Borderlands 3
Borderlands 3is go to be one of the biggest releases of the year . Hot off an electric debut at PAX East 2019 , developerGearbox Studioshas been building anticipation for the latest looping of one of the weirdest , funniest properties in play . Despite controversy overBorderlands 3Epic Storeexclusivity , it feels like the game is poised to become the most popular release for Gearbox yet . Borderlands 3co - writer Danny Homan make out that fans are passionate about the game , and while interviewing him , it becomes forthwith obvious that he shares that passion . Quickly rotating between deft sixth sense and quick - witted joke reponses , Homan feels like the consummate fit for a series that does much the same when it blend timely political consultation with pop culture vapidity and perfect chaos .
At theBorderlands 3gameplay reveal in Los Angeles , California , we got the prospect to sit down with Homan and grill him on all thingsBorderlands 3story . Why do the Calypso Twins experience so uniquely menacing ? What can we bear from the new worlds that we ’ll search as a series - first ? Why on Pandora didRhysgrow such a heinous moustache ? The answers to those burningBorderlands 3questions and more await :
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First of all , how excited are you to finally get this out and into the world and get people to see what you ’ve been work on ?
Danny Homan : Yeah , I think of , it ’s crazy . Ever since PAX East , when we had our first trailer driblet , I ’ve never experienced , like , this kind of point of excitement . Like , the rooter graphics alone just makes me improbably happy and just to see that after you know so many year of , um , between Borderlands 2 , that people are still so excited about the franchise and excited to see what we ’re doing .
How early did you set out write for Borderlands 3 after Borderlands 2 ? When did the narration commence getting craft ?
Danny Homan : So I ’ve been at Gearbox for four class and I ’ve been working on Borderlands 3 for 3 of those . So a comme il faut clod of change , y’know ?
So one of the thing that ’s been the standout from what we ’ve been see are the new scoundrel , the Calypso Twins . I ’ve only been [ play [ for twenty minutes so far but they ’re already kind of making their mark .
Danny Homan : Fair enough .
Can you shed a routine more light on them ?
Danny Homan : Yeah , so uh . The Calypso Twins have managed to create a furore called the Children of the Vault and in doing so they ’ve kind of done something that people thought was impossible on Pandora . They unified the Bandit kinship group , y’know , You saw in Borderlands 2 the brigand kin were just a disparate group of maniacs who were mostly just killing each other if they were n’t being killed by you or by Hyperion . But the Calypso Twins have done the unimaginable and they ’ve unite the bandits in pursuit of the Vault and they ’ve kind of organized them and made them kind of like follow their every beck and call . It ’s kind of a strange phenomenon that we ’ve never really seen in the Borderlands universe and , uh , as you maybe consider with the picture there ’s a batch of Modern fun to be had with a fad of bandits . They do n’t always kind of obey , proper ?
Was there any concern heading into designing the Calypso Twins that it was go to be tough to follow a baddie that was as iconic as Handsome Jack ?
Danny Homan : I intend , Handsome Jack is amazing , y’know , what can you say ? And I think the answer is that you do n’t assay to mimic something that get past success , you endeavor to make something different and new and just as a writer , the Calypso Twins are a blaze of a lot of play . I imply , you have this sibling moral force , which I do n’t bed if you have any brothers or babe but like for those of us that do , you understand that kind of wild snug kinship that ’s like , quasi - competitive , quasi - cooperative and , throughout the class of the biz they just , their relationship and how it kind of changes and warps is I recall just really exciting and really entertaining .
I discover in the preview that we were testify that they leaf a lot on livestreaming culture , like twitching and hooey like that - can you walk us through why you made that choice for their aim ?
