Marcus and Dom's adventure is about to reach a conclusion as the Gears of War 3 trilogy comes to an end. We recently chatted with Epic Games design director, Cliff Bleszinski, about building personal game experiences, establishing a profile in the games industry, and what's going on with the Gears of War movie.
GameSpot AU: Tell us a bit more about the Gears of War 3 season pass, how it will work, and whether you were surprised by the fan response after its announcement.
Cliff Bleszinski: The first problem is we exist in a world in which there are online passes, so when this was announced, there were perceptions this was having to pay money to play Gears online; which was, of course, not the case. It's a season pass for the DLC, it's kind of like having an up-front version of the [Gears of War 2] All Fronts Collection that you can pay for. The other thing is that people are thinking it's just a bunch of multiplayer maps and that's not the case. There will, of course, be some multiplayer maps at some point, but there's going to be other stuff, like new things for Horde mode, as well as new single-player campaign content. It's one way to get a nice discount and to eliminate the hassle of manually buying each. It's a smart business decision.
GS AU: You've previously said that thematically, Gears of War is a personal game for you. As the trilogy comes to a close, with so much of yourself represented throughout, are you finding emotional closure?
CB: Absolutely. Personally when the project really started I was 29 and 30 and going through a split as far as my first marriage. If you're ever going through a rough time in your life, and you're a creative person, the best thing you can do is pour that into your work. You hear about artists who are going through a tough time and it's cathartic, it's therapy for them, and some of the things that came out of Gears 1 were the result of that. Coming full circle to the end of Gears 3, let's just say the ending is very personal for me. I don't want to spoil a lot of it, but in regards to what happens, and the final shot, it's not only personal to me, but also Rod Fergusson and Lee Perry, who also lost their dads at a young age. My advice to developers often is, make your products personal. Take things from real life, names of friends, locations you've gone to, and do that. That's what makes it not feel like a manufactured product, it makes it feel real and tangible.
GS AU: Given that you are drawing on your own personal experiences, were there aspects you didn't want to explore in the game?
CB: I've had my share of ups and downs, and good and bad relationships, but I don't think I could ever pull off a game like Catherine. I applaud them for going in that direction. Catherine is the first game to touch on themes of stress, infidelity, and uncertainty in a relationship since Silent Hill 2, and that's an area I wouldn't even want to touch, because they're tricky.
GS AU: Recently at PAX, 343 Industries spoke about having great new ideas for Halo, but that they don't always fit the universe and support the fiction. As design director, were there gameplay concepts you've shelved in Gears 3 not because they didn't work, but because they didn't fit?
CB: Yeah, at one point we briefly considered prone [stance], as well as having the ability to be on high cover and peek over, but it felt like added clunkiness to the cover system that didn't need to be there when we were making it as refined as possible. Those were a couple of examples of things that were floated at one point, but wound up being cut.
GS AU: Back in July an incomplete version of the Gears 3 campaign leaked. What impact did that have on studio staff morale?
CB: It sucks and it breaks your heart, but you've got to roll with the punches and dust off your shoulders and keep moving. Keep in mind that anyone who's a true fan would ignore that build or those YouTube videos. We're doing what we can to track down anyone who still has it and ban them from the game, because it's not only theft, but you're also spoiling the game for everyone else. But, that's the world we live in, things just seem to want to be leaked, and all you can do is prevent it from ever happening. Stuff gets out there and cutscenes don't have facial animation and there's debug text. You want the product to be polished, and you never get a second chance to make that first impression, and that's heartbreaking when that happens.
GS AU: You've got an executive producer credit on the Gears of War film. What stage is the movie at right now?
CB: It is in development limbo at the moment. There's a lot of discussion about where the project goes and what happens with it, but as of right now it's stalled a little bit. Hopefully, once the game is out we're hoping to resume traction on it.
GS AU: During GDC you talked about your image and the need for spokespeople to be a brand above and beyond your product. Is that now a necessity of modern game development?
CB: It's a difficult thing to do. It requires a thick skin, and most of the time the publisher doesn't want that because they want each employee to be an interchangeable factory worker. No one asked me to do this. I actually jumped up and any time press came to town, I'd volunteer when I was younger because I knew deep down that it was an insurance policy that if Tim [Sweeney] woke up one day and didn't like me, I could probably go and get a job at a lot of places just based on people knowing my name. Plus, it's fun; it leads to a lot of great opportunities. I live in Raleigh [North Carolina], which is a lovely, sleepy, little southern town, but I get to travel around and see the world, and then come back here and make cool games, so it's kind of the best of both worlds. I'd love to see more of it; I'd love to get to know more developers, I think we should all stick together as much as possible.
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