Borderlands is known for its humor and iconic graphic style. However, the game was originally supposed to look quite different.
What was Borderlands supposed to look like? Borderlands is now known for its iconic cel-shading look, which gives the game a timeless comic style. However, that was not planned from the beginning.
When the development of Borderlands (1) began, Gearbox Software came up with six different graphic styles. The studio reportedly chose the “safe” route and opted for a realistic, post-apocalyptic vibe.
Borderlands 4 remains true to the style of the series and shows this in the trailer:
Why did they change the graphic style of Borderlands? The developers felt that the “realistic” style did not fit the game. Randy Pitchford, the CEO of Gearbox Software, recalls in an interview with Gameinformer:
“We did it, but we knew it wasn’t quite right; it just didn’t match the look, feel, and mood that Borderlands should have – it didn’t fit the gameplay.”
Moreover, doubts arose about whether the safe route of a more down-to-earth graphic style was indeed the safe route, as more and more games adopted a similar setting and color palette.
The current art director of Borderlands 4, Adam May, says in an interview with Gameinformer: “I was fired up and super excited about [the old graphic style], but as we worked on it, other things came up, and we saw something of the art style, especially when Fallout 3 was first announced, and we thought, ‘Oh crap. We’re in the same visual range as that.'”
The developers feared that Fallout 3 could compete with Borderlands due to the similar style.
Developers change the style of Borderlands in about 9 months
How did Borderlands come to have its iconic graphic style? A concept artist named Scott Kester liked to draw during his breaks. One of these drawings caught the attention of the art team, and they soon transferred the style to 3D game graphics. The art team then asked Randy Pitchford to transform the grounded and realistic style of the game into a comic book style. Pitchford then gave them 2 weeks to work with the new style and then present the results to him, as the Gearbox CEO told Gameinformer.
Pitchford thought at that time that he made a mistake and was sure that after the 2 weeks he would have to discard the team’s work and stick with the original style. But when he saw the new style in the meeting, he was excited. He recalls: “It felt right. And it was as if everything we knew was wrong was confirmed when we felt that it was right.”
Shortly thereafter, Pitchford flew to California to convince the Borderlands publisher Take-Two to change the graphic style of the entire game. Graham Timmis, the current creative director of Borderlands 4, tells that they redid the entire game within 8-9 months. Claptrap was also created with the new style, as they wanted to create a character who would lighten the seriousness of the world.
Claptrap is on the one hand quite the mascot of Borderlands, but on the other hand, his voice and quips annoy many players. Fortunately, Borderlands 4 addresses that: Borderlands 4 gets a feature that fans have been waiting for 16 years – Lets you finally do what you always wanted with Claptrap
