Former Boss Key Productions studio head and founder Cliff Bleszinski hasn’t been on the best run lately. First the team’s ambitious project LawBreakers failed to reach an audience. Then its follow-up Radical Heights didn’t connect as well with the Battle Royale-loving crowd as originally hoped. And this week, the studio closed its doors suddenly, with several people out of jobs and Bleszinski wondering what’s next.
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He may not have revealed what’s exactly in the cards next, but Bleszinski recently took to Twitter to talk about a couple of proposed Boss Key projects that never saw the light of day. And honestly, these look pretty intriguing.
First up, Bleszinski discussed a project called DragonFlies. “Basically you were ninja/samurai in airships riding dragons fighting zombies with friends in a PVE ‘feudalpunk’ setting on floating islands,” he explained. He also noted that airships acted as aircraft carriers and dragons acted as planes. You can see the concept art for the game below.
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
A samurai/dragon based game? It actually sounds like it could’ve been cool. But maybe it was too ambitious. Bleszinski made note of the studios he pitched the project to (“To MS, Sony, EA, 2K, Activision, WB.”) but obviously it didn’t see much luck. He also said, “You used melee and guns and could outfit your beasts for combat. Basically do for dragon riding what Halo did for vehicles. Oh and yes, you’d find dragon eggs, hatch them, and raise them,” then adding, “Basically the Neverending Story/Dany/How to Train Your Dragon fantasy. Would have loved a VR companion app where you can feed and pet the beasts too.” He also noted that he hoped to learn from the mistakes of Scalebound and the project would’ve been budgeted around $40 million.
He then discussed another project called DogWalkers, or Rover. “DOG stood for Destructive Ordnance (on the) Ground,” he said. You can see that tweet below.
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
This seemed to be more of a VR related project. Bleszinski considered it, “World of Tanks/Tokyo Wars. Some players are piloting, some are gunners, some are repairing, etc…” He also added, “The air in the world’s fiction was toxic so any leaks on your walker you’d have to repair quick or get gas masks on etc. Rappel outside to weld legs too, toss wrenches to each other etc..”
It’s a shame that Boss Key didn’t get a chance to build upon these and create a better reputation for itself. Perhaps they’ll resurface someday wherever Bleszinski goes next.
In the meantime, you can check out Boss Key’s final project, Radical Heights, on PC now.
