Cliff Bleszinski

Cliff Bleszinski (/bləˈzɪnski/; born February 12, 1975), popularly known as CliffyB,[2] is an American video game designer, known for his work in the development of the Unreal and Gears of War series.[5] After working at Epic Games from 1992 to 2012, he co-founded Boss Key Productions in 2014.

Cliff Bleszinski
Bleszinski presenting at the 2016 Game Developers Conference
Born (1975-02-12) February 12, 1975[1][2]
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.[2]
Other namesCliffyB, Dude Huge[3]
OccupationGame designer
Spouse(s)
Lauren Bleszinski
​
(m. 2012)​
[4]

Career

His first game was The Palace of Deceit,[6] an adventure title he started at the age of 15.[7] Programmed in Visual Basic, its second version came out when he was 16.[7]

Epic Games (1992–2012)

Bleszinski got his start at Epic Games in 1992, after submitting his next game, Dare to Dream, to the company's CEO, Tim Sweeney.[2][8] Though Dare to Dream did not achieve a great success,[8] it led Bleszinski to work on Jazz Jackrabbit, a platformer co-developed by demoscene coder Arjan Brussee.[8][9] The title, which came out in 1994, became Epic's biggest selling game at the time, earning him enough money to get his first apartment and car.[8][10] It was also around this time that he joined Sweeney and James Schmalz on what would become Unreal,[11] which received a follow-up, Unreal Tournament,[12] and expanded into a series of games.

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

In addition to his work on the Unreal series, Bleszinski served as creative consultant on Rune,[13] and as lead designer on the first three installments of the Gears of War franchise, which has sold over 22 million copies and earned over one billion in revenue as of January 2014.[14] Gears evolved out of the development of what was going to be a game called Unreal Warfare.[15] 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.[16] Over time, however, influenced by the cover mechanic in Namco's 2003 game Kill Switch and the third-person Resident Evil 4, Unreal Warfare became the game known as Gears of War.[17]

After 20 years with the company, Cliff announced his departure from Epic Games on October 3, 2012, saying he had been making video games since he was a teen and wanted to take a break.[18][19] According to a 2015 interview, his original intention was to retire permanently. "I honestly thought I was done... It was a combination of gamers feeling jaded, as well as working with some very talented people who were also very jaded," Bleszinski told Destructoid. "I could pitch the most amazing idea to anybody back when I was at Epic toward the end, and they'd be like 'I don't buy it,'" he added.[20]

Boss Key Productions (2014–2018)

On June 30, 2014, Cliff announced on Twitter that he was "coming out of retirement to make video games again" and would be unveiling his next project in the next week.[21] The new game, a free-to-play, PC-focused arena shooter code-named BlueStreak, would be published by Nexon and developed by his new studio, Boss Key Productions, which he co-founded with Brussee the same year.[22][23] A year later, Bleszinski revealed that the arena shooter would be called LawBreakers.[24]

Cliff Bleszinski was offered an opportunity to work on the Silent Hill franchise by Hideo Kojima, vice president of Konami Digital Entertainment.[25] "I was flattered but declined," he wrote on Twitter.[25] In May 2016, he joined the board of advisers for Fig, a mixed crowd-funding/investment platform for video games.[26]

On May 14, 2018, Bleszinski announced the dissolution of Boss Key Productions, citing lackluster sales.[27]

Post-gaming career (2018–present)

After closure of Boss Key, Bleszinski has gotten involved with theater production. He invested and co-produced Hadestown, and plans to be similarly involved with a revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. He also seeks to publish a memoir of his gaming career, comparing the work to Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential.[28] He has also expressed interest in returning to the Gears of War series as an advisor.[29]

Personal life

Cliff is married to Lauren Bleszinski (née Berggren), a former professional gamer and id Software employee.[30] Previously, he was married to a woman named Darcy.[13] One of his brothers[lower-alpha 1] is Tyler Bleszinski, the founder of Polygon sister site and Vox Media progenitor SB Nation.[31] Their father, who died when Cliff was 15,[32] was an engineer for Polaroid.[2] 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.[2] However, in 2008 he expressed a desire to retire the moniker, saying it's "time to grow up a bit".[33]

In 1988, at 13, Cliff appeared in the first issue of Nintendo Power for earning the high score of 9,999,950 in Super Mario Bros.[2][34] Regarding the achievement, in a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone he commented: "That was probably one of the moments when I realized, deep-down and subconsciously, I wanted to be a 'name' in this business of video games."[35] He also went to the Nintendo World Championships when he was 15, coming in second in Massachusetts.[36]

In 2000, PC Gamer called Bleszinski one of the "Next Game Gods" in its November issue, believing that he would eventually become an "industry legend."[13] Wired magazine awarded him a Rave Award in 2007 for his work on Gears of War.[37] On April 12, 2010, he appeared on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, where he showed the debut trailer for Gears of War 3 and cited Space Invaders as the game that initially inspired him.[38][39]

Bleszinski has opened two bars in Raleigh, North Carolina, one in 2014, called The Station,[40] and another one in 2015, The Raleigh Beer Garden.[41]

Bleszinski stated that he is an atheist.[42]

Credits
Bleszinski at PAX Prime 2012

Video games

Filmography

Notes
  1. His other brother is Greg Bleszinski.[2]

References
  1. @therealcliffyb (February 12, 2020). "It's my birthday.I would truly appreciate a happy from y'all, if y'all can. Also, I'm fucking old. :)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. Bissell, Tom (November 3, 2008). "The Grammar of Fun". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on December 24, 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
  3. Ashcraft, Brian (April 8, 2010). "Why We Call Him Dude Huge". Kotaku. Archived from the original on September 17, 2012. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  4. Crecente, Brian. "Their future is Epic: The evolution of a gaming giant". Polygon. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  5. Gaudiosi, John (July 21, 2014). "Interview: Legendary designer Cliff Bleszinski discusses the future of free-to-play shooters". PC World. International Data Group. Archived from the original on October 15, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  6. Freeman, Will (December 5, 2011). "FAQ: Cliff Bleszinski". Develop. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  7. "Cliff Blezinski Reddit AMA (transcript)". September 14, 2012. Archived from the original on February 5, 2016. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  8. Edwards, Benj (May 25, 2009). "From The Past To The Future: Tim Sweeney Talks (page 8)". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on July 29, 2017. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  9. Fahs, Travis (January 9, 2009). "...And All That Jazz". IGN. Archived from the original on August 24, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
  10. Bleszinski, Cliff. "The Summer That Launched My Career". Control500. Archived from the original on July 6, 2017. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  11. Keighley, Geoffrey. "Blinded By Reality: The True Story Behind the Creation of Unreal". GameSpot. Archived from the original on May 19, 2001. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
  12. Reinhart, Brandon (June 9, 2000). "Postmortem: Epic Games' Unreal Tournament". Gamasutra. UBM plc. Archived from the original on October 17, 2016. Retrieved October 11, 2016.
  13. PC Gamer. "Meet The Next Game Gods". PC Gamer. Vol. 7 no. November 2000. Future plc. pp. 1, 70 & 84.
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