scott-kester
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Each Borderlands DLC pack was made in eight weeks
Borderlands 2 art director Jeramy Cooke and concept designer Scott Kester both worked on the first Borderlands, and they shrug off accomplishments such as "made Borderlands" with considerable humility. When Cooke mentioned casually that every piece of DLC for the first title was created in just eight weeks each, we stopped him for clarification."You don't understand, those first DLCs, we were literally counting K to try and fit features in there because at the time we hadn't expected it to be such a huge success, so we didn't know that 'oh, we'll have to put all this DLC in,'" Cooke said during a meeting at PAX East 2012.This development time is impressive considering the heft of each pack, but also because Gearbox hadn't prepared the full game to handle add-on content."It was the first time the company had ever done DLC, but we were like, damn it, if we're going to do it, let's do it," Kester said. And so they did.Borderlands 2 is the second time Gearbox can attempt DLC and it has implemented a robust backend system to support whatever additional content it needs, including patches and support updates. With this improved system maybe Gearbox can beat its previous record and build one piece of 20-hour DLC in just 2 hours.Maybe.
Borderlands 2 brings the best of all worlds to Pandora, devs say [Update]
Borderlands 2 is a hybridized beast of mechanics, play styles and audience potentials, all wrapped up in one cel-shaded package (now with green!). The sequel builds upon feedback from 2009's Borderlands, tweaking many aspects of single-player mode, streamlining co-op skill sets and building new character designs, writer Anthony Burch and concept designer Scott Kester from Gearbox told Joystiq.One of the most prevalent changes players will notice in Borderlands 2 is the skill-tree functionality in co-op mode. Instead of simply beating down enemies separately but at the same time, as often happened in Borderlands, there will be more synergy between each character's abilities, Kester and Burch said.For example, the Siren's phaselock abilities have been fine-tuned to include the "sweet release" kill skill, which insta-heals every member of her party if she kills an enemy frozen in phaselock. Additionally, the Assassin can execute enemies in the Siren's phaselock relatively easily with his melee or sniping moves, and the Commando will be able to throw down a bubble shield to protect the entire team. The Gunzerker is nuanced as well, including a skill that ramps up the power in the last shot of his gun's magazine, and if an enemy is killed with an excess amount of force, the extra points are converted to health. He can also dual-wield any weapon, which is awesome for everyone. Except the guys he's shooting at.
