Ghost of Yōtei Studio Encouraged Developers to be Proud of Cutting Out Unnecessary Content

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I was really interested to hear what the team behind Ghost of Tsushima said at GDC recently. Apparently, they really believe in not overfilling their open-world games. One of the co-creative directors, Jason Connell, talked about how tough it is for developers to actually cut content – even stuff they know isn’t essential. It’s cool to hear they prioritize quality over just having tons and tons of stuff to do, because sometimes less really is more!

He explained that the studio strives to handle changes positively. It’s difficult to let go of ideas you’re passionate about and want to include, but they really focus on making the process of cutting content from the game a good experience, because it can be done well.

To keep Ghost of Yōtei from becoming overly complex, the development team began regularly removing content. Interestingly, they encouraged team members to openly share what they’d cut, and colleagues would applaud these decisions to boost morale.

Connell explained that they recently began having weekly ‘cut celebrations.’ Team members would share what they’d removed from their workload, and the team would applaud. He noted it’s been surprisingly effective, as people enjoy the positive recognition.

As a gamer, I totally get this idea – sometimes making a game better means cutting stuff. If I’m juggling four features or ideas, and I ditch one that isn’t working, suddenly the whole experience feels a lot tighter and more focused. It’s seriously important to be willing to do that – to trim the fat, you know?

We have a lot of great ideas for each game, but we’re limited by time and our team size. We don’t have the resources to pursue everything we’d like, so we have to prioritize and cut back on some things.

At the same event, Connell and co-director Nate Fox discussed a feature that didn’t make it into Ghost of Tsushima: rock climbing, which was inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Connell explained that this mechanic didn’t quite fit the game’s vision of a wandering samurai, as they wanted for the main character, Atsu.

If a project isn’t working out, it’s fair to ask yourself if you’re stubbornly pursuing something pointless. If it’s a bad idea and doesn’t feel right, there’s no need to keep wasting time on it – simply switch to something else.

After playing Breath of the Wild, Fox hoped all games would let players climb anything they could see. But this created a problem with Ghost of Yōtei, which used invisible barriers to keep players within the intended game areas. He explained that if the game offered climbing as a feature but didn’t reward exploration, players would quickly stop using it. As he put it, “If you give players the ability to climb anywhere, but they find nothing interesting, they’ll stop climbing because the exploration isn’t worthwhile.”

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2026-03-18 15:12