STACK #139 May 2016

GAMES FEATURE

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What do you get when Gearbox decides to introduce a new first-person-shooter IP with 25 badass heroes in a 5v5 fight to the death? If you were expecting a cheesy punchline, you can be assured Battleborn is no joke. RandyVarnell, creative director on the new title, offered some insight into what to expect from the studio's latest release. born to be wild

Where did the idea for the new IP originate?

After Borderlands 2 , there were two big things we wanted to do next. First, make more characters, because we LOVE doing that! Second, find a way to bring the Gearbox “stuff” from Borderlands into a competitive multiplayer space. We also really wanted swords (really, melee in general). Multiplayer and melee aren’t quite a part of the Borderlands DNA, and some of our character ideas stretched beyond what we were currently doing in Borderlands. So, Battleborn was... born? We decided to embark on a new IP and create a game around those thoughts.

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Why was 25 heroes the soft spot? We love, love, love making characters. The core promise of Battleborn for us has always been crafting unique and cool characters who can blend together in a number of interesting teams. When developing the characters, we made an early choice to also invent five factions, to both help group up aesthetic and tone choices for players as well as to give our lore some teeth with philosophy and conflict. With game modes based on 5v5 multiplayer, the math speaks for itself: five factions and five player teams, with a “sweet spot” of 25 playable characters as a starting point.

abilities for that game, and there’s an external system that encourages the use of different characters. Is this all about reinforcing the importance of replay? Yes, but it goes further than that. At Gearbox, we love creating games that offer players lots of choice, sort of the RPG influence in what we do. In Borderlands, you have guns and shields and mods and talent trees. In Battleborn , you have the Helix system in-match. We loved playing with different talent builds in Borderlands, and Battleborn essentially allows you to try a different talent build every game if you want. Gear, Command Rank, and Character Rank provide something to tie those matches together.

There’s a progression system within every game to unlock character

MAY 2016

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