Danny Homan : Yeah , I imply . Again , you know it kind of all go back to the fact that they do n’t quite look like bandits , there ’s something kind of strange going on there . I do n’t want to deflower too much of it but no , when you head to Pandora there’s … the greatest underused imagination are the brigand themselves , right ? They ’re an army that were prisoners that were left by the bay window , they ’ve kind of become the regretful versions of themselves , and the Calypso Twins are saucy , they ’re savvy , correct ? They control this opportunity to maybe galvanize the bandits into a fad and make an army of their own , and the Livescreams , and permit ’s Flays , and these sort of thing ; they ’re a mode of amping up their following and kind of creating this cult motorcar that variety of pull more and more follower . It increase their strength .
Can you go into a act more detail on the Children of the Vault cult itself ?
Danny Homan : Sure .
How do they grapple to convince these bandit that this is something worth doing ?
Danny Homan : Sure . I have in mind , part of it is in the name , the Children of the Vault rightfulness ? There ’s this belief that the Vaults are inherently theirs . They own the Vaults , maybe that it ’s their patrimony for deterrent example . A lot of it really goes back to the fact that the bandits were ill-treat , they were left by Dahl Corporation , and they ’ve kind of been leave ot their own machine on Pandora just to endure the best they can and so the Calypso Twins come along and they discern that thing : people call for a purpose , even if it ’s a terrible , maniac , murder - soaked purpose , people need something to think in and they need people to consider in them and that ’s kind of what the Calypsos have provided . They ’ve kind of gone “ oh bandit , everyone calls you beast , everyone calls you trash … but we see there ’s something , there ’s something in you , there ’s something we can elevate your murder to . Murder in our name . ”
There ’s a pile of quotation of Pandora with this , but this is the first time we ’re go beyond that . What are some of the narrative challenges when you ’re taking people away from a home that you ’ve establish up for a serial publication of three game now ?
Danny Homan : Pandora is one of a kind . It ’s this place where insanity seems to be kind of the de facto personality trait that someone needs to survive . Whether you ’re a hero or a villain . When you take that aspect of Pandora , how do you institute it to the other satellite in the march , right ? I remember for me that comes down to the fact that the borderlands have kind of been this staging reason for different corporation , it ’s like the furious Rebecca West . It ’s a gold rush sort of area . Every place you go has its kind of own unlike brand of insanity . lyssa and insanity and this fact that this is kind of a dark beetleweed , right ? It ’s a place where the governing have fallen , and corporations have kind of taken their stead . They ’re fundamentally arms dealer with some raw - yous and some other applied science kind of thrown in so wherever you go in the Borderlands universe there ’s that kind of unifying agent of : world has n’t done so smashing , and there ’s only a few masses that are what you would call good .
Decent .
Danny Homan : Decent is … yeah , full is maybe even over - selling it .
Are you able to share any item on the unexampled major planet you ’ve designed ? Anything that you ’re peculiarly frantic about ?
Danny Homan : Promethea is rad . It ’s the place of Atlas Corporation , it was the internet site of some of the first Eridian discoveries , so Atlas Corporation discovered Eridian ruin and that was kind of what actuate the march kind of wild Rebecca West trip-up to Pandora . There ’s just some fun hooey , we ’ve never experience this form of city in the Borderlands franchise , we had an chance in Borderlands 2 but the city is rad , there ’s so much fun humour with service bots that you might have assure from the videos . play in the city gives you that other side : you have Pandora , you have the dotty west , and then you have “ what ’s insane about a metropolis ? ” moderately much everything .
On Promethea we get to see our first glimpse of Rhys .
Danny Homan : Yeah !
What are the challenge port a character from what ’s a cult classic Borderlands form of address to , you have it away , the chief entries of the series ?
Danny Homan : Sure , well the first matter you have to do is put a moustache on him .
Apparently , yeah .
Danny Homan : Otherwise , what are you gon na do ?
The siege moustache , I vex that far .
Danny Homan : The military blockade mustache , yeah . Funny side chronicle : part of the cause he has a mustache is because of me . I was going through a very strange social experiment and I was just funny how my atomic number 27 - workers would react if I grew a mustache , and it was a very fascinating week of citizenry - when you develop a moustache people just total up to you and affront you , which is kind of a fascinating thing . When we were think about Promethea and Rhys , he ’s hem in by Maliwan Corporation and he ’s kind of been pushed back into one little area . We call back : “ okay , well what is he gon na do to kind of rally his troop and make them conceive him ? ” And it ’s a siege moustache .
