Cliff Bleszinski

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Clifford Bleszinski
File:Cliff BIeszinski.jpg
Bleszinski at the Gears of War 2 launch event in Universal City Walk Los Angeles in 2008
Born Clifford Michael Bleszinski
(1975-02-12) February 12, 1975 (age 50)
North Andover, Massachusetts, U.S.
Residence Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.
Other names CliffyB, Dude Huge[1]
Occupation Game designer
Spouse(s) Lauren Bleszinski

Clifford Michael Bleszinski (born February 12, 1975), popularly known as CliffyB, is the former design director for the game development company Epic Games, and the founder of Boss Key Productions. He is most famous for his role in the development of the Unreal franchise, especially 1999's Unreal Tournament, and the Gears of War franchise.[2] He cites Shigeru Miyamoto as his biggest influence.

Career

His first commercial game was made at age 17: an independently developed point-and-click adventure game called The Palace of Deceit: Dragon's Plight.[3][4] Bleszinski created the game while he was a student at Bonita High School in La Verne, California, and released it in 1991 via his own company, Game Syndicate Productions. He also sent a copy of the game to Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games (then known as Epic MegaGames).[5] Sweeney was impressed with the game and hired Bleszinski to work at Epic.[6][7][8]

Epic Games

His next game was Dare to Dream, a point-and-click adventure, released in 1993. One of Epic's first multi-person projects brought Bleszinski's talents to bear on 1994's Jazz Jackrabbit and then 1998's Jazz Jackrabbit 2. He would help develop many of the spin-off games such as Jazz Jackrabbit: Holiday Hare. It was with his involvement in designing the first-person shooter Unreal, though, that Bleszinski began the work for which he is best known today.[citation needed] Unreal grew out of an idea by fellow Epic designer James Schmalz.[9] Bleszinski felt that it was crucial to Epic that Unreal be a success.[citation needed] From the concept in late 1994 to release in May 1998, Epic threw all of its talent and money at Unreal, and it paid off: the result was a successful first-person shooter.[citation needed] In addition to his work on the Unreal series, Bleszinski served as lead designer on the Xbox 360 shooter Gears of War. The game's sequel Gears of War 2 was released in November 2008 for the Xbox 360. On April 12, 2010, he appeared on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to show the debut trailer for Gears of War 3, titled "Ashes to Ashes".[10][11] Gears of War 3 was Bleszinki's last game for the company.[12][13]

Departure from Epic

Bleszinski at the Gears of War event at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 2006

Cliff announced his departure from Epic Games on October 3, 2012. He has worked in Epic Games for 20 years and decided to chart the next stage of his career, giving the reason that he had been making games since he was a teenager and that it was time for a break.[14][15]

After Epic

On June 30, 2014, Cliff stated on Twitter, "I'm officially coming out of retirement to make video games again."[16][17][18] On July 8, 2014, Cliff announced a free-to-play, PC-focused arena shooter code-named BlueStreak created by Boss Key Productions, his new studio.[19][20][21]

On August 26, 2015, Cliff Bleszinksi revealed the first details about his upcoming free-to-play arena shooter, previously known as Project Bluestreak. The game which is due out some time in 2016 and going to be published by Nexon, will be called LawBreakers.[22]

Personal life

One of his brothers is Tyler Bleszinski, a sports blogger who founded Athletics Nation and Vox Media.[23] He is married to Lauren Bleszinski (née Berggren), who is a blogger.[24] The nickname "CliffyB" was given to him derogatorily by "some jock kid" when he was a shy teenager; he then took it and developed a tougher persona around it.[25] In 2008, he expressed a desire to retire the CliffyB moniker, saying it's "time to grow up a bit".[26] Bleszinski claims that he is an atheist,[27] and is, along with most other prominent figures in the American video game industry, a supporter of the Democratic Party; he openy endorsed and subsequently voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020.

In 2014, Bleszinski opened a bar called The Station in Raleigh, North Carolina[28] and plans to open another establishment in the city in July 2015.[29]

Credits

File:CliffyB 2012.jpg
Bleszinski at PAX Prime 2012

Video games

Filmography

References

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External links

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  25. ↑ The Grammar of Fun. New Yorker (2008-11-03). Retrieved on 2012-11-21.
  26. ↑ Blog post on MTV Multiplayer. Multiplayerblog.mtv.com (2008-05-21). Retrieved on 2012-11-21.
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  30. ↑ 30.00 30.01 30.02 30.03 30.04 30.05 30.06 30.07 30.08 30.09 30.10 30.11 30.12 30.13 30.14 30.15 30.16 30.17 30.18 30.19 30.20 30.21 30.22 30.23 30.24 30.25 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  39. ↑ http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-video-games-movie-review-20140718-001-photo.html
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