Bulletstorm dev talks down FPS fatigue

You can never have too many shooters, insists the developer behind EA's forthcoming FPS Bulletstorm – as long as they're good.

In June, pundits at E3 complained that the market for first-person shooters was looking particularly saturated this year. Heck, there was even a survey to prove it.

Nonsense, reckons Adrian Chmielarz, creative director of People Can Fly, the Polish studio developing Bulletstorm.

"I haven't heard anyone complaining that a book is 'yet another detective novel' or a movie is 'just another action movie' or a porno is 'yet another one with big tits'," he told Eurogamer.

"Look, shooters are fun and they will be made as long as people want to buy them - it's that simple. And by the way, I think that this 'crowded market' thing is a myth anyway. I'd happily play a great shooter every two weeks, but somehow that's not happening. There are times where there's barely one or two released in a quarter.

"I know it looks like there are tons of shooters on the horizon, but that's just it – it's the horizon," he continued. "When you look at what's actually coming out in just the next month or two, it's hard to say you'll get spammed with shooters."

Eurogamer's Kristan Reed sampled Bulletstorm's attention-grabbing cocktail of over the top humour, outrageous violence and filthy language back in May. "A brand of pulp sci-fi that many will find an acquired taste," he reckoned.

So we asked Chmielarz if he'd care to spell out exactly who his target demographic is.

"Let me put it this way: if you have ever, even for one second, wanted to have a wallet that says BAD MOTHERF***ER, you're going to like Bulletstorm," he offered as clarification.

"For us it's about making sure that the gore is so ridiculous that it doesn't feel too real. We want you to laugh at it, not be disgusted and appalled by it. Yes, you kill people for points, but they're very bad people, so it's okay. Right?"

Was there ever a point where a line was crossed and something was scrapped in the name of common decency?

"One thing that springs to mind is a SHOWER Skillshot, where you had to get an enemy high up in the air and then you had to stand right beneath him and gib him so the blood drops splatter against your face and a limb bounces off your head.

"Actually, wait. I want that back. Let me talk to the programmers."

Bulletstorm launches in 2011 on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.