Apparently so , yeah .
Danny Homan : We hope it work out for him , you know .
I ’ve got my fingers get across . I know they ’ve covered this before , but because we ’re talking about Rhys , and because he ’s tied to him - Handsome Jack , to the full utter ?
Danny Homan : Yeah , Handsome Jack is beat .
in full drained . Any chance that we ’re run to see any other Tales From the Borderlands part crop up ? Do we have any chance of - in person , I ’m really hoping for Loaderbot to make an appearing , but are there any ones you could babble out about ?
Danny Homan : I do n’t want to spoil anything at this moment , you might get word a small more at E3 . Man , Tales is such an awe-inspiring game , I do n’t know , I just love it . Telltale did such an incredible line of work and all of those grapheme are just fascinating . Whether its Rhys or Vaughan or Fiona , and yeah , who knows .
Okay . How approachable is the writing in Borderlands 3 to people who are new to the series ?
Danny Homan : You know , you ’ve drive ta drop a line for the person who ’s never play the secret plan before and does n’t know what Pandora is , does n’t have it away what a Claptrap is , right ? We compose for - we had to kind of straddle that rail line between people who have played every game in the franchise and people who are just experiencing it for the first prison term . What you quickly learn is that insanity is kind of the dominion of law . Claptrap at the beginning of the first missions says , you blow something up and he die , “ Relax , on Pandora it ’s really super weird if something ’s not exploding ! ” And that ’s how we onboard players . Because when you hear that personal credit line and you go “ okay , that ’s a weird thing . Explosions are just equation for the course on Pandora . ”
Are any of the characters in this game your babies ? Is there one you work on more than any others ?
Danny Homan : You work on - we have quite a few writers and we kind of employment on all of the missions together . We kind of have missions that we pop with , and graphic symbol that we shepherd , but it ’s a pretty extremely collaborative surround . We have a author way , we plug up clobber , we play our missions . I ’ve always loved Ellie , I just think Ellie is one of the most awful character and it ’s been such a delight to be able to write for her . I ’m a southerner at centre , so I ’ve been able to pussyfoot in a few : “ squish squish Jellyfish ” and “ in a while crocodile ” kind of stuff …
Some colloquialism that might not have made it if it was n’t for you ?
Danny Homan : Yeah , Pandora is n’t so unlike from Florida , I think . It ’s got its own brand of insanity , so …
I feel like Florida may be a little piece crazier than Pandora at times , in my experience .
Danny Homan : Maybe a little bit , yeah .
Would you say that there ’s a preferent character [ of yours ] of the new unity that you have ?
Danny Homan : Well , we have n’t met all of them yet so it ’s kind of unvoiced to matter in on that .
That ’s clean .
Danny Homan : I ’m excited about the unexampled character . border district is awesome because there ’s so many fictitious character from this enfranchisement and they ’re all really rad and fun to work with . As a writer , being able to create new characters is skilful .
I ’ve got a minuscule bit of a deep dive on Siren lore here because I was really interested in it when I was researching this interview .
Danny Homan : * laughs * Sure .
Are we go to see the final unknown Siren in this storey ?
Danny Homan : * sigh * You ’re gon na have to await and discover out , man .
Are Modern Sirens created when old ones pass ?
Danny Homan : These are all great questions . You might find out some of that in this game . Who knows ?
Can existing citizenry become Sirens ?
Danny Homan : Um , that ’s an interesting interrogative . I mean , there ’s a sight of ways that someone can become a Siren . It ’s not a de facto X - Men variety of affair . There ’s some unlike conditions that kind of arise . Yeah , Sirens are unique and I feel like we like to keep it a little amorphous . What we like the most is when fan kind of create their own myths and stories about how this variety of stuff happens . As a writer we try not to definitively say one thing because there ’s a lot possible .
