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Cliff Bleszinski Far From Burned Out On Gears of War

Posted June 18, 2009 by David Radd

Cliff Bleszinski is one of the best known and most outspoken game creators in the industry, thanks to his role in making Gears of War a success. While the Gears of War series certainly has its intense moments, Bleszinski has indicated to OXM U.K. [thanks CVG] he is not working on a horror game for his next project.

"[Horror]'s a genre that's near and dear to me and I would love to somewhere down the line get around to doing something like that. But it's a tough sell when you start making something psychological, single-player oriented, very nuance-based," said Bleszinski. "And that will be a challenge, because in case you haven't noticed, at Epic, we're not always that good at nuance. We tend to paint with large brushstrokes. So no, I'm not making a horror game next. Gears is very much near and dear to me."

While Bleszinski has been working almost exclusively on the Gears of War franchise for the past few years, he indicated he's does not feel "shackled" by the franchise. "There's only been two Gears games, man," said Bleszinski. "There's still plenty of opportunities for things you can do in a cover-based shooter and there's still a lot of stories to tell in the Gears universe. I'm not burned out on that at all."

Cliff Bleszinski: admitted douchebag.

While Gears of War is an established franchise at this point, Bleszinski mostly likes it because it means working on an original IP rather than a licensed one. "Whenever I talk to people in the business, I ask 'What are you working on?' and when they say 'I'm working on a new IP,' I say 'Good for you!' Because I swear to god, if tomorrow someone came to Epic and forced me to do a licensed IP - 'you have to make the new video game for the new Mummy movie' - I would go out back and put a shotgun in my mouth," he noted.

While no one can question the success of the games Bleszinski has made, his reputation is a bit mixed among gamers for his perceived brash attitude. Referring specifically about the infamous Lancer chainsaw photo, he said, "That was originally going to be for that Rolling Stone issue. We took that picture like a year ago. And people said, 'Cliffy needs to stop doing photo shoots and be more focused on the games!' It's like, dude - that was me grabbing Aaron Smith at work and going outside for five minutes and taking two f**king photos," he explained. "What did you think, it was like four hours of makeup and stylists and hookers and blow all day long? If I'm not there working with the guys, I start going crazy. The criticism is what it is; you can't put yourself out there and not expect a little bit of flack."

When asked point blank if he is a douchebag, he sarcastically responded, "I'm a giant douchebag."

Bleszinski is certainly nice enough in person, from our experience.  From what little we've seen, Bleszinski is one of few game designers with Hollywood charisma; we've seen him with girls hanging all over him at public hang-outs, so take that for what you will.

David Radd has worked as a gaming journalist since 2004 at sites such as GamerFeed, Gigex and GameDaily Biz.