Games development legend (and Unreal Tournament designer) Cliff Bleszinski has dropped a few hints that he might be looking to start development on a new fast-paced arena first-person shooter.
The fascinating interview, which is well worth a listen, can be listened to on the Pointless podcast. After taking a break from the industry for the past year, Bleszinski confirmed that he has “a slide deck” for a new project. “I have a pitch. I have concept art. I know pretty much what I want to do,” he said.
“It will be a PC experience that will hearken back to a certain type of game that we cut our teeth on.”
The project in Bleszinski’s head is also a first-person shooter. “It’s in my DNA,” he said.
“A lot of these kids playing Call of Duty, I don’t think they know what a proper arena shooter is,” he added. Elsewhere in the interview, Bleszinski also said he never wants to make a game again that features cutscenes or scripted sequences, and that he doesn’t think he’ll ever go back to Epic.
Bleszinski also reflected on how developers can get jaded in the industry, and said how old ideas can be successfully reintroduced into popular culture.
“The thing that a lot of developers don’t realise is every 10 years you can take a game mechanic or an IP and and reintroduce it to an audience. Look at I, Frankenstein coming out as a movie. [Kids] don’t remember the Robert de Niro/Kenneth Branagh one that came out in the 90s because they were 6. So it’s brand new. All these kids who love Sookie Stackhouse, they never watched Buffy. These kids who like The Walking Dead, they don’t know Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. So it’s the same thing. Every 10 years. It’s cyclical. But the problem is you get developers who are in their 30s on up, and you get jaded developer syndrome.”
For the record, it’s been six years since an Unreal Tournament game was released.
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