Rob Davis, Campaign Director on Ghost of Yotei at Sucker Punch Productions, had a busy month in October. Fresh off the long-anticipated release of Ghost of Yotei, he flew down to Australia to deliver talks at PAX Aus and SXSW Sydney, sharing ample wisdom from his time working on the game.
While it was a packed schedule, Davis made time for a simple reason: it was a homecoming after years away from the Australian industry.
Rob Davis on Ghost of Yotei – quick links
How Australia’s local games industry shaped Rob Davis’ career
Davis actually began his career locally, working at Brisbane’s Krome Studios on iconic platformer Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan, and then at Pandemic Studios Australia working on Destroy All Humans! 2.
In pursuit of expanding his career, Davis eventually transitioned from Pandemic’s local offices to those in Los Angeles, working on titles like The Saboteur with a larger team. In the move, he learned a lot about the differences between the regional games industries, and built skills that would ultimately lead him to joining Sucker Punch Productions.
‘In Australia, there was a lot of working it out and we were definitely quite T-shaped,’ Davis tells ScreenHub. ‘We did a lot of different types of designs and tasks. In the US, everything was much more specialised because the teams were a lot bigger.’
He adds, ‘It was both inspiring and intimidating at the same time.’
At Pandemic Studios in Los Angeles, Davis collaborated with developers from all over the globe, from veterans to those just starting their career.
‘That building was stacked, top to bottom, not just with talent but also really deep experience,’ Davis says.
Driven by a spirit of collaboration, he formed bonds with many of his fellow developers, and learned skills to see him through his next steps.
Following the closure of Pandemic, Davis joined Microsoft for a time, working on Kinect titles like Disneyland Adventures. Later, he worked with Santa Monica Studio as a lead level designer on the 2018 God of War reboot, and on God of War Ragnarök.
Joining Sucker Punch Productions and developing Ghost of Yotei
In 2022, Davis joined Sucker Punch Productions as Campaign Director on Ghost of Yotei, corralling missions, open world content, combat encounters and more. He says that part of the inspiration for joining the studio was that, like Santa Monica Studio, Sucker Punch received ample support from Sony Interactive Entertainment.
‘Something people may not recognise about PlayStation is that behind the scenes, the executive team is unbelievably patient and supportive,’ Davis said. ‘When you sign up for PlayStation exclusive, your starting point is very strong in terms of support, and in terms of relationships.’
For Davis, the move was also inspired by personal interest. He holds a degree in Japanese and English Literature, and has long had a fascination with Japan. Working on God of War, he had also developed a love for games with integrated melee combat and exploration.
‘The appeal to make a third person action-adventure game again was quite strong,’ Davis says.
With multiple AAA titles under his belt, and buoyed by a love for Japan, working on Ghost of Yotei might have been a no-brainer. For Davis, there was an initial lack of certainty but he was quickly convinced by his husband that the project would be a perfect fit.
When he found himself on a research trip to Hokkaido in Japan, it ‘woke up a little piece of [his] heart’ and he knew he was in the right place.
‘We did a trip to Hokkaido to see it and feel it and touch it with our own hands,’ Davis says. ‘It’s quite different when you’re there from what you see on YouTube. The scale and the feeling of environments is much more dramatic than I expected.’
‘At a personal level, it felt like a little flame had rekindled inside me, and then I started watching all kinds of Japanese movies and samurai cinema. It wasn’t just a project, it was personal, to be able to bring the world of Japan to life. It was something I’d always been interested in and maybe pushed to one side.’
Ensuring cultural authenticity and working in a fast-moving team
As well as going on research trips, the team worked alongside knowledgeable cultural consultants to ensure authenticity and accuracy in each moving part. They ‘worked with a lot of advisors’ in this process, Davis says, with work on Ghost of Tsushima informing these relationships.
‘We take pride of our authenticity and take details quite seriously – to the point where we redo work sometimes or have quite a lot of conversations back and forth,’ Davis says.
‘Our advisors who we work with are real creatives, and people that we trust and care about. Of course, when you’re travelling, you also meet people who touch you emotionally at a human level, and are proud of their communities and stories. So, there’s a human pride element of doing right by the people we met along the way as well.’
To honour these people and their stories, the Ghost of Yotei team aimed to develop a narrative and world that served the history of Yotei, combining elements of fantasy with a grounded approach. That required working alongside all parts of Sucker Punch Productions – testing and playing the game with the narrative, audio, gameplay and environment teams, and ensuring developers were able to collaborate efficiently towards a shared goal.
‘We played the game every six weeks to see how it was feeling,’ Davis says. ‘We emphasised efficiency and speed to get an answer quite quickly in the studio. Then if something isn’t working, or it doesn’t feel quite right, we’re fast to change it and redo it.’
Moving with the flow
To develop a world worth moving in, Davis and his team developed a free-flowing, overarching game structure, as well as gameplay elements to flesh it out. Davis is most proud of the game’s bounty system, which introduces a host of unique warriors for players to tangle with.
‘I love bounties,’ Davis says. ‘Everyone loves bounties…You understand what’s going on with them right away. I love when the design is that clean, or that easy to understand, because then players can be as creative as possible. It presents a little combat puzzle for you. How am I going to get this guy in a snow storm? Or, how am I going to take out this person with a cannon? It’s such a simple pitch.’
The bounty system also serves the game’s narrative, providing ample fodder to build protagonist Atsu’s strength and reputation, allowing her to enter new villages with whispers following her every step. It adheres to the tropes of samurai cinema, with Atsu fulfilling the role of the vengeful wanderer.
Ghost of Yotei is a open world game that prioritises freedom, and to create a flowing, logical path for Atsu to travel, the game must account for player behaviour and movement. To allow players to travel off the beaten path, the team designed the action in a diamond shape, with a strong opening and a very wide set of options to reach its end state.
‘Architecturally, the game is trying to empower exploration and wandering,’ Davis explains. To that end, the team focused on designing multiple unique pathways, with certain dialogue options and actions creating branching choices, to ensure the story honours the individuality of each player.
Part of Davis’ work, alongside a talented team, was ensuring that flow of movement so that each step in the game has purpose and reflects Atsu’s journey. Whether players are giving the main story a wide berth, playing on the highest difficulty level or attempting to speed through, Ghost of Yotei is adaptive and allows for movement.
‘We really tried to take every opportunity to meet players where they’re at [and] to trust the players,’ Davis says.
What’s next for the Ghost of Yotei team?
In early October, Ghost of Yotei released released to a passionate audience and Sucker Punch Productions is embarking on its next steps. After taking moments to bask in the sun – and return to Australia to connect with fans and local developers – Davis’ attention is now shifting to Ghost of Yotei‘s Legends mode.
This is free multiplayer mode expands on the base game. It allows players to team up in battles against demonic versions of the game’s main antagonists, as well as take on a gauntlet of other enemies. It’s set to release in 2026 and in the lead up, the team is hard at work on refining gameplay to ensure it’s a satisfying experience for all players.
As for what comes after, that’s anyone’s guess – but after the commercial and critical success Ghost of Yotei has already achieved, the possibilities are endless.
