Former Overwatch Director Jeff Kaplan Reveals New Wild West Shooter The Legend of California
- Yash Choudhary
- 4 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Jeff Kaplan, the former Overwatch game director, has officially announced his next project, a Wild West multiplayer shooter called The Legend of California. The upcoming game combines open-world survival mechanics with first-person shooter gameplay and takes place during the 19th century Gold Rush.
The upcoming game, created by Jeff Kaplan's new studio Kintsugiyama and published by Dreamhaven, a company founded by former Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime, combines first-person shooter combat with survival and crafting elements set during the 19th century Gold Rush. It's already shaping up to be one of the most intriguing Western-themed games since Red Dead Redemption 2 came out in 2018.
The Legend of California is an independent multiplayer action-survival FPS in which players explore a fictitious version of California during the Gold Rush. Instead of focusing only on gunfights, the game lets players create their own frontier life.
Players can hunt wildlife, collect resources, cut down trees, and build buildings like cabins or ranches. The goal is not only to survive on the harsh frontier, but also to claim land and establish a wealthy settlement.
According to the official description, players will be able to explore, gather, craft, build, hunt, and fight on a huge open land. The game can be played alone or cooperatively with friends.Interestingly, the game does not take place in the real California. Instead, Kaplan team designed a fictional island resembling California, removing neighbouring states and transforming the region into a standalone frontier.
According to Kaplan, the world still contains recognisable landmarks like Yosemite, but other elements will change depending on the server-generated map. While major locations remain consistent, procedural generation allows dozens of points of interest to move around the world, resulting in a slightly different experience on each server.
The game also has awesome gathering and crafting systems, so players can create weapons, tools, food, and build stuff like mines or stables. Optional PvP will allow players to defend their territory from rivals while mastering precision FPS combat.
Before joining Blizzard Entertainment as lead game director for Overwatch, Kaplan worked on World of Warcraft. He left Blizzard in 2021, and The Legend of California is the first project from his new studio. Despite his long absence from the franchise, the reveal trailer has already received full backing from long-time fans who recall Kaplan's work on Blizzard's most successful games.
The Legend of California is currently in development and will be available in Early Access for PC later this year.
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