Control Freak

1. Origin Story

ORIGIN STORY
Every game needs a hero, a larger-than-life figure adept at slaying every challenge thrown their way. Think Solid Snake from the Metal Gear series. Ex-Green Beret, special-ops good guy who demolishes nuke-carrying baddies.

You also have Master Chief from the Halo games, who shows up just in time to save the universe. And Mario, who rescues the princess.

Every childhood needs a similar kind of real-life hero who makes the world safe from monsters and their mayhem.

Mine was no exception. With four older brothers and sports legends like Yaz, Esposito, and Havlicek, who cast their shadows across Boston and its neighboring suburbs, including North Andover where I grew up, I had plenty of choices. But none measured up to the man who assumed that role for me-my father.

Take this one example: I was almost a teenager, hormones stirring shit up inside me, and I wanted to be a ninja warrior. No mutant jokes, please. This was serious stuff. I didn't want to be a ninja warrior. I became one. So did my friends Rick, Chris, and Mike. We found a catalog that offered authentic ninja outfits-black tunics, baggy pants, a cowl with cutouts for our eyes, and the split-toed shoes that ninjas would wear-pooled our paper route money, and bought the requisite outfits.

We also got a few shuriken, or ninja stars. Rick already had nunchucks. We were going to be truly badass.

Two weeks later, the stuff arrived. Since it was summer, we didn't have school, so the days belonged to us, and we blazed a trail on our Sting-Ray bikes to our secret fort out in the woods. There we excitedly transformed ourselves into the baddest clan of mercenary fighters ever to declare themselves ready to raise hell in suburban North Andover, Massachusetts. We were the way I imagined the band KISS was the first time they saw each other in full makeup and rock regalia-freaking ecstatic. Look at us. Holy shit.

We high-fived each other, posed, snarled,

Cliff Bleszinski, former Epic Games Design Director and twenty-five-year veteran of the video game industry, shipped his first commercial title, Jazz Jackrabbit, before graduating high school. During his tenure at Epic, he was a key visionary behind the award-winning, multimillion-selling Unreal game series and the billion-dollar Gears of War franchise. While at Epic, he also lent his creative expertise to games such as Fortnite, ChAIR Entertainment's Infinity Blade series, and multiple unannounced projects. Bleszinski is the cofounder of Boss Key Productions, which released two titles but ultimately folded. He's now actively involved as a producer on Broadway and figuring out what's next.