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visit GAMES FEATURE
18 MAY 2016
GAMES
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.
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.
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.
How important was it to implement a story
mode in Battleborn ?
Critical. We love team-games, but most of
them focus solely on multiplayer. So, you end
up with a game that has a roster of awesome
heroes, and the only thing you can do with
them is punch other players on the internet.
That excludes big groups of other players who
either don’t like that kind of play, or don’t like it
all the time. “I want to do more with my cool
heroes!” So from the very beginning, we were
dedicated to having a way to play Battleborn,
through a narrative experience which helps
establish this new cool setting we made, and
gives players a chance to test themselves in
different ways other than with PvP.
Do you need to be connected to the net to
play single player? Even local single player?
Yes. Second only to the character play,
Battleborn is a game about growth and
accomplishment, whether you’re advancing
characters, collecting gear, or completing
achievements and challenges to earn titles. To
maintain the integrity of that accomplishment,
it’s important that we store and track that data
online. This is especially important because the
gear and credits you earn in a story episode
is carried over to online play. If we didn’t
authenticate that through an online account,
we open up the ability for players to edit their
local profile, giving themselves any item or
advantage they wanted, regardless of what
the game required for you to earn that. My
favourite example of this is the Battleborn
title “Pentastrike!”. You have to kill five enemy
players within eight seconds to earn that title.
It’s very hard to do. If we made it easier for
players to circumvent the challenge of earning
that title, it loses its impact. That means it is
a toothless reward. Ultimately, that begins to
erode the integrity of the entire growth/reward
loop of the game, which I believe is one of the
most compelling things about Battleborn .
Who is your demographic?
This is an interesting and yet uncomfortable
question for me to answer! We asked this
question a lot in early Battleborn development,
as we started blending genres together. At
the end of the day, I always want to make
a game that as many players as possible
can enjoy. I also like making ‘new’ things,
and not just rehashing ten-year-old ideas.
Making something new always stretches the
“demographic” question. Ultimately, I think
Battleborn is for core gamers, maybe a bit
mass market. It’s for people who like action
games. It’s for people who like strong, fun
characters. Battleborn is for shooter fans, but
also for people who like to smash things with
axes and swords. At its heart, Battleborn is a
character action game, with strong offerings
playing through challenging story episodes
or against other players in our competitive
modes. It’s a big game, with a lot of appeal to
multiple player types. I hate to throw out the
“something for everyone” phrase, but we did
work very hard to offer substantial content for
a wide group of players.
born to be wild