As reported by Polygon on Friday, July 11, Gearbox Software’s creative director Randy Varnell has revealed that the development behind its recently announce Battleborn builds off its experiences with the Borderlands series.
Posted in the official Gearbox forums, Varnell tried to explain both Battleborn’s influences as well and the game’s inclusion of MOBA-style elements.
“Battleborn builds off our experiences with Borderlands –characters, RPG growth, cool enemies to fight–and mixes in some new twists of gameplay, hopefully with the unique style, humor and flair that Gearbox is known for, ” Varnell said .
“ Some parts of Battleborn will look like some parts of MOBAs. It’ll also have some parts of classic shooters, and a roster of playable characters more akin to classic fighting games. You’ll also probably recognize influences from Borderlands . This is why we describe Battleborn as a fusion of genres, and it’s why we affectionately call it a hero-shooter. ”
Varnell continued on to point out that the MOBA genre, as a category, tends to have common elements, such as lanes, towers, creeps and so on. However, he argues that particular inclusions of elements don’t necessarily make a game a MOBA.
” All of those elements are also seen in other genres and games too, right? ” Varnell noted . ” Titanfall has AI ‘creeps.’ TF2 has ‘lanes,’ sort of. Battlefield has ‘towers,’ Street Fighter and Smash Brothers have lots of characters. Are those MOBAs? MOBAs originated as a blend of RTS and Tower Defense (which originated in RTS), and then almost exclusively targeted the single-map combat ‘arena’ experience.
As convenient as categories can be, I believe we can understand Battleborn without having to put it in a category, ” he added.
Gearbox has acknowledged developing Battleborn will be an uphill battle, as there are already some big players in the MOBA scene, such as Dota 2 and League of Legends . The studio’s president Randy Pitchford proclaimed that the studio is undaunted by the challenge .
You can watch Battleborn’s announcement trailer via the embedded video below. We’ll bring you more news on Battleborn’s development should further information reach our ears.
[ Polygon ]