Cliff Bleszinski

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Cliff Bleszinski at the launch event for Gears of War 2 at Universal CityWalk, Los Angeles (2008).

Clifford Michael Bleszinski (born February 12, 1975 in North Andover , Massachusetts ), called Cliff or CliffyB , is an American computer game developer . As a long-time employee and design director of the Epic Games development studio , he was involved in the development of the Unreal game series , in particular Unreal Tournament , and Gears of War . In 2009, he was named one of the 100 most important game developers of all time by IGN .

Personal

Bleszinski's nickname "CliffyB" was originally a derogatory abuse of his name from his teenage years. Bleszinski has not actively used the name since 2008, but is often still used in public under this name. He has a brother named Tyler Bleszinski, a sports blogger and founder of athletics nation sports news site and online media company Vox Media . Bleszinski describes the Japanese game developer Shigeru Miyamoto as the greatest influence on his work.

Career

Beginnings

His first commercial game, a point-and-click adventure game entitled The Palace of Deceit: Dragon's Plight , was developed by Bleszinski at the age of 17. Bleszinski was then a student at Bonita High School in La Verne , California, and released the game in 1991 through his own company, Game Syndicate Productions. He sent a copy of the game to Tim Sweeney , founder of Epic Games (known at the time as Epic MegaGames). Sweeney was impressed with the game and gave Bleszinski a job at Epic.

Epic Games

Bleszinski's first game after his debut at Epic was the 1993 point-and-click adventure Dare to Dream . One of Epics' first major projects followed in 1994, the Jump 'n' Run Jazz Jackrabbit , which was continued in 1998 with Jazz Jackrabbit 2 . Bleszinski was also involved in the development of the various offshoots and extensions such as the Christmas level Jazz Jackrabbit: Holiday Hare .

One of his best-known works was his involvement in the first-person shooter Unreal , which was originally based on an idea by epic designer James Schmalz. Bleszinski and Schmalz both served as the game's lead designers. It was Epic's biggest project to date, and it was a huge success when it was released in May 1998. It was followed by a successor, as well as the offshoot series Unreal Tournament with four titles and Unreal Championship with two titles, in which Bleszinski was also involved. With the Unreal Engine developed for the game , Epic also became a leading provider of computer game graphics engines . Bleszinski continued to work as lead designer on the 2006 action game Gears of War for the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console , and as design director on the successors Gears of War 2 (2008) and Gears of War 3 (2011). In this position he was also involved in the development of other titles with Epic's involvement.

Farewell to Epic

On October 3, 2012, Bleszinski announced his departure from Epic Games. The reason he gave was that after 20 years with the company, he wanted to start a new phase of his career and needed a break after developing computer games since he was a teenager.

Boss Key Productions

On April 30, 2014, Bleszinski founded Boss Key Productions in North Carolina. The first game, originally developed under the code name Blue Streak , is called LawBreakers and was released on August 8, 2017 for Windows and Playstation 4.

On May 14, 2018, Bleszinski announced the breakup of Boss Key Productions, citing lackluster sales.

Ludography

Web links

Commons : Cliff Bleszinski  - collection of images, videos and audio files

http://bosskey.com/

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 70. Todd Howard ( English ) In: IGN . News Corp . 2009. Archived from the original on May 25, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 5, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / games.ign.com
  2. ↑ Tom Bissell: The Grammar of Fun . New Yorker November 3, 2008. Retrieved November 21, 2012
  3. ↑ Blog post on MTV Multiplayer ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Multiplayerblog.mtv.com, posted May 21, 2008. Retrieved November 21, 2012  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / multiplayerblog.mtv.com
  4. ↑ Cliff Bleszinski . Giant bomb. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  5. ^ Cliff Bleszinski out at Epic Games . Gamespot. Archived from the original on October 9, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 8, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / uk.gamespot.com
  6. ↑ Cliff Bleszinski Departs Epic | Epic Games Community ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Epicgames.com, posted October 3, 2012. Retrieved November 21, 2012.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / epicgames.com
  7. ^ Cliff Bleszinski closes Boss Key Productions . In: pcgamer . ( pcgamer.com [accessed June 30, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Bleszinski, Cliff
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bleszinski, Clifford Michael (maiden name); CliffyB (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American computer game developer
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1975
PLACE OF BIRTH North Andover (Massachusetts) , United States