Today we are happy to bring you the completed Q&A generated by questions you, our valuable readers, took the time to send in. Cliff has been knee-deep in Gears of War 2 development, so we'd like to thank him for putting aside a few minutes to respond to these questions.

Below you'll read about his thoughts on his own start in the business, what Epic is looking to do to make Gears 2 even better than the original, why he loves GTA IV, what advice he has for aspiring developers, among other topics.

Thanks to all who sent in questions.

1. What got you started in video games? Was it something you wanted to do or did you happen to end up in the profession? Did you really like it at first or was it a crappy job?

Simply put, the moment I saw Space Invaders on the Atari 2600 I knew I wanted to make objects move on my television screen. It was that simple. I was raised on a steady diet of Honey Comb cereal, Thundercats, and '80s teen-sex romps. I'll always love film and television, but gaming just grabbed me from a very young age.

I'm a pretty bad artist and an even worse coder, but I wasn't about to let that stop me from getting into the business that I loved. Back in the day, I'd play any and all games that I could get my hands on. Remember some of those old Nintendo games like Deadly Towers and Athena? I'd play them for hours. What I didn't realize at the time was that it wasn't just fun, it was my training for my job. Eventually, I managed to get my hands on an Apple //c and Basic, so I started cranking out Infocom-style text adventures. I then graduated to an IBM 386 SX and a copy of Visual Basic that I used to start making graphical adventures similar to Déjà vu and Uninvited.

I helped start the American Software Dream by selling copies of my games out of my mother's house in Ziploc bags. Right around that time, the Compuserve forums were blowing up, and the shareware industry was in full swing. I checked out a little game called Jill of the Jungle that had a call for talented partners at the end of it. I sent a prototype of my next adventure over to Tim Sweeney and Mark Rein, and within days I received an enthusiastic phone call from Mark. He was gushing about how cool my game was, and he pitched all sorts of ideas for improvements which terrified my then 17-year-old self. Luckily he didn't scare me away; I later partnered with them to build Jazz Jackrabbit and eventually went on to Unreal and Unreal Tournament.

I've always loved what I do for a living, but there are times when it can become difficult. Crunch time, the part of the development cycle when people often work 12+ hour days, is hard work but Epic does a lot of cool things to minimize the hassle of these periods and make sure we don't get burned out. Also, the games we build around here, and the amazing group of people we get to work with, are so kickass that it's hard to ever get down about much of anything.

2. It's been a while since Gears of War came out so it's no shock that several other games have made an impact on the industry and the medium. Most notably, Grand Theft Auto IV is sending shock waves across the gaming community and looks like it could end up being the revolutionary title that everyone wants it to be. Do you find yourself looking at these games to see what they've done that maybe you can emulate or use as a springboard to improve your own games? Also, is it possible that you can cite any specific examples of features or aspects from some of the big titles out right now that you've looked at as a benchmark for Gears of War 2?

As a creative, I'm blown away with what Rockstar is doing with GTA IV. The enormity of the world and the project is just astonishing, and I'm quite glad we're not competing against them with an open world crime drama. I'm quite happy to be in sci-fi cover shooter land these days!

What is great about GTA IV is the entire richness of its feature set. The fact that you're not just buying a game, you're buying a world, a platform, something that you can get lost in for dozens if not hundreds of hours. This sort of entertainment experience is worthy of a blockbuster launch and that's what thrills me about the current state of the hit-driven business. Right before the game shipped the front page of CNN.com had a lead story about how Hollywood studio executives were concerned about their target audience staying home with GTA IV that weekend instead of going to see Iron Man. I love movies, so I I was glad to see there was room for both to be the huge blockbusters they were, but I can't help but feel a sense of pride when games are at the level that they're causing such a tremendous cultural impact.

Regarding other games and their features that we see as a benchmark, I'd have to say the biggest thing taken into consideration is the overall richness of the online experience. The first Gears established a new world with a great twist on the shooter formula. (Granted, other games have had cover, but I believe we're well on the road to really getting it right.) Now with the sequel, we're able to significantly streamline the online experience with a far more robust package that enables players to kick more ass online with their friends.

In addition, I've realized that while you need your core combat loop to be great sometimes it's all about the extras, the "gravy," the little cool things you're able to do between combat scenarios that switch things up keep the game surprising. In Gears 2, we've got dozens of surprises in every level that will keep people talking for months to come.

3. With all the new awesome upgrades to the Unreal Engine 3 (new shaders that allow many characters, destructible environments, soft body physics), can you give us just a little tiny hint at any new gameplay elements that could be introduced (specifically into multiplayer)?

I can't reveal too much at this point, unfortunately. One can deduce that with the gameplay and technology improvements featured in Gears 2 that there are going to be many, many more palm sweat-inducing moments in multiplayer. Let's just say that when a torquebow shot hits right next to you and misses, and the wall busts into chunks, you'll be glad your foe had poor aim. Players will really feel like they're in a sci-fi multiplayer version of Black Hawk Down.

