Cliff Bleszinski has claimed that his newly announced free-to-play shooter Blue Streak won’t be ”pay to win”, and that he wants skilled players ”to be able to take down the trust fund kid that’s spent a ton of money to have All The Stuff.”
Taking part in a Reddit AMA, the developer also revealed a few bits of information about the game’s lore.
Asked whether the game would have microtransactions, Bleszinski said, “I’ve never shipped a Free to Play game before. That’s one of the MANY reasons why we’re going with Nexon, they can provide server structures and a global peek into gamers of all types and guide us into a game that’s more ‘Shut up and take my money’ as opposed to ‘shaking you down for your hard earned cash.’ So we’ll experiment, tweak, tune, and most importantly, build a positive community around the game as we develop it.”
He’s also keen to avoid the ‘pay to win’ scenario, and encourage skilled players to take part without having to buy upgrades to compete.
“I want to make a skill based game whereas someone who is really, really good is seen as a player with nearly godlike abilities,” he explained. ”Sure, once in a while the person who sucks might get lucky with a stray shot and take that person down, but I want to craft a game that has weapons and moves that are easy to learn but to really make them sing takes thousands of hours of play just like a professional athlete would. Anyone can toss a football, but Drew Brees can get it through the tire at X yards every time.”
In terms of the game’s storyline, Bleszinksi didn’t want to give a way too much but claims it won’t be “dark and gritty”. It’s going to have big sci-fi corporations and future tech, but the story will be in the background rather than front and present. “Part of the pitch for the game is “‘The Warriors’ by way of Christopher Nolan,’” Bleszinski said.
It’s worth checking out the full AMA, where Cliff Bleszinski goes into more detail on some of the development processes behind the game, and talks about his approach to game design.
Blue Streak has no scheduled release window yet, it’s in very early days of development right now.
