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Cliff Bleszinski

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Clifford Bleszinski
Bleszinski presenting at the 2016 Game Developers Conference
Born
Clifford Michael Bleszinski

(1975-02-12) February 12, 1975 (age 49)
North Andover, Massachusetts, U.S.
Other namesCliffyB, Dude Huge[1]
OccupationGame designer
SpouseLauren Bleszinski

Clifford Michael Bleszinski (born February 12, 1975), popularly known as CliffyB, is an American video game designer, former design director for the game development company Epic Games, and the co-founder of Boss Key Productions. He is known for his role in the development of the Unreal franchise, especially 1999's Unreal Tournament, and the Gears of War franchise.[2]

Career

Cliff Bleszinski made his first non-commercial game at the age of 11.[3] His first commercial game was made at age 17, an independently developed point-and-click adventure game called "The Palace of Deceit: Dragon's Plight".[4][5] Bleszinski created the game while he was a student at Bonita High School in La Verne, California, and released it in 1991 via his own company, Game Syndicate Productions. He sent a copy of the game to Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games (then known as Epic MegaGames).[6] Sweeney was impressed with the game and hired Bleszinski to work at Epic.[7][8]

Epic Games

His next game was Dare to Dream, a point-and-click adventure, released in 1993. Bleszinski worked on one of Epic's first multi-person projects brought, 1994's Jazz Jackrabbit followed by 1998's Jazz Jackrabbit 2, and designed the first-person shooter game Unreal Tournament.[9]

In addition to his work on the Unreal series, Bleszinski served as lead designer on the Xbox 360 shooter Gears of War and its sequel, Gears of War 2. Gears evolved out of the development of what was going to be a game called Unreal Warfare.[10] As Bleszinski explained in a speech at GDC 2007 entitled "Designing Gears of War: Iteration Wins," the game started out as another first-person shooter in the Unreal universe.[11] Over time, however, influenced by the cover mechanic in Namco's 2003 game Kill Switch and the third-person Resident Evil 4,[12] Unreal Warfare became the game known as Gears of War. On April 12, 2010, he appeared on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to promote Gears of War 3,[13][14] his last game for the company.[15][16]

Bleszinski at the Gears of War event at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 2006

Bleszinski is one of the creators of Epic Game's Infinity Blade, released in 2010. It is the first mobile game that he designed.[17]

Cliff announced his departure from Epic Games on October 3, 2012 after 20 years with the company, saying he had been making video games since he was a teen and wanted to take a break.[18][19]

Boss Key Productions

After a 2-year hiatus,[20][21] he announced a free-to-play, PC-focused arena shooter code-named BlueStreak created by Boss Key Productions, his new studio.[22][23][24]

On August 26, 2015, Cliff Bleszinksi revealed the first details about his upcoming free-to-play arena shooter, previously known as BlueStreak. The game, which is due out some time in 2016 and going to be published by Nexon, will be called LawBreakers.[25]

Cliff Bleszinski was offered an opportunity to work on the Silent Hill franchise by Hideo Kojima, vice president of Konami Digital Entertainment.[26][27] "I was flattered but declined," he wrote on Twitter.[27]

Bleszinski joined the board of advisers for Fig, a mixed crowd-funding/investment platform for video games, in May 2016.[28]

Personal life

Cliff is married to blogger Lauren Bleszinski (née Berggren).[29] One of his brothers is Tyler Bleszinski, a sports blogger who founded Athletics Nation and Vox Media. His father, whom Bleszinski describes as a "very stressed-out guy," was an engineer for Polaroid.[6] The nickname "CliffyB" was given to him derogatorily by "some jock kid" when he was a shy teenager; he then took it and developed a tougher persona around it.[6] In 2008, he expressed a desire to retire the CliffyB moniker, saying it's "time to grow up a bit".[30] Bleszinski is an atheist[31] (although he can sometimes be seen wearing a cross—see this pic [32]).

Bleszinski has opened two bars in Raleigh, North Carolina, one in 2014, called The Station,[33] and another one in 2015, The Raleigh Beer Garden.[34]

