THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Kayla Belmore and Matt Cox talk to Oscar Taylor-Kent about evolving Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands beyond its Borderlands 2 DLC inspirations, from overworlds to procedurally generated spellbooks

- Oscar Taylor-Kent

FORMAT PS5, PS4 ETA 25 MAR PUB 2K GAMES DEV GEARBOX SOFTWARE PLAYERS 1-4

Throughout its core trilogy, Borderlands has no shortage of zany adventures. But something about Borderland 2’s DLC, Tiny Tina’s Assault On Dragon Keep, stands out. More than a tabletop RPG coat of paint, it mixes fantasy elements into the Borderlands formula, and uses Tina’s role as the Bunkers And Badasses Bunker Master to change the adventure according to her whims as she works through grief via the imaginary world. Now it’s returning as a standalone adventure in its own right (but still with plenty of looting and shooting).

That original DLC came about partly because many members of the Gearbox team were keen to introduce fantasy elements to the game, and that spurred them on to see if they could take things further. “I think it was very obvious to everybody in the studio that the ceiling is much higher than just a DLC, so it definitely deserves to be explored in a standalone fashion,” shares creative director Matt Cox.

How long has the team wanted to expand the concept? “It’s been kicking around for a while,” says senior producer Kayla Belmore. “Not only was [Assault On Dragon Keep] critically successful, but also the team enjoyed making it and that’s huge. […] When we had the opportunity to be able to do it, we did it.”