Video game industry veteran Cliff “CliffyB” Bleszinski recalls a bitter rivalry with id Software co-founder and Doom co-creator John Romero while working at Epic Games in the 1990s. Admitted.
Bleszinski told IGN that as co-designer of Unreal, he’s “trying to beat” id Software’s Quake and its lead designer and director, Romero.
“I thought of Romero as an enemy,” he said. “He was dating Stevie Case at the time, who was on Playboy and stuff, so I was like, ‘I’m going to beat that guy.’ Going back to wanting it, you had it all and flaunted it. [Quake].”
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“Ramiro was one of the first Rockstar game designers, and I looked at his playbooks and tried to imitate it as best I could. I was like, ‘Rock and roll, mate.'” [of] A pop culture madman. ”
According to Bleszinski, Epic used the concept of “counter programming” at the time. There, we looked at what id Software was doing and then doing the opposite so he put it together and appealed to a different audience.
“Yeah, we were making a multiplayer first-person shooter, but we wanted it to be brightly colored, not dark and boring,” he said. “In the beginning he’s the same in Unreal. Unreal had bright colored lighting, and sky castles, and all these beautiful environments. Quake, on the other hand, was deep and dark and fueled by Trent Resner. , was the dungeon of Cthulhu.”
Although he is now good friends with Romero, Brzezinski admitted he went too far with some elements of the rivalry.Romero founded Ion Storm after leaving id Software in 1996. However, the studio was not very successful and closed in 2005.
Brzezinski said, “It’s a classic Hollywood story rooting for Romero’s downfall.” “I’ve had a lot of very talented people hired at Epic Games. [when Ion Storm shut down]but in hindsight, it’s one of those things that really sucks to see someone else’s studio fail.
“Then again, the Matrix gods were sending me another signal: ‘Okay, your studio is going to fail. You’ll see how that feels,'” he said. added.
Bleszinski co-founded Boss Key Productions in 2014, and the studio began working on Lawbreakers, a PC arena shooter meant to rival Overwatch. He deployed a “counterprogramming” strategy to once again destroy Blizzard’s game, but the Roe Breakers never took off and Boss His Key His Productions shut down in his 2018.
Meanwhile, Romero is currently (ironically) creating a new first-person shooter in Unreal Engine 5, and is also developing Sigil 2 (which runs on Doom 2’s engine) at his studio Romero Games.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He talks about witchers all day long.
