Former Metal Gear Solid producer Ryan Payton quit the dream role of creative director on Halo 4 to invest his life’s savings in the risky prospect of making a console-like stealth game on a touchscreen. The resulting game, République, from his new studio Camouflaj is one of the most exciting new IPs in the market that delivers on its promise of a “triple-A” iOS game.

In a wide-ranging interview in Issue 0 of Grab It Magazine about his decision to risk it all on République, the talented developer reveals just how big studio culture doesn’t allow innovative titles to come to the surface. In doing so, he also makes some telling comments about the currently burning topic of customer data being leaked to government agencies:

“I firmly believe that if République had been developed inside a big studio, it would have been cancelled many times over. République had all the telltale signs of a trouble project: unproven team, risky design, tumultuous development, missed deadlines, and a relatively large team size and budget. République’s subject matter is something that would also make many companies very uncomfortable – they’d be put in a difficult position of marketing a game that warns against the dangers of government and corporate surveillance, while other divisions of their company are actively syphoning off their customers’ data and giving it to government agencies.”

You can read the full feature in Issue 0 of Grab it Magazine, which is a free sample issue you can download to your iPad right now. Payton’s story is an inspiring one, and the feature also includes interviews with writer Brendan Murphy and designers Brent Barrett, Ryan Fedje and Vincent Loiseleur.

You can also download episode 1 of République for iPad or iPhone right here.

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