Job listings always seem to paint a very interesting story of what to expect in upcoming games. Black Tusk is now controlling the development of the next Gears of War title and are currently hiring talent to produce some very ambitious results. The breakdown by Dualshockers lists an extensive amount of requirements and claims made by the developer in regards to what they expect for their next title.
According to their mission statement, Black Tusk is hiring for the purpose of “forging the future of the IP and pushing the limits of Microsoft’s entertainment platforms and devices” as well as ”delighting our fan base and shattering expectations of what is possible.” No small words; the developer isn’t aiming for a merely next gen port version of Gears of War, they’re aiming for the absolute best. The developer is seeking a Senior Rendering Engineer to produce “industry leading high performance real time graphics features and effects”, with the listing mentioning how the game will use ”bleeding edge new rendering techniques to deliver best in class visuals for an AAA Console game.” The Unreal Engine is what is being used to develop the next game, and the job listing requires experience with Epic’s middleware and DirecX 10 and 11.
Another job listing is for an Art Director, who is required to work on Environments, Characters, Cinematics, Concept Art, Lighting, Animation, FX and UI. The candidate is also required to be “working with a broad spectrum of styles, from photo-realistic to highly stylized”. The listing also boldly mentions that the applicant will be “Responsible for creating the art style of the Gears of War franchise moving forward.”, something which carries great importance for the IP’s visual presentation.
A listing for a Gameplay Designer signifies how they’re looking to implement innovative features, asking for experience with Kismet, a visual scripting tool within the Unreal Development Kit. Meanwhile, a listing for a Gameplay Engineer highlights the need for experience with a co-op gameplay development environment. Co-op has been a strong part of Gears of War since the original title, expanding from 2 player co-op in the first 2 titles to 4 player co-op in Gears of War 3 and Judgement. It’s no surprise that they would be aiming to make this aspect return and shine just as strongly as before.
Art and level design will be just as important as core gameplay this time around
Multiplayer will once again be a strong focus in the new Gears game, with a job listing for both a Multiplayer Level Designer and Lead Multiplayer Level Designer being posted. The developer is looking to create an “industry-leading multiplayer experience” and requires someone familiar with “Gears of War gameplay and past Gears of War multiplayer map designs”. Gears of War’s multiplayer has always been very unique and dear to fans, so Black Tusk is most likely aiming to keep things close to home but will expand it as much as possible.
A listing for a Senior Level Designer describes that they will be responsible for creating “interesting and dynamic levels and mechanics,” as well as ”great events and gameplay mechanics, with the goal of making every moment special and memorable.” Black Tusk isn’t skipping out on any details as they are handling a very high class IP. Making the transition from one console and generation to the next is always tricky and a developer handling an IP like Gears of War would be foolish to not pull out all the stops to make the transition flawless.
Just like a job listing for Halo 5 which was recently discovered, a listing for a Lead Online Service Engineer mentions making use of “the best solutions available with cloud services running on Azure and integration of multiple new technologies.” Microsoft’s Azure cloud service seems to be something that is being pushed strongly for the Xbox One, with the integration’s usage being different depending on the game. This list also asks for work involving the “next generation of backend services to power the Gears of War Universe, on console, web and mobile,”. This means we could see a companion app or online stat tracking for the next Gears of War game, the latter of which is a popular feature for competitive games.
Given this very detailed list, we can expect that the new Gears game will be Black Tusk’s attempt to take the franchise to the next level. Just like Halo, fans are very eager to see Gears return on Xbox One and once again be a hit exclusive title that makes the console stand out. We can certainly hope that this will be the case and Black Tusk is confident that they can achieve this level of quality. We still don’t know what the title of the next game will be nor how soon it will release, however we may see something soon at this year’s E3 press conference.
Source: Dualshockers