District 9 director Neill Blomkamp reveals his role as Chief Visionary Officer for an upcoming AAA multiplayer shooter from Gunzilla Games.
Neill Blomkamp, director of sci-fi films such as District 9, Chappie and Elysium, revealed he has signed on as Chief Visionary Officer for Gunzilla Games to help the new developer craft its debut project, an unannounced multiplayer shooter.
Blomkamp elaborated on his new role in an interview with IGN. As Chief Visionary Officer for Gunzilla, Blomkamp will collaborate with all departments of the development team to assist in making creative decisions regarding the game’s direction in storytelling, design, audio and more. Gunzilla began developing its first game after being established in 2021 but revealed little about its first project beyond the genre: a AAA multiplayer shooter with narrative elements. Blomkamp remained similarly tight-lipped in regards to the game’s details
While Blomkamp regularly plays and draws creative inspiration from video games, such as Remedy Entertainment’s Control, he acknowledged his limited game design experience. Considering his lack of industry experience, he confirms he will work closely with other senior creatives to help realize his vision.
“The difference [from directing a film] is not acting like a single point that guides the creative team. It’s making sure that you’re integrated into the team in a real way,” Blomkamp said. “The primary thing no matter how you cut it will be player agency and the ability for players to just interact with it in a shooter environment in a way that hopefully is a really, really cool game to them.”
The director, who also works as a screenwriter for many of his projects, compared the level of worldbuilding in Gunzilla’s game to the worlds of his films. He went on to draw loose comparisons between his work on the project to author George R.R. Martin’s role writing for FromSoftware’s upcoming Elden Ring.
“If you think of something like Elysium, the amount of forethought to build the world, you may be spending 95% of the time thinking through the worldbuilding in order to get to the 5%, which is the movie that you watch,” Blomkamp said. “And I think that you could apply the same sort of mentality where depending on how much backstory and world creation you’re building, you’re going to end up with a more convincing, awesome world to drop the player into.”
While Blomkamp declined to state any specifics about the intricacies of Gunzilla’s project, he made it clear there are no strong connections between the new game and his movies. In discussing his favorite story settings, however, he may have dropped a possible hint to the game’s niche, stating, “I think the idea of near-future science fiction is something that is really interesting. Conceptually, as well as from a visual and design point of view, that’s my favorite zone to be inside of.”
Blomkamp is in the early stages of working on a follow-up to his 2009 film District 9. His supernatural horror film Demonic, which was filmed during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, is set to release in theaters next month. Each of Blomkamp’s projects showcases his dedication and experience regarding directing, writing and visual effects, all of which he believes will apply to his work as he helps guide the development of Gunzilla’s first game.
“Games will…become what films were in the 20th century,” Blomkamp said. “They’ll just be the thing that is the dominant form of cultural entertainment and [I want] to be in that.”
Source: IGN
About The Author
