Borderlands art and tech gets a surprise appearance at GDC

Gearbox Software’s Randy Pitchford took to the stage at Epic Game’s GDC press conference to show off some of the Unreal Engine tech the company is using to power the next Borderlands game.

Pitchford walked attendees through how the studio is taking a new approach to the way they handle the game’s distinct heavy-outlined look.

The presentation quickly went from showing off simple shapes to characters and entire scenes that looked game ready. The best part though was watching the effects and lighting morph around as the studio played around with Unreal and the Borderlands assets.

Pitchford was careful to say and reiterate that what he showed may or may not show up in a future video game. (Come on, that’s Borderlands 3, right?)

Pitchford confirmed at last year’s PAX East that Gearbox’ next game after Battleborn and its DLC was going to be Borderlands 3.

He said the art director would be Scott Kester, who worked on Battleborn, and that it would be written by Mikey Neumann.

The first Borderlands game hit in 2009 with a sequel in 2012 and a third entry, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, in 2014. Borderlands Legends arrived on iOS in 2012. Tales from the Borderlands, an episodic series of adventure game spinoffs from The Walking Dead developer Telltale Games, was released from November 2014 to October 2015.

I spoke with Pitchford last year about Borderlands and its future, among many other things. You can hear that full conversation right below. The Borderlands talk starts about 23 minutes in.