Gearbox Software

Every darkie, Gonski.

No, it just reminds me a little bit of Gearbox as well, because as much as I love Gearbox and everything that Borderlands was, I could kind of see that Borderlands 4 was going to, like you could see where Marathon was going to struggle.

All the people who were responsible for why Destiny was going in the wrong direction were brought onto Marathon, were the ones who were in charge of blowing out Marathon as they did.

And you could just immediately see the writing on the wall, even before it actually came out, that this was not going to be a game for anybody at all.

Or it came out in early access, switched publishers.

Uh, I think it was, like, being published alongside Gearbox Publishing, which is something that collapsed, changed as Gearbox themselves changed hands.

Mm.

That game never looked good.

Well, with that, we'll kick it off with our last for this week in gaming history.

When on September 18th, 2012, Borderlands 2 was released for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games.

The sequel expanded on the original's loot-driven cooperative shooter formula with a sharper sense of humor, a much more memorable villain in Handsome Jack, and a level of polish that turned a promising first entry into a genuine phenomenon.

14 years later, Borderlands 2 is still considered the high water mark.

Wow.

Gearbox is leaning into it.

They literally show her butt cheek in the trailer for her.

You know how Borderlands do?

They love them sloppy natties over at Gearbox.

Oh my god.

We're not getting back onto Gearbox again.

Why not? Come on down to the medieval times restaurant.

I thought it was announced in like '97.

It was '96, '97, I think, and then it, it swapped developers like three times until Gearbox picked it up.

Yeah.

And I think it came out in 2010.

My guest today is Presley Heinz, who's a sound designer based out of Edmonton, Canada.

Presley is currently senior sound designer at Gearbox, and has worked on projects like Borderlands 4, God of War: Ragnarok, Anthem, and many others.

In this interview, we talk about how Presley started as a classical piano player, moved on to become a percussion player, worked in live sound, and then eventually ended up studying game audio, how she learned the skills needed to make it in the field of the game industry, what she recommends up-and-coming sound designers do to stand out, and so much more.

So without further ado, let's get into the interview with Presley Heinz.

Hmm.

Everybody should be learning from everybody, both professionally, like, I'm, I, at work and stuff like that, you know, we'll do it all the time.

I'll post something and if there is one thing I can say about the Gearbox audio team and where we're at now is that everybody is so willing to give feedback to each other, regardless of, like, the level that you're at or where you're at in it.

Our leads are putting things in the chat and just being like, "Hey, what do you guys think of this?" You know? And then you have the juniors saying the same thing, and the mid-levels doing the same thing, and the mids are giving feedback to the leads, and the leads are giving feedback to everybody.

Look, I was a game...

I think that was the trip that Gearbox was like, hey, I saw you're in Texas.

You want to come see Borderlands? Yes, I absolutely did that.

I absolutely did the like, hey, before you leave town, why don't you come check out? Why don't you come test this? I feel like it was informal.

Welcome, everyone, to another episode of the Gearbox DevCast.

Today, we're going to be taking a deep look at Loveless, our new Vault Hunter.

She's a hacker.

I apologize.

And

Ryan, for those that don't know, what exactly do you do at Gearbox?

Yeah, at Gearbox, I do game design, but broadly focused on characters.

So I joined Gearbox about a year and a half ago and have really been working on Loveless in some capacity or another almost since then.