In an Inside the Box post, which is a forum for those involved in the production of Gearbox Software to share their ideas behind the games they produce, Anthony Burch, lead writer for BL2, talks about the humor behind the beloved Borderlands 2.
Burch points out at first that Borderlands 2 is not a comedy game, which I completely agree with. This game is so emotionally wrecking I sometimes forget about the Bane or even the silly incoherent comments that Tiny Tina makes –oddly enough voiced by the same actress.
And there are fart jokes galore, but of course there was a lot behind all of the jokes in general. A lot of thought went into creating the humor behind weapons, characters and quests. The Bane, for example, went from just a gun based off of Winchester 73 to the annoying yet amazingly spec’d gun we know and love.
Burch also discusses that breaking patterns can make for some great dark comedy, his two examples being Claptrap’s Birthday Bash and the quest ‘Shoot Me In the Face.’ Both of them break the stereotypical ideas behind quests in Borderlands 2.
The Birthday Bash works in breaking the pattern, according to Burch, by making it a quest that you honestly have no control over. If you leave before the party ends, the three minutes starts over and you have to endure it all over again. Shoot Me In the Face works a little differently.
Shoot Me In the Face is a short and simple quest where you basically just shoot a guy in the face. Easy right? Well, not for the developers.
Humor takes a lot more time and effort than you may think. For example, Tiny Tina had a little bit of every department to make her the bomb-making thirteen year old that we know and love.
Sometimes the jokes don’t work out, but when they do we get a great game that’s not only hilarious but is there to make the community happy.
