Borderlands Art Shift Profoundly Changed Team's Creative Direction

Author: by Staff

In a new Gamasutra feature interview, Borderlands concept designer Scott Kester explains how the switch in art style midway through development turned on the "idea bubble" for the whole team. "We just really wanted to be us, so we didn't want to be somebody else," said Kester, when asked if the switch from a realistic style to the series' now-signature rough comic book art style was liberating. "And really, when we looked at the artists on the team and the designers, and even the writers, as we started making these visual changes, it started influencing game design; it started influencing, obviously, the writing," he said. "It was interesting because the game design was always good. Like, the loot loop always felt nice; but there was something that wasn't quite 'there.'" "And when that slid into place, it seemed like the idea bubble just turned on for people, and game designers started doing crazy stuff, like creating midgets and big arm dudes. The writing got more interesting, the names of the guns." To Kester, the art style says, "We don't take ourselves that seriously. And we're not trying to be pretentious at all. It's more about just having fun with it." The full interview, in which he and writer Anthony Burch discuss the team's plans for the upcoming sequel Borderlands 2, and how their creative choices feed that game, is live now on Gamasutra.