The video games business is an oft-cruel place. For each sport that will get greenlit for manufacturing, one other dozen concepts are rejected. With his studio – Boss Key Productions – now closing its doors after the failure of Radical Heights, head man and former Epic lead Cliff Bleszinski has been sharing concept art and pitches on Twitter for a trio of video games that writer’s rejected earlier than Nexon determined to fund growth of LawBreakers.
Of the three rejected pitches that Bleszinski shared, ‘Dragonflies’ (as seen above) might be probably the most conventional, however nonetheless one thing that I’d wish to get my fingers on. A singleplayer/co-op sport about samurai/ninja clans that function out of huge airships and experience high-tech gun-toting dragons towards an undead military.
More artwork. You used melee and weapons and will outfit your beasts for fight. Basically do for dragon driving what Halo did for automobiles. pic.twitter.com/NhVJP2f1xW
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
The sport seemed to have some very neat character designs. I particularly just like the peg-legged samurai man down beneath. Also some artwork of the assorted dragon eggs you may discover out on the earth, and the lovable little lizard-babies that may hatch from them. Quite how the sport could possibly be so cute and so edgy on the similar time is baffling. It’s like How To Train Your Dragon, however metallic.
Player characters. pic.twitter.com/Aw501vYdjl
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
Oh and sure, you’d discover dragon eggs, hatch them, and lift them. pic.twitter.com/73XAPBjHzK
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
The drawback with Dragonflies was its ambition. Blezinski estimated a 40 million greenback funds for the sport, which is a tough promote for many publishers. A multiplayer area shooter is undeniably cheaper to provide, and fewer of a monetary threat if it tanks.
The second rejected pitch was for a sport known as DogWalkers, previously often called Project Rover. It was envisioned as a VR multiplayer team-game not solely in contrast to World Of Tanks, with a number of gamers crewing big quadrupedal mechs. Someone dealing with repairs, somebody driving, others manning the weapons and so forth. The preliminary inspiration was the WW2 tank movie Fury.
Here’s one other one, initially deliberate for VR, codenamed “Rover” however was shaping as much as be “DogWalkers” – DOG stood for Destructive Ordnance (on the) Ground.
Inspired by WW2 tank crews/battles/the film Fury. 5 v 5 v 5 v 5 v 5 Zoid trying walkers combating it out in MP. pic.twitter.com/2UkGtwk2iH
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
While there’s much less artwork for DogWalkers than the opposite pitches, it’s one other instantly interesting idea. It’s straightforward to see why it was rejected although, contemplating that VR continues to be discovering its footing and headset producers haven’t even selected a regular for controllers but.
The final pitch was for Donuts! Another VR sport, it was to be optionally multiplayer, presumably a nod again to Epic’s Jazz Jackrabbit roots, and was primarily impressed by ’80s arcade racing sport Toobin. Cute cartoon animals experience rubber rings by way of rivers and rapids, with the gamers paddling with their fingers to rotate and pace themselves alongside.
Here’s the foolish/enjoyable one – principally a VR religious sequel to Toobin, solely everybody are animals – and a strategy to battle Seasonal Affection Disorder. (Mario Kart on water with animals in VR.)
Called “Donuts.” pic.twitter.com/wNKef9QsS4
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
More artwork. pic.twitter.com/R9I64nDJKC
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
It had some actually cute concepts on high of the apparent visible allure. Cans of ginger beer floating within the water could possibly be scooped up and utilized in a mess of the way. Drink them for well being, shake them and throw them at different gamers to make use of as explosive weapons, and so on. I can’t think about how annoyed Boss Key should have been after having that one rejected, and seeing the mechanically comparable Sprint Vector so nicely acquired.
It’d be a really perfect sport to play sitting down as nicely. Sprawl out in an armchair and flop your arms out over the edges for the genuine rubber ring expertise. But sadly, it simply wasn’t to be. Blezinski is eager to reiterate that these weren’t simply his personal ideas, however studio-wide collaborative designs that Boss Key Productions poured a variety of coronary heart and hope into. It’s a disgrace they by no means got here to be, and I hope that the now-scattered studio workers (at the moment being snapped up by different corporations) get to work on their dream sport sometime.
