Fact File
Name	Clifford Bleszinski
Age	32
Born	Andover, Massachusetts
Occupation	Video Game Designer
Website	CliffyB.com
Awards	Game Developers Choice Award For Gears of War
Games Designed	Gears of War Unreal Unreal II: The Awakening Unreal Tournament Unreal Tournament 2003 Unreal Tournament 2004 Unreal Championship Unreal Championship II Jazz Jackrabbit Jazz Jackrabbit 2

The following interview is one of many that you can expect to see here at ClanBase over the next few months. Here we talk about a lot of different factors of CliffyB's life.

Firstly CliffyB I want to thank you for spending your time with me to conduct this interview. It has been a great privilege to talk to you.

Lets get into it, firstly, the Unreal Tournament series has always been a huge factor for our ClanBase users, but what are your views on Competitive gaming as a whole?

I love the fact that gamers can get paid for playing our games. The very idea of it is enough to cause our parents' heads to explode - who would have thought it would ever happen?

Do you see competitive gaming as a sport?

Turn on ESPN late at night and tell me what you see. Trick shot pool. Log cutting. Poker. I believe that if a part of your body is moving, your brain is engaged, and people are willing to watch then it's a sport.

When Epic Games designs a level, does your team look at the competitive part of it?

We always keep competitive gaming in mind when crafting a game and the environments contained within. However while we do love competitive gaming we also keep in mind the basic usability and simplicity of a level in regards to accessibility for a newer gamer. We want to appeal to newer, more casual gamers as well as the most hardcore pro players.

What do you think is missing in the games industry? What would you like to see change?

I still think there are nowhere near enough co-operative games which is why a game like Gears of War features it so prominently. PC gaming is having a tough time right now as consoles are dominating and when you're sitting on the sofa with friends nothing brings you closer than firing up a game together. Guitar Hero and Rock band do an excellent job of this as party games. I love large scale cinematic experience titles and wish more of them had at least two player co-op to make it seem like a friend and I are experiencing a blockbuster together.

Is there anything you still want to do that is not possible with the current level of technology we possess at the moment?

Sure, but I'm not going to share those ideas quite yet. You'll have to wait for future games and the next iterations of the Unreal technology!

How did Mr CliffyB appear in the Games Industry?

By kicking, screaming, and clawing my way in.

What was the first game you ever worked on and which game did you play for the first time?

The first game I ever built was called "Palace of Deceit," it was an adventure game in the style of "Déjà vu" starring a baby dragon trying to escape from a big scary castle. The first game I ever played was Space Invaders on the Atari 2600.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

I acquire inspiration from a variety of sources. Naturally I look at other games. I watch quite a lot of movies, read books, and travel. Recently I took my girlfriend on the Zero gravity flight which was quite inspirational. When all of that fails I take a good nap and let my dreams take over.

Do you have a role model?

I've always looked up to Shigeru Miyamoto.

What video games do you play in your spare time? Excluding Jazz, Unreal and Gears of War?

I'm just starting Mass Effect which I'm afraid is going to kick start my old addiction to RPG titles. (I used to love games like Lunar and Phantasy Star back in the day.) I'm looking forward to the Moon Patrol buggy part. Lately I've been playing Uncharted which is just lovely. I have a copy of Assassins Creed sitting on my desk that I've got to fire up shortly. There were simply too many good games this past holiday season and catching up has proven difficult. Previously I burned through Bioshock which was just a phenomenal experience, start to finish.

What is your favourite gaming moment?

The part of Super Metroid when the ostrich creature teaches you how to do the super jump. The other moment I love is the "Would you Kindly" reveal moment in Bioshock. Pure Twilight Zone stuff there.

Which game had the most impact on your (private) life?

Silent Hill 2 really made me think about love and relationships more than any other video game ever made. Made me want to watch "Solaris" again as well as "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" along with the short film "Denial."

What has been your proudest moment in your developing career

I'm most proud of Gears of War!

... and your least?

I did a game called "Dare to Dream" when I was a teenager in which I poured all of my "Crow" like goth angst into. It sold something like five copies.

Where did you hide Jazz Jackrabbit? The fans are almost killing you with the blaster! It's been almost 10 years since we saw Jazz Jackrabbit 2!

We've been busy making bloody games with chainsaw guns on them. The kinds of games that I've worked on have been a reflection of what I've loved at the time. When I was working on Jazz I loved Sonic and Mario.

.. and what about Unreal 3? we want more!

Patience, my friends! There are certain to be more games in the Unrealiverse.

Speaking of the Jackrabbit, whats up with all the secret messages in Jazz series?

Back in the day we simply had a lot of fun with silly little hidden messages in the Jazz games. Chalk it up to young developer goofiness.

.. why didn't you work on the GBA version?

I consulted on it briefly but ultimately let the developers do their own thing.

Can we expect the old Epic games on the Xbox live service once? ....or something like steam?

While I'd love to see something like this the odds of it happening are pretty low. We're knee deep in making AAA new games these days and porting our old classics would take cycles and resources away from those big titles!

Do you still scan cats? Or did your dog take it over? ;)

These days I'm more of a dog guy. I take my Australian Shepherd named Teddy sheep herding every once in a while.

Do you have any suggestions for aspiring level designers?

Grab a copy of Unreal Tournament 3 or Gears of War for PC and start cranking in the Unreal Editor. Make your work available on as many websites as possible and post hot screenshots of it and never stop self promoting.

I have a request, it's common that we give away goodies on ClanBase. Wouldn't it be cool to give away 1 or 2 copies of Unreal III or Gears of War with the autograph of Cliffy himself?

I'm sure we can dig up some stuff, send over an address.

Well thank you very much for this interview, it has been great. I would like to thank you for taking your time to answer these questions, and I wish all our users good luck in winning some of this free stuff you are giving away. There will be more on how you can win later to follow on from this article shortly.

I will leave you with a little cartoon to finish this interview off. Thanks again CliffyB!