'Gears Of War' Artist Reveals Inspiration For Game's 'Fun' Gore

Ever wondered where Epic Games drew from when designing "Gears of War"'s over-the-top blood and guts? We have the answer: cult classic 80s horror films.

At PAX 2008, MTV Multiplayer spoke with "Gears of War 2" artist Pete Hayes, who explained that his favorite movie genre, horror, was the culprit.

"That's kind of the tone that I drew inspiration from and that's kind of the tone that I wanted it to be in the game," said Hayes. "Other games that are more slow and methodical and creepy and scary, I still enjoy playing them, but I really like the way that it is in 'Gears' and that it's not serious. It's more fun."

So, what are his favorite horror movies? Good thing you asked!

"I've got a ton of them," he said. "All of the original kind of 'Day of the Dead' zombie movies. Obviously, 'Evil Dead.' Huge fan. 'Dead Alive' was kind of comedy gore. The early Peter Jackson stuff like 'Bad Taste' and things along those lines. For me, my stuff is very old school and it's when gore was fun and gore was just that kind of surprise effect."

Hayes admits he's "not a fan of real-life gore" and movies that aim for grossing the viewer out with realistic violence. He pointed to "Hostel" (commonly referred to as "torture porn") as a recent example.

When it came time to develop the gore for "Gears of War," he simply remembered what he liked in his favorite movies.

"Honestly, I didn't do much research at all," he said. "It's not like I was sitting there looking at dead bodies. There's a lot of 'mystery meat' [in 'Gears of War''s gore]. It's not anatomically correct. I just remembered all the zombie films [with] guts hanging out and cool things like that. And so I really focused on just visually making something look cool, but not just gore for gores sake."

In a video game, however, you're not as limited by budget when designing the scale of your gore. Where did Hayes and the rest of Epic Games draw the line? When is there too much gore? How do you decide what's too little? Hayes didn't approach it like that.

"It's not like I was sitting there looking at dead bodies"

"I think it's definitely one of those things where if it feels right," he said. "It's totally about the gameplay and it's totally about 'does it fit into the game'?' I mean, there's not any slow, kind of creepy, premeditated, I'm-gonna-go-up-and-saw-your-head-off-for-five-minutes. It's all just very action-packed, very quick, instantaneous. I don't know that there's really stuff that we felt out that we thought was too far. I think we got a good feel and a good vibe for what role the gore serves in the game and we didn't want to play with that formula too much [in the sequel]."

If you're anxious for "Gears of War 2" and can't stand the wait, there's always time to add some George A. Romero zombie classics to your Netflix queue.

[Image Credit: United Film Distribution Company]

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