Unreal Engine streamlined the transition to a new engine for New Tales from the Borderlands

Sharing is caring!

Tales from the Borderlands was born of a universe resplendent with colorful characters, setting, and storylines; but also a bit of poker; Poker Night 2 to be specific.

The poker video game developed by Telltale Games featured among its diverse cast, famed Borderlands’ robot loudmouth Claptrap. It also kicked off behind-the-scenes conversations between Telltale Games and Borderlands developer Gearbox Studio.

Those talks lead to the concept for Tales from the Borderlands, an episodic interactive comedy game based on the Gearbox-created universe. While that 2015 game was overwhelmingly well received, a sequel seemed unlikely thanks to the unfortunate closing of developer Telltale Games in 2018.

But last year, 2K Games managed to buy back the Tales property, relist it on store fronts, and launch work on a spiritual sequel, this time handled by Gearbox Studio Quebec with a bit of help from some former Telltale developers.

The result, New Tales from the Borderlands, brings a lot of changes to the title, while working to retain the charm of the original which captured the hearts of many.

We chatted with New Tales from the Borderlands producer Frédéric Scheubel about the game’s shift in design, new, grittier look, single-date release cadence, and how shifting to Unreal Engine for development was both relatively seamless, and also helped maintain a healthy team as they worked to incorporate performance capture into the game during a pandemic.

To read the rest of this story, which first ran on Oct. 21, 2022, visit Unreal Engine.