GamesAction RpgBorderlandsBorderlands 3Borderlands 3 creative director says he left Gearbox partly because creativity can get stifled on 400-person teams: “There’d be great design ideas that would never bubble up to the top"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesAction RpgBorderlandsBorderlands 3Borderlands 3 creative director says he left Gearbox partly because creativity can get stifled on 400-person teams: “There’d be great design ideas that would never bubble up to the top"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Gearbox)
The creative director of Borderlands 3 says part of the reason he leftGearboxto start a new studio is that huge teams don’t always leave space for creativity to flourish.
Earlier this month, Paul Sage announced Ruckus Games and its new project - a co-op shooter set in the American Heartland of the 1980s. In that announcement, Sage and his team said they were striking out to get away from a AAA environment that tends to recycle the same ideas. Speaking to GamesRadar+, Sage offers a little more insight into why that recycling could happen.
“[When] we started out, all of us had worked on these huge, massive projects that had 200 to 300 to 400 people on a team,” Sage explains. Having worked on bothBorderlands 3and The Elder Scrolls Online, Sage was familiar with the team sizes that went into massive franchises and says that “what we’ve ended up seeing is that there were just communication errors with teams that big. There’d be great design ideas that would never bubble up to the top or that get tossed in favor of other things.”
According to Sage, that’s not necessarily a problem inherent to AAA development, but it’s certainly one attached to ongoing successful franchises. “If you have a successful franchise,” he says, “you don’t want to do anything to hurt that franchise. That’s not a bad thing. That’s just a reality. But the problem is that when you get into that mindset, you’re not in the creator mindset of really trying to push the boundaries or doing something of that nature.”
“That was really the start of things for the team, and that’s how we built the studio. We’re able to just get on a call and say, ‘hey, I’d like to try this’ with somebody else, and then we can just try that thing out on a very quick basis versus having to set up five meetings about it, discuss it, ‘is it going to be right?’ So that was one of the things that just really attracted us to doing something like this. Becoming a developer-first studio was really big for us. That was part of why we started Ruckus, and that’s what the team was about.”
Former The Elder Scrolls Online lead says Bethesda was such an amazing partner that it was harder to make a WoW-free MMO than it was to make a good Elder Scrolls MMO.
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GAME REVIEWSMOVIE REVIEWSTV REVIEWS
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1
Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
2
Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
3
Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
5Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
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1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
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3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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4
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5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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1
Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat”
2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
2Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
2
Secret Level review: “An uneven experience with serious highlights that ultimately make up for the misses”
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3Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
3
Skeleton Crew review: “Perfectly captures the vibes of classic Star Wars with a swashbuckling twist”
4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
4Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
4
Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
5
Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”