Cliff Bleszinski, the former lead designer on the Gears of War franchise of games, has tweeted out some details on the development of the franchise’s first three games.
Bleszinski’s series of tweets using the hashtag #GearsFacts began Monday night when he said, “Marcus had bright blue eyes because my father did, so I pushed for that,” linking to an article on Kotaku about Gears of War: Ultimate Edition.
Marcus had bright blue eyes because my father did, so I pushed for that. #GearsFacts @papiblez http://t.co/horRDUwiwg
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) August 25, 2015
He followed up the first tweet with a series of facts that only someone intimately involved in its inception, development, and creative direction could know. It seems that much of the inspiration for Gears of War’s story came from Bleszinski’s own personal life at the time. We’ve gathered some of our favorites below. (Spoiler warning for Gears of War 1-3).
- Bleszinski originally pitched a “chainsaw gun” in 1997 for a game called OverFiend. The game was not made, but the chainsaw gun made its way into Gears of War as “The Lancer.”
- Executive producer Rod Fergusson was assigned to work on Gears of War by Microsoft at E3 “years ago,” where Fergusson wore the do-rag that is worn by Gears of War protagonist Marcus Fenix. “At that point I could tell he adored the franchise,” Bleszinski said of Fergusson.
- “A lot of Gears 1's inspiration game out of my sadness from the failure of my first marriage and a visit to London,” Bleszinski said.
- Bleszinski regrets some of the darker thematic elements of Gears of War, like, the purpose of the berserker. “In hindsight, the Berserker being female and being chained down for breeding is really fucked up. I was in a dark place,” he said.
- Bleszinski met singer/songwriter Gary Jules when the artist was performing in Raleigh, North Carolina. Bleszinski introduced himself to Jules “and we chilled,” he said. Jules’ “Mad World” song was used in a trailer for Gears of War 1 and again in the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition launch trailer.
- Prior to pitching Gears of War to Microsoft, Bleszinski performed “a bunch” of push-ups in his hotel, while listening to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” he said.
- Citing the fact that Gears of War was a new IP, used a new camera, new type of multiplayer, and more, Bleszinski said pitching the game “was hard” and “on paper it was set to fail.”
- Bleszinski cited Theresa Marie "Terri" Schiavo’s case, who was in an irreversible persistent vegetative state while her husband and parents argued for and against the continued use of life-support to prolong Schiavo’s life, respectively, as inspiration for Dom’s wife, Maria, calling Maria his “personal statement on Terri Schaivo [sic] and my belief in right to death…through a dudebro shooter with lizard men.”
- The lead level designer on Gears of War 2 wanted the character of Tai “to just jump off a cliff or something, but I pushed for the shotgun suicide,” Bleszinski said.
- Wanting to make another political statement through his game, “The torture the Locust did in Gears was my thinly veiled statement about [Guantanamo Bay]…through a dudebro shooter with lizardmen,” he said.
- Speaking on the name of protagonist Marcus Fenix, Bleszinski said Fenix was chosen as his last name “because I lost everything from the failed [first] marriage and was rising from my own ashes.”
Check out Bleszinski’s Twitter account and the hashtag #GearsFacts to read more from the franchise’s former lead designer.
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, the remastered re-release of the original Gears of War, launches tomorrow, Aug. 25 on Xbox One with an install size clocking in at 44.2GB. It also includes download codes for all previous Gears of War games on Xbox 360, which will be playable on Xbox One when backwards compatibility goes live for the public later this year.
