down the path to creating something great.” — @corybarlog 83. What art has been impactful who’s bar was “good enough”? 84. Make the art you want to make and then do everything you can to get it out there. 85. The greats share your problems. 86. If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life the hard work will be worth it. 87. Indifference is the worst response you could have. 88. Art changes people, and people change the world. 89. Art brings us together because it creates a shared language. 90. The beautiful thing with art is it’s open to interpretation. The challenging thing with art is it’s open to interpretation. 91. The sacrifice to make great is not just felt by those who make it, it is felt by those around them. 92. Get bored, it’s where imagination thrives. 93. Enjoy your time off. 94. Every opportunity is an opportunity to prove yourself. 95. “Start with science, and finish with feel.” — Eric Williams 96. Leave room for magic on the day. 97. No matter the tale you tell, it’s a human stories. 98. Sometimes you just need to take a few steps, not a huge leap. 99. More is not better. Better is better. 100. “All eights make a ten.” — Eric Williams 101. 8s rise, 6s sink. 102. The best situations to put your characters in, are ones with no right answer. 103. It’s when you feel like you have no place to go that you can come up with the best solutions. 104. “What the story needs and what people want are not necessarily the same thing.” — @mattsophos 105. Everyone’s a hero of their story. Especially your villains. 106. Don’t manipulate people into feeling emotions, make them care so much they feel genuine emotions. 107. Consistency is achieved when all decisions pass through the same filters. 108. Creativity is best expressed within constraints. Give people a box to play within. 109. There’s advantages to be found by getting inspiration from where no one else is looking. 110. Nothing you consume is a waste of time if you learn something. 111. Art is consumed by a large group of individuals. 112. There’s no competitive advantage playing the quantity game. 113. Hard work is the short cut. 114. Effortlessness is the byproduct of extreme amounts of effort. 115. Get the best people and do everything you can to keep them around. 116. Innovation is not made by experts, it is made by pioneers. 117. You have to earn your success every time. 118. Celebrate greatness, don’t tear it down. 119. Your process is valid. There is no “right way” to go about the creative process.

@davidscottjaffe I would love to have you on my podcast for our upcoming season dedicated to God of War 🎙️