Gears of War Creator Cliff Bleszinski Back in Game Development

The lead designer of the Gears of War trilogy and the Unreal series has decided to pull a Jordan and come out of retirement.

Cliff Bleszinski, the lead designer for Epic Games' Gears of War trilogy and the Unreal series, has announced that he is no longer retired and is gearing up to announce his next formal project, Nerdist reports. Bleszinski was one of the people most responsible for the Unreal Engine, which has been used and outsourced by Epic Games to help develop countless games by a variety of studios throughout the entire industry.

This past February, Bleszinski stated that he was done with disc-based gaming and claimed that he did not want to be remembered in the gaming industry just for his work on Gears of War. Just before his departure from Epic Games in 2012, Bleszinski mentioned frustrations with publishing companies and vocalized his disapproval of retailer-exclusive content.

“PC is where I’m going to wind up. That’s where the community is,” Bleszinski said back in Febuary. “I’ll never make another disc-based game for the rest of my career."

While Bleszinski mentioned that he was going to take time away from games since the 39 year old designer has been coding games since his teenage years, he has announced that he is coming back with a brand new project. He plans to reveal this project formally next week on July 8. Based on his frustrations with publishers in the past, we have a feeling that this project could perhaps be an indie game for PC that Bleszinski may decide to crowdfund, especially considering that he has yet to sign to a new developer studio (though he could announce his employment at a new studio along with his new project) Given his renown and reputation throughout the gaming industry, a crowdfunded campaign by Bleszinski would likely be successful.

With this new unveiling, he also intends to tell the story of what brought him back along with his inspirations for this new title.

Lastly, Bleszinski posted the following selfie. Based on the picture's description featuring the date of his big announcement, it is likely that the logo on his shirt is related this new project. The logo itself appears to be a key with two stylized Vs behind it, giving it the appearance of wings.