Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski, lead designer of Gears of War and its just-announced sequel, was able to sit down with GameDaily BIZ between his Microsoft keynote address teaser debut and his Complex Magazine video interview at The Clift Hotel, which was conducted in bed by two lingerie-clad Penthouse Pets, for this exclusive interview on Gears of War 2, GDC and how he's involved in the ever-expanding Gears universe.

GameDaily BIZ: What was the inspiration for the chainsaw stunt on stage during the Microsoft keynote?

CliffyB: It came from Prince at the Super Bowl a couple of years ago where he had his guitar and he was working it. At these kinds of conventions drama sells and people love theatrics. Microsoft came to us and said they wanted me to chainsaw my way through to the stage. The original idea was to actually have me chainsawing through a backdrop and the fire marshals nixed that. It just turned into using the Lancer prop to cut through paper, which people are actually asking me if that thing was really revving up. It wasn't. It was just a prop, but it's all how you sell it and use your body language.

BIZ: What role do you play with the expansion of this franchise into a feature film, a book series and other forms of entertainment?

CliffyB: The more a franchise grows the harder it is to keep track of continuity. I have a great producer who keeps an eye on all of that. We keep an eye on the story bible and on the various things that are being created like the graphic novels, novelizations and film. We have to be continuity Nazis.

BIZ: What are the challenges when you have a success like Gears of War in developing a sequel that will live up to the expectations of fans?

CliffyB: It's a tricky process because you have fans of the first title, but at the same time, if you're creative there are going to be a lot of things that you felt you could have done better. Fans are tricky because in some ways they want the nostalgia of what they felt in the first game but at the same time they want to experience something new. They want something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. With Unreal Tournament, for example, as we've iterated that franchise we'd add a new game type and take out a new one and there'd be people that were so mad that we didn't have bombing run in one of the iterations. You take your best gut check in making the game you believe gamers want to play.

BIZ: How receptive are you to listening to criticisms for your games?

CliffyB: We very much listen to criticisms. Narrative is one of those things that is incredibly important in a video game if you played Portal or BioShock. And we definitely recognize that. The teaser that we released alludes to an even more interesting narrative set-up for Gears 2.

BIZ: What are your thoughts on the expansion of the video game audience courtesy of Nintendo Wii and DS?

CliffyB: I think it's good for the industry. People who haven't played games in a while or haven't played games at all are playing. They'll start off playing Cooking Mama and then they'll graduate to something like Mass Effect and Gears. If anything, they won't give their boyfriends as much crap for playing games.

BIZ: Do you find more females playing Gears?

CliffyB: Just from my own anecdotal evidence of talking to random people, I think Gears because it's in third-person and is a slower pace, is a more successful shooter than a lot of other shooters. And the co-op is huge because you get the boyfriend playing the game as Marcus and the girlfriend jumps in as Dom and then he can guide her through the game. That's cool.

BIZ: Gears has had a huge following online. What do you like to play online?

CliffyB: I like shooters. Recently I've been hooked on Call of Duty 4. I love their leveling system in there and their perk system is really cool. I've played a lot of Halo 3 but I've played enough of Halo and Halo 2 to know what I'm getting into there so that's when I transitioned over to Call of Duty 4.

BIZ: Are there other games that influenced you in developing Gears 2?

CliffyB: I can't really talk about that at this time. I can talk about games I enjoy playing right now.

BIZ: Which are?

CliffyB: I loved the Devil May Cry 4 demo...that was really solid. I think the marketing for that game isn't really that good, by the way. I played The Club from Sega, which is cool, but I would have liked more of a narrative in that game. Kane & Lynch was solid, and of course I loved BioShock and Portal. Burnout Paradise is cool, too.

BIZ: How have you seen the Game Developers Conference grow?

CliffyB: It's swamped today. You can barely get from Point A to Point B. There's always a certain amount of people who will show up for conventions and clog the aisles. It's great for the game industry's growth, but it's also problematic for people trying to get from one appointment to the next.

BIZ: What role does GDC play for Epic Games?

CliffyB: For us as a premiere middleware provider, this is a great place for us to get face time with our existing licensees as well as potential new customers.

BIZ: Thanks Cliff. Enjoy the rest of your GDC.