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Hello again! It's me, Keith Schuler, one of the Senior Designers on Borderlands 2. Previously, I wrote about implementing the plot mission "Hunting the Firehawk" but I ended that article right before the best part: the battle alongside Lilith. Today’s Inside the Box focuses on that combat encounter and developing Lilith's role within it. READ MORE...
Hello! I'm Keith Schuler, Senior Designer on Borderlands 2. Today, I want to talk through some of the design for one of the major plot missions, Hunting the Firehawk.
Big time spoiler alert, by the way. If you still haven't played through this mission, I'm here to ruin all the surprises.
Hunting the Firehawk is an extremely important mission, from a narrative standpoint. Though the player has heard from Roland by now, he hasn't met any of the original Vault Hunters in person yet, and has no idea of the degree to which those characters will be involved in this adventure.The story also needed to make sense both to new players and to fans of the first Borderlands, when the new players don't even know who Lilith is.
So, how could we reintroduce our feisty Siren in a way that all players, both old and new, would enjoy? READ MORE...
Packed with real-world and in-game swag, the Borderlands 2 Swag-Filled Diamond Plate Loot Chest is now available from ThinkGeek and Forbidden Planet with orders opening soon at ShopGearbox.
Quantities are limited -- get yours before it's too late!
Hi. I’m Anthony Burch, Lead Writer on Borderlands 2 and all of its DLC. Today I’m going to talk a little bit about Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, our new campaign DLC releasing June 25, but I’m mainly going to discuss the issue of Borderlands’s tone. Are we a comedy? An action game? Both? Can we ever be too goofy, or too serious? Where do the boundaries lie? I’ll try to give some answers to these questions.
Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep is about a group of friends – Tina, Brick, Lilith, and Mordecai – playing a tabletop roleplaying game. As the player, you fight through Tina’s fantasy module as it exists in her imagination – this means that you get to fight orcs, skeletons, dwarves, and all other kinds of fantasy-centric stuff that wouldn’t make sense in the universe of Pandora. It also means that your explicit goal in the plot is relatively simple (and in honesty, sort of cliché): you’ve got to track down the evil Handsome Sorcerer who brought darkness to the land, and rescue the beautiful Queen of Flamerock Refuge from his evil clutches.
Each day this week, we've posted a new behind-the-scenes look at a certain aspect of Krieg the Psycho's skill tree in anticipation of the new story video -- Krieg: A Meat Bicycle Built for Two -- premiering Friday morning. (Check out a new still from that video above.)
Today, I'll be walking you through the Hellborn tree. In case you missed the previous articles, I'm Paul Hellquist -- the Creative Director and Lead Designer on Borderlands 2 -- and here's the rundown:
I'm Paul Hellquist, the Creative Director and Lead Designer of Borderlands 2, and since today is Wednesday (the middle day of the work week) it's the perfect time to tell you all about the middle skill tree for Krieg -- Mania.
In anticipation of Friday's release of Krieg: A Meat Bicycle Built for Two -- a video short that helps explain how the titular Psycho became a Vault Hunter -- we'll have a new Inside the Box and teaser image from that short (see above) each day leading up to it! Here's the rundown:
- High Level Goals and the Action Skill (Monday)
- Bloodlust Tree (Tuesday)
- Mania Tree (Wednesday)
- Hellborn Tree (Thursday)
Tina Tiny's Assault on Dragon Keep, the fourth campaign add-on for Borderlands 2, arrives June 25!
The biggest campaign add-on in Borderlands history, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep immerses players in an ever-changing fantasy world filled with never-before-seen dangers and foes along with plenty of new loot and fantastical versions of fan-favorite characters!
To learn more about the epic journey that awaits, check out the previews at IGN, Kotaku, GameTrailers, Destructoid, GameSpot, Polygon, Rev3 Games and Game Informer and Shacknews -- be on the lookout for more!
Coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep is included with the Borderlands 2 Season Pass and will also be available a la carte for 800 Microsoft Points / $9.99. The Borderlands 2 Season Pass (available for $29.99) includes all four downloadable campaign add-ons (Captain Scarlett and her Pirate's Booty, Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage, Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep) along with the Ultimate Vault Hunter Pack.
Welcome back to Inside the Box! I'm Paul Hellquist, the Creative Director and Lead Designer on Borderlands 2.
Today I’m going to be telling you about the creation of Krieg the Psycho's Bloodlust tree. If you missed it yesterday, I talked about the design goals for Krieg and the evolution of the Buzz Axe Rampage action skill.
Later this week, on Friday, we'll be releasing a short video that shows how Krieg the Psycho became a Vault Hunter -- you can see a still from that video above. And in anticipation of that video, we'll have a new Inside the Box every day leading up to it! Here's what to expect:
- High Level Goals and the Action Skill (Monday)
- Bloodlust Tree (Tuesday)
- Mania Tree (Wednesday)
- Hellborn Tree (Thursday)
Paul Hellquist, the Creative Director and Lead Designer on Borderlands 2, here.
Two weeks ago I told you a bit about the history of how we came to decide on making Krieg the Psycho -- you can catch up here if you missed it. This week, I'm going to go into more detail about the design, what my goals were, how they were achieved, and some of the hurdles we overcame.
