Cliffy B forms new studio, sadly not named Dude Huge Productions

Internet sleuths have discovered that Cliff Bleszinski has started a new studio, named Boss Key Productions.

AllGamesBeta discovered that the former Epic Games designer – who mentioned recently that he was coming out of retirement, following his leaving Epic Games two years ago – is linked to a recently incorporated studio named Boss Key Productions. The website for said studio went live earlier today, complete with links to Cliffy’s Twitter account, mentions of a “Project Bluestreak”, and links to a Bluestreak Twitter account. Those links have since vanished, presumably because people found them. Lesson learned: do not put things on the internet if you don’t want people to see them yet.

Polygon did some further sleuthing and discovered that the new studio’s certificate of authority (whatever that is) lists Arjan Brussee as the company’s COO. Bruusee was a co-founder of Guerrilla Games (think Killzone) and was most recently known as an executive producer at Visceral Games, currently working on Battlefield Hardline.

Previously, Cliffy has stated that he wants to avoid starting his own massive studio, and that he wants to make a PC game. So whatever announcement is made on Tuesday – because, obviously, Cliffy has Tweeted a link to a countdown timer – will likely be relevant to our interests.

Speculation time! It’s probably going to be a shooter of some sort. With muscles and guns, because this is Cliffy B. That said… well, Cliffy worked on the rather jolly Jazz Jackrabbit games, and Bluestreak makes me think Sonic, so you never know! Maybe it’ll be a new, PC-only Sonic the Hedgehog game! With muscles and guns, because this is Cliffy B.

And yes, I am sad that this studio isn’t named Dude Huge Productions, if only because that studio name is pretty much a sentence in its own right.

Incidentally: younger readers, a boss key can both be a key that lets you reach a boss in a game, but it was also a key programmed into a lot of older games which would immediately pause the game, replacing the image on the screen with that of something work-related, like a fake spreadsheet. It was a key you pressed when your boss was lurking around, so that he didn’t catch you playing games at work. Except that lots of these were pretty much grounds for dismissal anyway. I remember one which opened up a fake text document which had something like THE BOSS IS A TWAT written in large text.

Still, assuming Cliffy B means it in the older sense, that would certainly indicate some older sensibilities and perhaps some indie leanings! It’s a nice thought.