Ryan Payton is one of the narrative designers on the Halo franchise at 343 Industries. Having realized the Halo 4 being developed wasn't exactly what he hoped to make, he's decided to leave 343 to begin working on a dream project.

"I had a great run at Microsoft," Payton told Kotaku. "I don't regret one day of it. But after a few years, there came a point where I wasn't creatively excited about the project anymore."

He explained, "The Halo I wanted to build was fundamentally different and I don't think I had built enough credibility to see such a crazy endeavor through."

Payton previously worked in the games media before going to Japan and getting a job as international manager and then producer at Kojima Productions, where he played a big role in making sure Metal Gear Solid 4 controlled as well as it does. After his mother became ill, he left the company in 2008 and looked for work in the United States so he could be closer to his family. He joined Microsoft's Halo team shortly thereafter in 2008.

Even with Halo 4 not anywhere near done, he's leaving now after being inspired earlier this year by Jake Kazdal, a developer who worked at a number of companies, including EA LA on Steven Spielberg's LMNO. After that was canceled, he left EA to work on Skulls of the Shogun. According to Kotaku, seeing Kazdal work on a project he wanted to make -- and one that showed every game doesn't have to be a major triple-A project like MGS4 or Halo 4 -- planted a seed in Payton.

Payton isn't talking about what he's working on at Camouflaj just yet, though he did indicate there are two different projects in the works. Earlier today, he was featured in a talk at the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference in Yokohama, Japan entitled "My Western Game Dev Story."

"Some people say I'm crazy, but I want to make a game that one billion people play at once, and it's something that hits them harder than a great book or film," he said to Kotaku, while also acknowledging that such a thing might be decades away from being possible.

"I think time is the most valuable thing we have, and I've decided that I'm not going to waste one more day working on something that doesn't speak to my values."