4. What was the first really expensive thing you bought when you started earning all that money?

Back in the day, I used to have a Dodge Viper and, while fast, it handled like a cooked piece of lasagna. I decided to trade it in before I killed myself or someone else. The best purchase I've made since then has turned out to be my dog, a two-year-old Australian Shepherd named Theodore who has brought me a heck of a lot of joy.

5. What do you think is the biggest change from Gears 1 to Gears 2?

It's everything coming together; the sum of its parts. Less grey pillars. More blood. More destroyable stuff. Bigger monsters. Larger battlefield scenarios. More memorable, "OMG" moments. A better, darker story. More intimate violence. Oh, and that cheesy online technique of shotgun rolling to gib people is suddenly going to be less effective as bullets taken from the front will slow you down. Most importantly, we're finally able to answer some of the nagging questions that gamers have had since the first game. And no, I'm not going to spoil it, so don't even try!

6. Where do your game design inspirations come from?

Every experience that I have in day-to-day life goes into my library of inspiration. From playing games to reading graphic novels to watching films, it's all grist for the mill.

7. Is there any way to remove the Host Advantage in Gears of War?

We have many, many optimizations planned for Gears 2 that will *drastically* reduce these issues as well as another few tricks up our sleeves that I'm not able to reveal quite yet. Trust me that it's really high on our list of things to make right.

8. A lot of the combat in the original Gears of War was very horizontal in nature. I was wondering if the team at Epic had given any thought to integrating vertical-based combat (repelling down a cliff would be one example, though I'm just using that to make sure you know what I mean). Also, I've heard that you guys are trying to make the narrative a little more compelling in the sequel. Is the game going to show a little more humanity in the characters? For a game that deals with a humanity on the verge of extinction, I would expect to see more of that shown.

We deliberately built Gears to be a slightly less vertical game than others for several reasons. First, we believe that aiming up and down with a controller can be cumbersome in a life or death situation. Second, there's no jumping in Gears, so by nature it's a less vertical game. (Although I think if done right, a Jumping Flash type of shooter *could* work rather well if the designers built for it.) Any time designers have to deal with jumping there are ramifications – there's a reason why Master Chief floats like he's on the moon, otherwise, he'd be nearly impossible to track and hit in multiplayer while bunny-hopping.

Regarding the characters and their humanity, yes, we're definitely exploring it more in the sequel. Dom's growing increasingly desperate in his search for his wife Maria, and he demands answers. In the first game, humanity's back was up against the wall, and now they're about to be tossed over that wall as their one last safe city is now threatened. Tensions flare and the stakes are higher than ever, and the game really ventures down into some really dark places. Story-wise we take some risks that I've never seen in a videogame before. I think people will be a little surprised.

9. When are we going to see the triumphant return of the one and only Jazz Jackrabbit? This game would be absolutely badass on modern consoles. I'm sure remakes of many old Epic games would be great also (Xargon, Kiloblaster, Jill of the Jungle, the list goes on).

While I'd love to consider doing something like that, unfortunately every spare body we have right now is hard at work making Gears 2 into the blockbuster rollercoaster ride it needs to be for November, while also getting out a very slick Unreal Tournament 3 on Xbox 360. In the meantime, you can download the user mod for UT3 PS3 that has a "reborn" Jazz Jackrabbit as a buff, badass bunny!

10. Some friends and I are working on a game currently. What advice would you have for aspiring developers trying to break into the business?

Each person should pick an area that they're best at and start the long journey down that road towards becoming the best at whatever it is that they do. For example, if you're more of an artist you should acquire as much traditional training as you can and then move onto creating digital works. If you're more math and problem solving oriented you should look into learning C++ and various programming languages. When I got started in the business there were very few schools that taught game making as a skill and now, years later, there are many programs throughout the world that will assist.

Mod making is another great way to get started in the business. A great deal of our employees at Epic got started in the mod community and now they're living the dream of making AAA fun titles. Build levels, materials, mutators, UnrealKismet scripts, or make a small gametype for Unreal Tournament 3 and promote your efforts by entering it into the new $1,000,000 Intel Make Something Unreal Contest we just launched. There is plenty of time to enter as the contest runs until the end of 2009, and there are huge cash prizes in all kinds of categories as well as a chance to win the grand prize, which is an Unreal Engine 3 license! If you want to learn how to use the tools in our tech go to www.3dbuzz.com and under "Unreal Tech" look at the various UT3 videos. Once you get established with a portfolio of content to show off go to the various Game Developer's conferences around the world and make sure you network.

Above all, keep your head down, stay focused, seek feedback from peers, work on your communication abilities and remember to not party too much.