One of the biggest things that stands out in Battleborn is the awesome intro cinematic. This opening trailer has a message; that you can expect something fresh, and that is exactly what Battleborn delivered.
The animated intro was made by Secret Sauce and took about 6 to 7 months to create. They were on board with the Japanese-inspired anime look. Also instead of correcting every single drawing to look perfectly homogeneous, they let the animator cut loose and belt out the equivalent of a guitar solo. Combining this with the soundtrack by Deltron 3030 really paid off.
However, Secret Sauce wasn’t the only studio that Gearbox reached out to. 6 Point Harness was also contacted to create a style pitch. Below is the concept artwork that Mindy Lee did for the game’s intro.
As you can see this is a different style than that the game ended up getting. Personally, I would expect this pitch to have a more stylized presentation than the fluidity that we got. Scott Kester, GBX Art Director, didn’t want every single drawing to look perfectly homogeneous, instead, they let the animator cut loose and belt out the equivalent of a guitar solo.
When I first saw this concept art it reminded me of a tease that we had gotten a while back. Community member, Kaleidodemon, asked a dev if we would ever see a Battleborn TV series since the game already heavily leaned on Saturday morning cartoons. While nothing was confirmed, there was a little “wink wink” reply. Therefore at first, I thought this was concept art for that, however, the hint was aimed at the movie Ready Player One which featured several Battleborn characters.
Do you want to see a Battleborn animated series and should it look like the art posted above? Let me know what you think in the comments below or on social media.