Are we going to see Scooper in this story ?
Danny Homan : I do n’t think so .
How much time has passed between BL2 and BL3 narratively ?
Danny Homan : Roughly the time since BL2 launched , so it ’s been about seven years .
So just chronologically accurate to the development time .
Danny Homan : Yeah , absolutely .
How many tea parties with Tina do we get in Borderlands 3 ?
Danny Homan : * laughs * You ’re going to have to wait and see .
There ’s a lot of wait and see go on .
Danny Homan : We do n’t need to mishandle anything !
Are any of the walking gunman characters or are they all just travel to be enkindle from the gun and discarded immediately ?
Danny Homan : * laughs * I love all these doubt , but unfortunately I ca n’t answer all of them .
Would you rather defend three Claptrap - sized Mr. Torgues or one Mr. Torgue - sized Clap - Trap ?
Danny Homan : That is a terrific inquiry that will haunt my dreams . Man , I do n’t even want to hear what CLap - Trap ’s interpreter is like if it gets amplified to that Torgue horizontal surface so …
So we ’re gon na go with three Claptrap - sized Mr. Torgues .
Danny Homan : Yeah I call up so .
Are you verbalise for all the writers now ?
Danny Homan : No , you ’ll have to ask them individually .
Is there one Vault Hunter in fussy that ’s returning that you ’re delirious for the great unwashed to see - now that we ’re kind of verbalise about how we ca n’t talk about a fate of the new ace , is there a retort one you ’re particularly excited about ?
Danny Homan : For Borderlands 2 I dally as Maya and we saw her on the ship . She was always my favourite , I love Sirens in general . She ’s a great fibre .
Speaking of the ship , it ’s interesting that we ’re buzz off this homebase moral force that ’s a starship . Are there any pop culture properties that you kind of borrow from when designing that ? I gotFirefly - esque vibe when I was watching the presentation .
Danny Homan : Yeah , there ’s similar kinds of franchises that kind of quasi - sci - fi - Cicily Isabel Fairfield . What I love about Sanctuary [ 3 ] is that it is a spaceship but it ’s catch band - aids on it , you know ? It ’s a Borderlands spaceship so it ’s got give way part of the ship and it ’s kind of got its own charm . It feels very lived - in . So as you walk around you see stairs that have been erupt , you see an exhaust pipe that someone has put canister foil over , good ? It ’s very kitbash put together .
How much piece of work went into designing the ship ’s ambiance ? It feels like a lot of the NPCs had things to say . Is there a lot of writing that goes into that as well ?
Danny Homan : Yeah , we ’ve got a peck of Nonproliferation Center on circuit card . Our goal as writer is to make it palpate like a live breathing billet , right ? So we spend so much time locomote around the ship being like “ what would I want to comment on ? That exhaust pipe is conduce to nowhere . Let ’s comment on that . ”
Any one specific narrative beat that you could sing about that you ’re really excited for fans to live in Borderlands 3 ?
Danny Homan : I really like the moment where we first meet the Calypso Twins aspect - to - holograph . Tyreen says “ you ’re my most fast follower you just do n’t bed it yet ” and there ’s a heap form of packed into that line . The Calypso Twins have this kind of unknown lordliness where they presume you ’re just exit to be another one of their followers . There ’s some interesting mode that kind of plays out .
Is that going to work up in the narrative - them attempt to kind of take out the player over ?
Danny Homan : That and also just that kind of signified that entertainer always kind of flavor like everyone should be watching them . Everyone should be paying attention to them .
That ’s an interesting beat .
Danny Homan : Part of the fun of the Calypso Twins is that they are entertainers , right-hand ? They ’re hold you and they ’re entertaining the bandits . That ’s why the craze exists . They ’re kind of - they ’re doing terrible things in the name of their cult .
In the name of views ?
Danny Homan : Yeah .
Thank you so much for your time .
Danny Homan : Yeah , that was fun , dead .
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