Category: Cliff Bleszinski

Posted on

Cliff Bleszinski Reveals VR Concepts Following Studio Shutdown

Earlier this week Boss Key Productions, the developer behind the first-person shooter LawBreakers and the recent battle royale title Radical Heights closed its door. The announcement came from the studio head Cliff Bleszinski who was the former leader designer on the Gears of War series. In the aftermath of the studios closure Bleszinski took to Twitter to reveal a number of projects which were in the concept stage at the studio, including two virtual reality (VR) titles, that the designer wanted to make.

DogWalkers Concept Art

The first of these was codenamed ‘Rover’ but later changed to ‘DogWalkers‘ with the dog part standing for Destructive Ordnance (on the) ground, Bleszinski explained. The title was to be a mech-style tank videogame inspired by World War 2 tank crews and would see five teams of five battling it out in multiplayer within these huge, walking battle walkers.

Bleszinski continues to explain the title by adding that each player would be carrying out a different role, be it a gunner, pilot, reporting the walker and so on. He later added that the air in the world’s fiction was toxic and so any leaks to the walker would need to be repaired quickly or gas masks would need to be put on. Players would also have the option to rappel outside and weld the legs to make repairs, toss wrenches to each other to speed up the process also.

Donuts Concept Art

The second title that Bleszinski mentioned on his Twitter feed was said to be a VR spiritual sequel to Toobin’ (1988), a river racing title created by Atari for the late 80’s and early 90’s era consoles and arcade cabinets. The title was dubbed ‘Donuts’ and was, as Bleszinski puts it, meant to be “a way to fight Seasonal Affection Disorder. (Mario Kart on water with animals in VR.)”

“You could drink (ginger) beer for health, crush cans on your head, or shake up full ones for AOE attacks. Slam both hands to jump logs. Roman candles to pop tubes etc” Bleszinski explains further.

Though Boss Key Productions is no longer active, it seems as though the studio had a number of interesting ideas for titles in the works. Though there is always a chance these titles could be brought to life by another developer working with Bleszinski on them in the future, it is unlikely to happen.

You can see a number of concept pieces from the two titles above and below and for more stories like this in the future, keep reading VRFocus.

Donuts Concept Art
Donuts Concept Art
Donuts Concept Art
Donuts Concept Art
Donuts Concept Art
Donuts Concept Art
Donuts Concept Art

Posted on

Cliff Bleszinski Shares Concept Art For Two VR Games From LawBreakers Dev

Cliff Bleszinski Shares Concept Art For Two VR Games From LawBreakers Dev

In wider gaming news this week, former Epic Games developer Cliff Bleszinski, best known for his work on the Gears of War series, announced the closure of his independent studio, Boss Key Productions, following the poor performance of the team’s first game, LawBreakers. In the wake of the announcement, Bleszinski has been sharing concept art for other games that studio had hoped to work on, including two VR titles that will likely never be.

Bleszinski, a noted fan of VR and even an early investor in Oculus, has long been talking about making a game for headsets at Boss Key. In fact, this time last year the developer revealed that he was pitching a full VR game to potential investors, though noted that many were “balking” at the idea.

This ‘full’ game could have been a project initially titled Rover, as Bleszinski revealed in one tweet. The game was a multiplayer combat experience inspired by World War 2 and would have players pilot giant tanks in massive 25-player battles with five players on five teams. The concept art shows machines that wouldn’t look out of place in a Star Wars movie marching into battle. Only some of the players would pilot these machines while others operate turrets fixed to it and others repair it.

“The air in the world’s fiction was toxic so any leaks on your walker you’d have to repair quick or get gas masks on etc,” Bleszinski wrote. “Rappel outside to weld legs too, toss wrenches to each other etc…”

Next up is a decidedly more friendly-looking game called Donuts, which Bleszinski described as a spiritual successor to classic Atari game, Toobin. Players are cast as animals that race downstream on rubber rings. The developer labeled it as Mario Kart on water.

Sadly it looks like these games will never come to fruition. Rover in particular sounds like something that could have really worked in VR. Bleszinski is planning to take some time off from development following Boss Keys’ closure but, as he noted on Twitter, many of these ideas were worked on by the larger team. Perhaps some of these ideas could live on in the future, then.

Tagged with:

Posted on

Cliff Bleszinski Talk About VR’s ‘Killer App’ Problem

Cliff Bleszinski, AKA Cliffy B, is one of the videogame industry’s celebrity figures, with a career covering over two decades and having worked on high-profile titles such as the Gears of War series and Unreal Tournament. Bleszinski has more recently set up his own indie development studio, and was one of the industry figures to appear in the Oculus Rift Kickstarter video. What does he think of the current state of the virtual reality (VR) industry?

It was noted by many analysts that the level of attention given towards VR at this year’s E3 was significantly more subdued that previous years. Despite being one of modern VR’s early believers, Bleszinski says his enthusiasm has dimmed somewhat. Speaking to TechRadar, Bleszinski outlined some of the reasons why: “I’m starting to get over it,” he said, “There’s this chicken and egg that’s happening with VR where platform holders aren’t eating the cost,” he explains.

Some critics have said that VR is still waiting for the industry-defining ‘killer app’ that will draw VR into the mainstream. Bleszinski believes that the disinclination of major platform holders to take significant risks is part of this: “A game like Uncharted is not really feasible to be profitable. It’s because Sony owns Naughty Dog and they’re willing to pump an infinite amount of money into that to sell PlayStations to sell their other games. It’s called a loss-leader. So Facebook and Valve, HTC, and all the platform holders, they need to cough up money to get real games.”