Credits

Bleszinski at PAX Prime 2012

Video games

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Ashcraft, Brian (April 8, 2010). "Why We Call Him Dude Huge". Kotaku. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  2. ^ Gaudiosi, John (July 21, 2014). "Interview: Legendary designer Cliff Bleszinski discusses the future of free-to-play shooters". PC World. International Data Group. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  3. ^ "Cliff Bleszinski (Person) - Giant Bomb". www.giantbomb.com. Retrieved March 14, 2016.
  4. ^ Alexander, Leigh (February 18, 2014). "With new perspective on life and games, Cliff Bleszinski plots next move". Gamasutra. UBM plc. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  5. ^ Hsu, Dan (January 22, 2013). "Life after Epic: Getting to know Cliff Bleszinski (exclusive interview, part one: his past)". VentureBeat. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  6. ^ a b c Bissel, Tom (November 3, 2008). "The Grammar of Fun. CliffyB and the world of the video game". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
  7. ^ Cobbett, Richard (July 12, 2014). "Saturday Crapshoot: The Palace Of Deceit". PC Gamer. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
  8. ^ K. Ohnesorge, Lauren (September 25, 2014). "Exclusive: Q&A with the boss behind Boss Key Productions: Cliff Bleszinski". Triangle Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  9. ^ Reinhart, Brandon (June 9, 2000). "Postmortem: Epic Games' Unreal Tournament". Gamasutra. UBM plc. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
  10. ^ Kuchera, Ben (May 7, 2012). "How Gears of War rose from the ashes of a scrapped Unreal title called "Warfare"". The Penny Arcade Report. Retrieved April 21, 2016.[dead link]
  11. ^ Dobson, Jason (March 12, 2007). "Post-GDC: Cliff Bleszinski Says Iteration Won Gears of War". Gamasutra. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
  12. ^ Carlson, Alex (June 5, 2014). "How Gears of War Was the Xbox 360's Smartest Game". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
  13. ^ Butts, Steve (April 12, 2010). "Gears Of War 3 On Jimmy Fallon". IGN. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  14. ^ Narcisse, Evan (April 13, 2010). "The Techland Interview: Cliff Bleszinski, Part 1". Techland Time. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  15. ^ Hoggings, Tom (September 19, 2011). "Gears of War 3 interview: Cliff Bleszinski". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  16. ^ Killingsworth, Jason (September 29, 2011). "Cliff Bleszinski interview". Edge. Future plc. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  17. ^ "GDC: Exclusive Interview-Epic Games CliffyB Cliff Bleszinski Talks Infinity Blade Dungeons & more by GamerLiveTV - 2016-03-15". i1os.com. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  18. ^ Epic Games (October 3, 2012). "Cliff Bleszinski Departs Epic". Epic Games Community. Epic Games. Archived from the original on October 4, 2012. Retrieved November 21, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ Makuch, Eddie (October 3, 2012). "Cliff Bleszinski out at Epic Games". GameSpot. Retrieved October 8, 2012.
  20. ^ Makuch, Eddie (July 3, 2014). "Gears of War Veteran Developer Cliff Bleszinski "Coming Out Of Retirement"". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  21. ^ Hsu, Dan (July 21, 2014). "Cliff Bleszinski on his retirement, returning, what he's learned, and where he's going from here (interview)". VentureBeat. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  22. ^ a b Campbell, Evan (July 8, 2014). "Gear of War Designer Cliff Bleszinski announces F2P shooter BlueStreak". IGN. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  23. ^ LeJacq, Yannick (July 8, 2014). "Cliff Bleszinski's Next Game Is A Free-To-Play Shooter". Kotaku. Retrieved September 27, 2014.
  24. ^ Lahti, Evan (July 23, 2014). "Interview: Cliff Bleszinski on Project BlueStreak, PC gaming, FPS design, moddability". PC Gamer. Future plc. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  25. ^ Karmali, Luke (August 26, 2015). "Gears of War Creator Cliff Bleszinski Announces New Game LawBreakers". IGN. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  26. ^ "Cliff Bleszinski Turned Down A Chance to Work With Hideo Kojima on Silent Hills". Shacknews. Retrieved March 14, 2016.
  27. ^ a b Sirani, By Jordan. "Kojima Wanted to Make Silent Hills With Gears of War Creator Cliff Bleszinski". IGN. Retrieved March 14, 2016.
  28. ^ Nutt, Christian (May 10, 2016). "Cliff Bleszinski invests in crowdfunding platform Fig". Gamasutra. Retrieved May 10, 2016.
  29. ^ Kumpan, Sean (March 12, 2013). "EL337 Level: Interview with Lauren Bleszinski". PS Home Gazette. Archived from the original on March 15, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  30. ^ Blog post on MTV Multiplayer. Multiplayerblog.mtv.com (2008-05-21). Retrieved on 2012-11-21.
  31. ^ "Twitter / therealcliffyb: And I'm not Jewish. I'm an Atheist". Twitter.com. June 19, 2013. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  32. ^ Bleszinski at the Gears of War 2 launch event in Universal City Walk, LA in 2008. Retrieved 5 Oct 2016.
  33. ^ Gaudiosi, John (July 22, 2014). "From Gears to Beers: A Video Game Mogul Opens a Restaurant". Men's Journal. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  34. ^ Weigl, Andrea (July 17, 2015). "Raleigh Beer Garden to open Tuesday". The News & Observer. The McClatchy Company. Retrieved July 20, 2015.
  35. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z "Mobygames Developer BIO". mobygames.com. Retrieved February 7, 2011.
  36. ^ Brown, David (February 18, 2011). "Bulletstorm developer interview: Cliff Bleszinski". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  37. ^ Hall, Charlie (July 11, 2014). "Cliff Bleszinski's next game level is being made in Poland right now". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  38. ^ jgaudiosi (September 26, 2006). ""Stay Alive" Hits DVD". videogames.typepad. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  39. ^ "WARREN SPECTOR TRIBUTE with Cliff Bleszinski". YouTube. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  40. ^ "SAKAGUCHI'S FINAL FANTASY". YouTube. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  41. ^ "Jake and Amir: The Hot Date presented by Gears of War 3". YouTube. Retrieved November 25, 2016.
  42. ^ "Sonic For Hire – Gears of War". YouTube. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  43. ^ "Class in session! Video Game High School 2 Ep. 1 is live". Destructoid. July 26, 2013.
  44. ^ Makedonski, Brett (March 25, 2014). "Cliffy B chooses you to die in this Pokemon rap". Destructoid. Retrieved March 26, 2014.
  45. ^ http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-video-games-movie-review-20140718-001-photo.html
  46. ^ "The Golden Sins Of Horror Games (The Jimquisition)". YouTube. October 31, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2016.
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