Hei$t – Scott Crisostomo

// overview

A cancelled open-world heist game set in Summer of Love San Francisco

Hei$t was an open-world action game set in San Francisco in 1969, during the Summer of Love era. Players led a gang of criminals through the city, planning and executing heists – from small-scale diner robberies to full bank jobs with elaborate preparation phases.

Developed at inXile Entertainment for Codemasters, the game was announced in 2007 and slated for a mid-2008 release before an extended development period led to its cancellation in 2010. It has since become notable enough in game history to warrant its own entry on the Lost Media Wiki.

As Lead Designer, I joined inXile after my time at Luxoflux and was responsible for the game's foundational design – how it felt to move and act in the world, how the heist structure worked as a core mechanic, and what made banks feel like compelling boss encounters rather than generic objectives.

// what I designed

Design contributions

What are the 3Cs? Character, Camera, and Controls – the foundational layer of how a player's body moves through the game world. On an open-world game, the 3Cs define the player's relationship with the city itself – how movement feels during a casual stroll vs. a getaway sprint, how the camera communicates danger and opportunity, and how controls translate intent into action under pressure.

3Cs and core combat systems Designed the foundational character movement, camera behavior, and controls – establishing how players interacted with Hei$t's world physically before the heist systems were layered on top. An open-world game's 3Cs have to support both low-stakes exploration and high-stakes escape sequences without feeling inconsistent.
Banks as boss encounters Designed the conceptual framework of treating each major bank as a boss – a unique, multi-phase challenge with its own layout, security systems, and escalation logic. Rather than banks being generic objective markers on a map, each was intended to have a distinct identity that players would study, plan around, and remember. The preparation phase – casing the bank, recruiting allies, acquiring gear – fed directly into how each encounter played out.
Heist time mechanics Designed the time pressure systems that governed heist execution – the interplay between preparation depth, execution speed, and escape quality. More preparation bought better tools and allies; less preparation meant improvising under tighter windows. The mechanic was intended to create meaningful replayability and player expression.

// details

StudioinXile Entertainment

PublisherCodemasters

RoleLead Designer

Dates2006 – 2009

StatusCancelled 2010

SettingSan Francisco, 1969

PlatformsPS3, Xbox 360, PC (planned)

Open World Heist Cancelled 3Cs

Game trailer Wikipedia entry Lost Media Wiki entry GameSpot impressions (2007)

// trailer