Cliff Bleszinski was the studio head of Boss Key Productions, which he has decided to shut down recently after their failure to gain success with projects like LawBreakers and Radical Heights. Recently, he took it to Twitter to talk about the project ideas and game pitches that he had made to studios and also shared concept art for them.
The first project was the most interesting one which Cliff said was codenamed ‘DragonFlies.’ It was basically a mix of sci-fic with fantasy as the player could control different characters that were Samurai/Ninja and were able to ride Dragons. The game was set on floating Islands where you had airships and the dragons could be used for combat and customized as well.
Here's one of the games I wanted to do codenamed "DragonFlies."
Basically you were ninja/samurai in airships riding dragons fighting zombies with friends in a PVE "feudalpunk" setting on floating islands. (the airships = your "aircraft carriers", the dragons = your "planes") pic.twitter.com/yX2ivPwezb
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
More art. You used melee and guns and could outfit your beasts for combat. Basically do for dragon riding what Halo did for vehicles. pic.twitter.com/NhVJP2f1xW
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
Player characters. pic.twitter.com/Aw501vYdjl
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
Oh and yes, you'd find dragon eggs, hatch them, and raise them. pic.twitter.com/73XAPBjHzK
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
The second idea was for a VR game that was codenamed ‘Rover’ and changed to ‘DogWalkers’ later in concept. It featured a multiplayer PvP battles inspired by World War 2 tank fights and movies like Fury.
Here's another one, initially planned for VR, codenamed "Rover" but was shaping up to be "DogWalkers" – DOG stood for Destructive Ordnance (on the) Ground.
Inspired by WW2 tank crews/battles/the movie Fury. 5 v 5 v 5 v 5 v 5 Zoid looking walkers fighting it out in MP. pic.twitter.com/2UkGtwk2iH
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
World of Tanks/Tokyo Wars. Some players are piloting, some are gunners, some are repairing, etc…
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
The last game was another VR project that was more lighthearted in nature. It was a spiritual successor to Toobin but with the animals taking the lead. It was described as ‘Mario Kart on Water’ and featured colorful artwork of various animals enjoying together like on a water slide.
Here's the silly/fun one – basically a VR spiritual sequel to Toobin, only everyone are animals – and a way to fight Seasonal Affection Disorder. (Mario Kart on water with animals in VR.)
Called "Donuts." pic.twitter.com/wNKef9QsS4
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
More art. pic.twitter.com/R9I64nDJKC
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) May 15, 2018
These are all interesting project pitches especially the ‘DragonFlies’ concept sounds amazing, but sadly they were never picked by any publisher. Cliff also pointed out that they wanted to learn from the mistakes of other similar games in the genre like Liar and the cancelled Scalebound.
