Skip to main content

Long read: How TikTok's most intriguing geolocator makes a story out of a game

Where in the world is Josemonkey?

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Cliff Bleszinski wants to make a PC arena-based FPS

"It's in my DNA."

Gears of War and Unreal Tournament creator Cliff Bleszinski is hoping to make an arena-based first-person shooter on PC.

Unreal Tournament 3. Could this represent the arena shooter that Bleszinski wants to resurrect?

The legendary developer expressed this desire on the Pointless podcast. "I have a slide deck, I have a pitch, I have concept art, I know pretty much what I want to do," Bleszinski said. "It will be a PC experience that will hearken back to a certain type of game that we cut our teeth on."

When asked what genre it would be, Bleszinski replied, "first-person shooter. It's in my DNA." Elsewhere in the interview he stated, "I don't ever want to make a game that has a cutscene or a scripted sequence in it ever again."

As far as who he'll make this mystery game with or how many people it will require, Bleszinski said, "It will require a studio. As much as I'm impressed with No Man's Sky, that's four people. They're going to be bleeding out of their eyeballs to get that thing done."

He made it clear that while he still liked a lot of people at Epic, he would never go back there. "What I want to do is something that is familiar, yet different. I don't want to work with the old guard, per se... The last thing i need is some marketing guy saying, 'Well, traditionally this doesn't sell well.'"

"They're all rearward-looking, and it just drives me f****** bats***," he complained. On that note, he also critiqued the direction the genre has gone in, saying, "A lot of these kids playing Call of Duty- I don't think they know what a proper arena shooter is."

Read this next