Looking back at the work of Cliffy B

After designing games since his teenage years, Cliff Bleszinski, 37, better known to the gaming community as Cliffy B, has announced his retirement from the game development industry.  A true force to be reckoned with, today we take a look back at the major moments of Cliff’s career.

After a few years with EPIC Games, Bleszinski crafted a hit in the form of the 1994 game “Jack Jackrabbit.” He was also influential in taking the story driven FPS “Unreal” franchise towards a wildly popular and action oriented multiplayer direction, one thing that began with 1999’s “Unreal Tournament.”

The game engine designed for the “Unreal” games, the “Unreal Engine,” is currently in its third incarnation with the fourth version on its way. It is one of the industry’s most licensed game engines used by numerous non-EPIC Games productions including “Mass Effect,” “Batman: Arkham City,” and “Borderlands” among many others.

Of course Cliff’s most well-known and popular creation is arguably the 2006 smash hit XBOX 360 game “Gears of Way.” In what may very well be the most testosterone induced game ever created, the 3rd person shooter was at the very forefront of modern game mechanics.  Its cover system was brilliantly implemented. It was also one of the very first major games to fulfill the long-standing promise of game developers of delivering an AAA title with full 1080p HD graphics. And of course GOW’s iconic weapon, the lancer, was every teenage boy’s fantasy fulfilled: a gun combined with a chainsaw.

The game was wildly praised for its multiplayer mode which was so popular it unseated “Halo 2” from the top of the most played Xbox Live games for the very first time since that title’s launch in 2004.  Besides the standard multiplayer death match modes, GOW had a game mode so simple it’s hard to believe that it was so much fun to play. The object of “Horde Mode” was simple: fight wave after wave of enemies until you are overwhelmed online co-operatively with your friends. Subsequent games released since GOW have included similar game modes including “Mass Effect 3,” Treyarch’s “Call of Duty” titles and the latter two games in the “Uncharted” trilogy.

Since GOW Cliffy B has been involved with numerous other projects at EPIC Games most notably the acclaimed side scrolling throwback Metroid-Esque game “Shadow Complex,” as well as the final two games of the “Gears of War” trilogy.

Since the release of Gears of War 3, Bleszinski was involved in the production of other EPIC Games productions including the GOW prequel “Gears of War: Judgment” and Fortnite, a unique co-op survival sandbox game.

However citing the fact that he has been developing games since he was a teenager, Cliff Bleszinski left his position at EPIC Games on Oct. 3rd to pursue other endeavors.  Here’s hoping one of the industry’s best will return someday down the road.