As I was writing all this, I quickly realized that there was a lot I wanted to tell you about this process -- about 4 articles or so worth of stuff! I didn’t want to stretch the content across 4 or more weeks so here’s what we decided to do:
On Friday, we'll be releasing a short video that shows how Krieg the Psycho became a Vault Hunter -- you can see a still from that video above. And in anticipation of that video, we'll have a new Inside the Box every day leading up to it! Here is what I’m going to cover:
- High Level Goals and the Action Skill (Monday)
- Bloodlust Tree (Tuesday)
- Mania Tree (Wednesday)
- Hellborn Tree (Thursday)
Hi, I'm Anthony Burch. I was the Lead Writer of Borderlands 2, I can grow a full beard in a week, and if we ever meet in person you will probably think I'm angry or bored (that's just my face).
Following the article on the design of Krieg from Lead Designer Paul Hellquist, I'd like to talk a little about how he, Raison Varner (Audio Designer and the Voice / Co-Writer of one of the Psycho enemies in Borderlands 2) and I came up with Krieg's personality.
As a Psycho -- as a version of the enemy sprinkled all throughout both Borderlands games and even adorning our cover art -- we knew players were going to come in with certain specific expectations ...READ MORE
Attention Vault Hunters: Borderlands 2 (PC / Mac) is 66% off on Steam until May 20!
Welcome to Inside the Box, a new feature on GearboxSoftware.com! The goal of Inside the Box is to give you, our fans, cool new content on a regular basis that gives you some insight into what it is like at Gearbox, how we do things, and the behind-the-scenes scoop about a wide variety of topics from game design, writing, art direction and anything else that we (or you!) think might be interesting.
To kick off this new venture I thought, with the upcoming release of Krieg this week, I would go into some depth about the genesis of this new class. But first off, let me introduce myself.
Hi! I'm Paul Hellquist, the Creative Director and Lead Designer on Borderlands 2. I've been in the industry for nearly 15 years and was the Lead Designer on SWAT 4 and the original BioShock before joining Gearbox in 2008. While at Gearbox I worked on an unreleased title ...READ MORE
Prepare for the arrival of Krieg the Psycho -- the new playable character for Borderlands 2, releasing May 14 -- with special in-game events from May 10 through the end of May 13!
The Bandits of Pandora can feel one of their own approaching and have ramped up the production of Bandit gear accordingly, so expect to see an increase in Bandit gear drops when playing Borderlands 2 while connected to the internet. But watch out! Reports suggest an increased population of Badass Psychos in Lynchwood, Thousand Cuts and Eridium Blight.
To learn more about Krieg, check out the hands-on previews at Game Informer, Rev3, DLCentral, NBC News and IGN as well as tune in to the 2K and Gearbox livestream on Monday, May 13 at 3PM CT (What time is that for me?) at twitch.tv/2k
Krieg the Psycho, the sixth playable character for Borderlands 2, will be available as downloadable content beginning May 14! Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ECHOcasts
Check out the exclusive Borderlands 2 customizations you can unlock via SHiFT by completing certain challenges in Poker Night 2 -- out now on PC / Steam and Xbox 360!
Keep an eye out for the PlayStation 3 version of Poker Night 2 on PSN beginning this week in North America!
A new update for Borderlands 2 is rolling out on PC and PlayStation 3 now and Xbox 360 soon, containing bug fixes and support for upcoming content including the character customizations that can be unlocked by playing the upcoming Poker Night 2.
Details on the update for each platform can be found below:
PC Update Information
Xbox 360 Update Information
PlayStation 3 Update Information
For help and support with Borderlands 2, visit support.2k.com or support.gearboxsoftware.com
Today's an exciting day for Borderlands 2 -- the Ultimate Upgrade Pack (which allows characters to gain 11 additional levels, pick up powerful new loot and more) and a new update (containing the new Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, extra storage capacity and a variety of bug fixes) are out now on Xbox 360, Steam and PlayStation 3.
Details on the level cap increase, new mode and update can be found below:
Details on the Level Cap Increase
Introducing Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode
Borderlands 2 Update Notes
Don't forget there's more to come for Borderlands 2: Krieg the Psycho, a new playable character, arrives in May. After that, expect the fourth campaign add-on (included in the Season Pass) by the end of June!
And just in case you need some new gear to help level up, here are some celebratory SHiFT codes...
PC / Mac SHiFT Code for 5 Golden Keys in Borderlands 2:
K3WJT-BFBRW-S5RTT-TBBB3-9XWZ5
Xbox 360 SHiFT Code for 5 Golden Keys in Borderlands 2:
KBWTB-T6XSC-JJHBF-WXBJJ-WRWKF
PlayStation 3 SHiFT Code for 5 Golden Keys in Borderlands 2:
C3KTB-F6ZKB-KC5WJ-ZTKJ3-XC569
These codes will be active for longer than normal, but don't wait too long -- they will expire some day! To redeem, at the Borderlands 2 Main Menu select Extras then SHiFT Code.
For help and assistance with Borderlands 2 and / or SHiFT, visit support.gearboxsoftware.com
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