Greetings, Vault Hunters! In this episode of Echoes From The Borderlands, we are talking about the game that gave us Handsome Jack, Tiny Tina, and made Borderlands a franchise: Borderlands 2! Our guests are Boss Designer Josh Jeffcoat, Lead Writer Anthony Burch, and Lead Cinematics Designer Brian Thomas.
Table of contents
Speakers
- Joel Watson – Creative Producer
- Josh Jeffcoat – Boss Designer
- Anthony Burch – Lead Writer
- Brian Thomas – Lead Cinematics Designer
Topics
- 00:00 – Intro
- 01:10 – How did we (Gearbox) get to Borderlands 2?
- 02:50 – What were the goals for the story?
- 04:20 – How did Handsome Jack come to be?
- 08:30 – Does Jack believe in “Peace & Order” or “Power & Wealth”?
- 09:15 – What restrictions did you want to overcome with BL2?
- 16:59 – Does Jack realize he lost at the end of BL2?
- 18:10 – What kind of goals were there for the cinematics?
- 19:39 – How do you know what becomes a franchise pillar?
- 21:42 – What’s the most fun thing in the Boss battles?
- 23:48 – How did you want to handle returning Vault Hunters and why?
- 26:35 – Could you finally tell the stories of the BL1 Vault Hunters in BL2 because they were NPC now?
- 27:55 – How did Angel’s backstory come to be?
- 31:30 – When did Handsome Jack lose his humanity?
- 33:49 – Are there any specific memories developing the characters?
- 42:01 – Funny Pandora’s Box Advert
- 42:42 – CLAPTRAP; Hate him or love him
- 44:20 – Why are you Claptrap’s minion?
- 46:10 – Do players main a weapon’s manufacturer?
- 47:07 – Where did the Tediore reload come from?
- 48:08 – How did the gun styles come around?
- 49:30 – Are corporations bad?
- 52:20 – What does a Boss Designer do?
- 55:30 – A Diamond Pony?
- 1:00:20 – Favorite Boss Design moment (Hunterpacks, secret Raid Boss)
- 1:03:30 – Face McShooty?
- 1:07:15 – Car Baby?
- 1:10:52 – Bloodwing retribution
- 1:13:03 – Trivia
- 1:15:35 – Marcus Impression Contest
My Reactions
- 01:10 + 19:39 – About the point; How did they start on Borderlands 2? Matt Charles who was a producer on BL2 did a presentation where he said they did a review analysis to see what reviewers liked, disliked, and mentioned about the first game. But as the Devs mentioned in the previous Podcast, Borderlands shifted in style, and with the DLCs they could embrace that and when BL2 came around they knew what Borderlands was instead of discovering it as you go.
- 09:15 – I remember that Randy Pitchford even promoted BL2 during a Gamescom presentation that they found new colors because BL1 was “all brown”.
- 12:05 – It never came up to me that Bunker pees cash but LOL
- 14:30 – The shoot your Vault Hunter during the character select screen, sounds like fun and would make an interesting way of doing that. But also, confusing, do you shoot the character you want or don’t want?
- 21:15 – That D20 trivia lore!!! Building a complex preset shape from scratch. The HORRORS.
- 21:42 – The original Bunker fight story is super interesting and how it led into the introduction to Brick. I wonder if Sarcastic Slap would still make an appearance after that Tank fight.
- 26:25 – Salvador confirmed to be the only legitimate End Game character in BL2 XD
- 30:40 – We could have gone to the Hyperion Space Station!!! That would have been so cool.
- 46:00 – Wait what, they were going to call Claptrap, ZIPPY! The phrase “zip it” would have gotten a whole new meaning XD
- 53:45 – THE LAVA’S RISING!!!
- 55:05 – LOL I also didn’t notice the Boss Armor Bar was missing always thought some bosses had additional resistance perks.
- 58:36 – RIP Zach Ford
- 1:05:10 – I love that troll move of having Face McShooty back in the Wonderlands One Shot but also find it awesome that Stray Kite Studios could work on it. Having that game back at the original Creative Director but now at his studio.
- 1:14:33 – Splinter Group + Flinter Puzzle
Behind the Scene Heroes:
- April Johnson
- Dakota Warren
- Robert Fernandez
- Hannah Terry
