Former Gears of War: Judgment lead dev sees shooters as “a comfort blanket”
Joannes Truyens September 9, 2012 - 4:07 pmNews: Adrian Chmielarz, who recently left the Epic-owned People Can Fly and his position as creative lead on Gears of War: Judgment, sees shooters as a safe bet not just for publishers, but also for gamers.
About a month ago, Gears of War: Judgment creative lead Adrian Chmielarz announced that he would be departing People Can Fly to focus on his own interests. He’s working on something at a newly founded studio that is as of yet nameless. I’m willing to bet his first project won’t be a shooter though.
Chmielarz stated before that he wants to break free of the shooter mold and try his hand at an open world action-adventure game. In an interview with GameStar, he reveals more of the reasoning behind that. “[Shooters are dominating because of] their simplicity. You know it’s going to be you, your gun, and a lot of targets to take care of.”
“In the world where it’s so easy to consume all other media, most people don’t want to invest too much into a game. Shooters are their comfort blanket,” Chmielarz opines. So we may complain that all we’re seeing is shooters, but according to Chmielarz, it’s only because we do really want them (and pay for them).
He believes we need to take a good hard look at the genre and start thinking of new ways to present it. “Shooters are not going to die or anything. We all love to kill things and blow stuff up. But we need to start providing different context and new gameplay solutions, because finger on the trigger and trial and error are not going to cut it anymore.”
Let’s see him put all of that into practice at his new studio, “the name of which has not been revealed yet.” Oh Adrian, you are a card.
