CCP RELOADS SHOOTER AIMS TO BE ‘GENRE DEFINING’ CCP is making a shooter, and the London-based team responsible has a new studio head in Adrian Blunt. Seth Barton catches up with him to find out about the project to date, the team he’s now building and his ambitions for the title
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opportunity to meet the team, play the t’s fair to say that there’s nothing game, and I was blown away by what the new in CCP trying to make a team has been able to create.” So, at very successful shooter based in its least, we know that this early version of immense, enduring and engaging Eve the game was strong enough to entice Online universe. First there was the Blunt from his previous position at PS3-era Dust 514 (which released to Splash Damage. a mixed reception), then came Project “I’ve been making games for the last 20 Legion, and most recently Project Nova, years. And throughout my career, CCP which itself was cancelled in February has pretty much been a constant fixture. last year. I’ve admired it from the start, both in The flame never died, though, and terms of how the game has grown, the now the baton for a new Eve-sibling way that it interacts with its community. shooter has been passed to CCP’s I’ve always been fascinated by it. London studio. And that team now “Combine that with what the team in has a new studio head in the form of Adrian Blunt, London is making, that opportunity to run industry veteran Adrian Blunt, most Studio Head, London, CCP a studio of talented individuals and help recently of Splash Damage, but who also shape that team and help shape that game. It just felt like a spent time at EA, Ubisoft and Square Enix. dream job. I think I finally have the best job in the world.” So we sat down with him to discuss the rebooted shooter. A project that, due to its now potted history, PROJECT RELOADED combined with the media’s long-running interest in Eve’s While Blunt is obviously delighted with his new role, it’s scale and success, is under the critical microscope to a far worth considering that his job is to make something that greater extent than many similar titles would be. So can it CCP has struggled with in recent years. Blunt obviously live up to expectations, before CCP has even said a word can’t speak to events before his time, so CCP’s head of about it? public relations, George Kelion steps in. “We have a history of breaking down barriers with our Kelion tells us, in relation to Project Nova, that CCP ambition. I think that’s very much true in this game. It is always aims to “keep challenging ourselves every step of a hugely ambitious game, it will be genre defining. And it the way by asking difficult questions when facing tough has all the hallmarks of a CCP game,” says Blunt, happy to decisions.” An admirable outlook. match those expectations. “Over the course of Project Nova’s development, The game was in pre-production before Blunt’s arrival, we conducted a number of player research sessions and his first impressions were good: “When I had the
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