This risk-averse behaviour could be one of the reasons why PlayStation VR was the most prominent VR platform showcased at E3 this year. Bleszinski thinks that until this trend is overcome, VR will remain the domain of wealthy early adopters and location-based entertainment: “It’ll be location-based entertainment, or the rich friend who has it at their house for the foreseeable future. The irony, speaking of the rich friend, is that they normally live in New York, Tokyo or Los Angeles, aka places that can’t afford the real estate to have a room-based VR. So they’ve created their own ultimate Catch 22 for that.”

VRFocus will continue to report on VR and AR related stories as they develop.

Posted on

‘Gears of War’ Creator Cliff Bleszinski Wants to Make a Big Budget VR Game

If you don’t already know Cliff Bleszinski from his involvement with the Unreal Tournament and Gears of War franchises, you may remember him from Oculus’ 2012 Kickstarter video. Now under the banner of his own studio, Boss Key Productions, Bleszinski says he’s been seeking funding to develop a big budget VR title.

According to Gamasutra, who watched long time game designer address attendees of the Reboot Develop conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Bleszinski says he’s been into VR since the ’80s and hopes that this latest resurgence of the tech will be the time that it succeeds.

Bleszinski indeed believes in the technology. In fact, he personally invested in Oculus, and was among a number of high-profile gaming industry vets to make an appearance in the 2012 in the Oculus Rift Kickstarter video.

Bleszinski in the Oculus Rift Kickstarter video | Photo courtesy Oculus

Despite his early enthusiasm, Bleszinski hasn’t shown much interest in developing his own VR game, instead spending the last several years working under his newly formed Boss Key Productions studio on the PC FPS, LawBreakers, which is expected to launch in 2017. But it seems development of a VR game is not out of the question as Bleszinski says he’s been seeking funding to create a big budget VR title, though the ‘big budget’ part may present a problem.

“What you’re seeing right now is a lot of the wave shooter game[s]—‘here’s a wave of robots or zombies.’ They’re great, but VR, when it comes to the trajectory of the industry, is mimicking the arcade games of the ’80s. If you want to make a good VR game, start there, and move on to what’s next.”

The challenge is creating a game that goes beyond those wave shooters and tech demos that Bleszinski talks about. Gamasutra reports that he’s been pitching a game to investors, but having trouble finding investors willing to back the budget that he knows he needs to develop a game of that scope. “Unfortunately this costs a lot of money,” he said at the conference.

Bleszinski (middle right) and Boss Key Productions developers present at GDC 2016 | Photo courtesy Official GDC (CC BY 2.0)

In an early ecosystem like VR, major productions are risky because the addressable market is small compared to the wider gaming ecosystem. Facebook, Sony, and HTC—all who have VR ecosystems to jumpstart—are actively investing in the creation of high-quality VR content, but traditional game publishers and only dipping their toes into the water at this point, and will likely continue to do so until the VR install base sees significant growth.

Bleszinski has some ideas about what’s keeping VR from taking off at present, including the need for systems that are easier to use, and games that are designed for comfort.

“Oculus requires me to re-set it up on a regular basis,” he said. “If you remember VCRs, your parents could just barely connect it—they couldn’t even set up the clock […] are they going to figure out how to set up a VR headset?”

“Some people say ‘you just need to get your VR sea-legs’ [in order to avoid nausea in VR]—I say no, if you’re saying that and you’re a developer, you fucked up [by not designing your game for comfort],” he said.

Despite outlining the challenges faced by VR today, he’s still a believer. “It’ll get better, it’ll get faster. Just give it a little bit of time,” and maybe one day a VR game of his will make others believers too.

The post ‘Gears of War’ Creator Cliff Bleszinski Wants to Make a Big Budget VR Game appeared first on Road to VR.

Posted on

Gears of War’s Cliff Bleszinski Is Pitching A Full VR Game

Gears of War’s Cliff Bleszinski Is Pitching A Full VR Game

Former Epic Games developer Cliff Bleszinski has long taken an interest in VR, and was one of the original investors in Oculus long before it was purchased by Facebook. So far his new indie studio, Boss Key Productions, hasn’t made a VR game, but that may soon change.

As reported by Gamasutra, Bleszinski noted that he was currently trying to gather investment to fund a VR game during his talk at least week’s Reboot: Develop event. That said, the Gears of War developer noted that investors were (in the report’s words) “balking”, as he’s trying to raise enough to make a full VR game, and not just the kinds of tech demos that many experiences end up being.

While Bleszinski didn’t go into any detail about what the game might be about, other elements of his talk suggest there are some important things he wants to adress with it, comfort in VR being one. “Some people say ‘you just need to get your VR sea-legs’ – I say no, if you’re saying that and you’re a developer, you fucked up,” he said.

From the sounds of it, the game might also be built on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4. “This isn’t because I used to work at Epic, but the best VR experiences I’ve had are in Unreal Engine 4,” Bleszinski added. “Unity is a good engine, but when it comes down to it you can’t beat the definition of Unreal Engine 4. Detail is incredibly important in feeling that sense of presence.”

Finally — and perhaps most excitingly — the game might not be a wave shooter. “What you’re seeing right now is a lot of the wave shooter game — ‘here’s a wave of robots or zombies.’ They’re great, but VR, when it comes to the trajectory of the industry, is mimicking the arcade games of the 80s. If you want to make a good VR game, start there, and move on to what’s next,” the developer said.

Currently Boss Key Productions is working on its first title, LawBreakers. There’s no telling when we might see this VR title, if it ever gets funded.

Tagged with: