Dec 14, 2023 - News

Local Limelight: Game designer and restaurateur Cliff Bleszinski

Zachery Eanes

Photo illustration of Cliff Beszinski in a polaroid frame. — Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photo: Mark Davis/Getty Images

From creating "Gears of War" at Epic Games, to co-producing the Broadway musical "Hadestown," to opening the Raleigh Beer Garden and The Station in Raleigh, Cliff Bleszinski's career and interests have jumped all over the map.

His latest move takes him into the world of comic books — writing a new series for young adults called "Scrapper" with Alex de Campi. It's about a dog fighting against totalitarian forces in a dystopic future.

Axios spoke with Bleszinski for our Local Limelight series. Answers have been edited for Smart Brevity and clarity.

🥟 Favorite place to eat in the Triangle: Brewery Bhavana. The dim sum is fantastic.

🌆 What he thinks the Triangle is missing: More unique architecture. What we're seeing is a trend of these generic, 6-story buildings going up everywhere. I hope we don't lose our history here.

🎮 What brought him to the Triangle: The idea from Mark Rein and Tim Sweeney was to find a spot where Epic could be centrally located. Steve Polge, an AI programmer at Epic who was working at IBM in RTP, suggested the area.

Back in the day (1998), all I wanted to do was be at my computer and make video games, and, I was like, 'Well, there's a mall and a Burger King so I'm good.'"

🐦 First read in the morning: Twitter, sadly… Basically, I wake up and my dogs dive all over me and then I check my phone.

📕 Last great book he read: The Britney Spears memoir.

💭 Last great comic book he read: "Bad Karma" by my writing partner Alex de Campi.

🍎 Favorite long weekend spot: New York City.

🎬 What he's looking forward to: Going to see "Godzilla Minus One" at the Alamo Drafthouse.

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Local Limelight: Game designer and restaurateur Cliff Bleszinski

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