PUBG Creator Brendan Greene 'Dreading' His Next Game

PUBG lead designer and director Brendan Greene, better known by his moniker PlayerUnknown, isn't looking forward to his next game, he said in a new interview. He also talked about his unawareness of the gaming industry and how that helped him, and why he thinks modding is a great way for game development.

In an interview with British gaming magazine Edge, Greene said:

"Yeah, I am dreading my next game, because it’s PlayerUnknown’s Next Game. And there’s going to be eyes on it. No matter what I do, there’s going to be a lot of critics going, “Well, it’s no PUBG.” And I’ve accepted that – I am not going to make a game that’s going to get like, three million concurrent users, and tens of millions of players every month. But I’m not aiming to make that. I want to make a game I want to play, and if other people want to play it, that’s fantastic – but ultimately, if they don’t, I’ll still have a game that I can play. So that’s my outlook: I’m probably going to get shit on, but that’s okay."

Greene cited the example of meeting game designer Tim Schafer, known for Full Throtte and Grim Fandango among others, as his utter unawareness of the industry's revered people. "I was never a big gamer: I played games occasionally. I was a photographer and a DJ, so that’s what I kind of did," he explained. "At weekends I was DJing, or doing gigs, or whatever, so I didn’t get a lot of time to play games. I never really paid attention to the industry."

Asked whether that affected PUBG, he said: "I mean, definitely from an engine point of view. I don’t know the tech intimately, and that allows me to dream a little bigger. With game design, it’s the same – I’m not burdened by the rules of game design that many other people have learnt, and as a result, Battlegrounds was born out of that. The battle royale game mode was born out of my lack of game design – and it being a tough game."

Greene got into game development through modding, which was a hobby alongside his work as a photographer and DJ, and considers it a hallmark of successful multiplayer games.

"If you look at the top four [multiplayer] games in the last 10 to 15 years – like Counter-Strike, Dota, DayZ, Battlegrounds – they all came from mods. These were not triple-A companies coming up with an idea for a game: this was a modder going, 'This is a game I want to play,' and other people enjoying it. And I think it’s a testament to the fact that modding is a really interesting way to get into game development, and to try your ideas, because you never know what might happen."

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