Earlier this week, 2P and 17173 were invited to attend
Battleborn's pre-beta event in Taiwan. During the event, we had an opportunity to interview Battleborn's
art director Scott Kester who previously served as a concept artist on both Borderlands and Borderlands 2, and also
art producer Sarah Rosa. We talked about game's unique art style, future plans after launch as well as its biggest opponent Overwatch. You can also find Chinese version of interview
here.
You can also check out our
experience on Battleborn Incursion mode here. The hands-on footage of story mode will be released on next Wednesday.
The art style in Battleborn is very unique. It's a sci-fi shooter mixing gun, magic, martial art and more. What were the thoughts when team decided to put these concepts into Battleborn? Scott: We had finished Borderlands and Borderlands 2 and we had been excited about the characters that we had made. But we were wondering what would happen if we really expanded the rules if you will, to go from something that was kind of locked to a planet to something that was like the universe.
So one of the first things to think about was like how does that look and what style could we choose that would let us have a mushroom in a game with a bird with a rocket hawk guy with a penguin with a wrestler. So, like it made a lot of sense for the look to go in this sort of slightly more, you know, in a stylized manner and this more exaggerated manner.
We sort of I think had a mandate that was just like don't limit ourselves, like, create -- start with something that means we can make whatever we want. Like inside of there. And I think that’s kind of where it started and then the character ideas started to flow.
The pitches got crazier, the team is allowed to pitch any ideas they have for be it gameplay, be it a look of something and we would just try to take that kind of inspiration and run with it. So we never have really been one to just say we probably shouldn't do that. I don't think we ever said. I don't know. Maybe. If anything, I was always trying to prompt us to get a little whackier, get a little crazier, like, integrate more personality and just things I haven’t really seen in a game.
There are 5 distinguished factions in Battleborn, and each faction features different stylized characters. What do the design inspirations come from?Sarah: For example, the LLC are very advanced faction. They always have better shield to improve their defence. Another example the Eldrid faction is very nature oriented. They don’t have any shield at all. It’s kind of woozy, so we have character like Thorn and Boldur in this faction. From fiction to fiction, they have unique features. There are also faction gears in Battleborn to enhance faction related trait, but any faction can use any gear. If I play Eldrid but I want to add some shield, I may equip LLC’s gears.
Will Gearbox publish fiction or animation to detail the story behind the characters?Scott: I think the cool thing is there is a lot of depth and things inside the game like lore like challenges that unlocked when you play the game. During the story campaign, you will definitely get a little more inside about the background of the characters. The more you play a character, you will unlock audio clips, skins and more to let you know more about the character. But yeah moving forward, we’d love to expand more related content in the future.
Apart from those common FPS elements, Battleborn introduces Helix system to allow players to have diversified strategies at the battleground. Does it increase the gap between veteran players and new comers? Sarah: I think with the way the system’s set up, if you're an experienced player, you can sort of really dig into it and try to master it and sort of have these more thought through strategies before you go in. But I also think coming in as a new player, it's actually a fairly welcoming system because it is this sort of rapid progression and you get to start fresh every round.
You're not making these large decisions that you're going to be stuck with forever. It's something that you can sort of experiment around with and play with while you learn a character. And that’s something that I hope people do. With so many characters, there's going to be ones that you might not have played right away. When you try a new one, getting to experiment with their Helix is I think a lot of fun and, you know, something that adds a lot to the gameplay.
Sarah: I think it's easy to kind of understand the basic principles, but I think there's a lot of depth in there to master. So there's a lot to decipher and understand, but I think we've tried to create a gateway that was pretty simple with only a couple options to start from and kind of build from there.
Q: We know the game will launch in May, and there are two months before the game's official launch. What will the Dev team focus on during this period of time?Scott: We are focusing last minute balance and polish the game. We try to go through the continuously test the game to make sure that character to character reaction is as good as we can make it.
Any plan after launch? Do you have any idea what the ranked play system may look like? Scott: As of right now, when you do match up with players, it will match to your skill level and commander level. Everything goes deeper than that as far as like something that a bit more associated with eSports. We are also waiting for the reaction of game to the gamers. We want to see that something is really demanded. We'd love to support that. This is Gearbox's first for real competitive game, and the eSports category is not you can just like walking into. It's something you really have to take baby steps towards. So our first thing is ensure people will enjoy this game and really want to play more on this game. We are waiting to see what are fans interested in and what is community excited about.
Coincidently, Overwatch pre-order open beta launches on the same day as Battleborn’s release date. What do you think about Battleborn’s biggest opponent Overwatch? Scott: The story of our game and Overwatch is interesting because obviously neither company had any idea that we were making games that have some parody wants, you know? I think both of the games are different enough. I've played Overwatch, they’ve probably played our game to some extent. I feel like we're making two games that can kind of coexist. But, you know, it's interesting. obviously they're launching their beta the day that our game comes out. I don't know, flattered a little? I'm not sure what the best response really is for that, but I mean I think that with us having a full campaign that’s cooperative with having a pretty rich meta-game with gear that actually influences my end game play, be it if it is in a campaign or if it is in the competitive side of things. I think there are similarities between the games but I feel like there's a lot of differences in them as well.
Sarah: Yeah. I mean as a gamer, I'm happy to be in a world where we have so much variety and so many options. So, I mean every one of the studio’s gamers, we're looking forward to getting to play their game. I hope they're looking forward to getting to play our game too. And yeah, I mean I just like that there's a lot of choice out there.
With so many other team shooters in the market, how does Battleborn stand out from the rest?Scott: I think our campaign sets us apart. Our story mode is I think a huge plus for us and it's something that you can experience single player alone if you want or you can play cooperatively with friends. Obviously, Gearbox has a really good pedigree in cooperative play, so I think that’s an added thing that differentiates us from other games. Also, our Helix system, that fast progression that you have, that you get to refresh in every match is very unique to Battleborn and I think allows you to have a lot of choice as a player in every match that you're doing.
Sarah: Yeah. I think our competitive modes too. I mean we have three pretty distinct ones in there too, and I think there's a lot of replayability inside of those. And also, I believe our character roster is a little larger than both of those so I think we have a little more choice and I think we have a few more options inside of our game.
Battleborn is a cross-platform game that will be available on PS4, Xbox One and also PC. Will players from different server play together or in the separated platform?
We are separated by platform right now. But I know Microsoft just made an announcement the other day. Since we are developing for quite well now, we aren't able to do that because it's how first party's work but we all want that to happen.