5 Questions for Bornless

A few months ago we were able to take a few moments to sit down with Toby Saunders, (Co-Founder & CEO of Cathedral Studios and one of the leading demons at Bornless), and discuss all things Web3 as well as dig a little into how he got started in the industry, where the ideas behind Bornless began and what other projects he has his eye on.

The actual full length interview went on for well over an hour and we could easily make several more videos from the footage, but for now we have taken 5 of the best topics and cut them together into the 4 minute video at the bottom of this article.

However, if you prefer to read your interviews we have that covered as well. Please sit back and enjoy these five (or potentially six?) questions for Bornless and let us know what you think in the comments below.

Who are you? What is The Bornless?

Hi, I’m Toby, I'm one of the founders of Cathedral Studios.

Bornless is our flagship, Unreal Engine title. It's a “Horror Royale” we've been calling it. It's a little bit like a battle royale but it's got some interesting takes.

It's currently in closed Alpha and we'll be going public around March next year 2023 into full release October next year (2023). We've been working on it for a couple of years now and it's coming along. Still lots of jank but it's a pretty fun, atmospheric shooter.

How did you get into gaming?

So I originally came to gaming…

So I picked up Unreal Engine as a VFX tool -  I was working on Virtual Cinema - a little bit like Mandalorian (so in Mandalorian they don't use green screens - they have virtual Cinema backgrounds behind them) and I picked up Unreal Engine originally for this -  for cinematic renders.

And then I was making games for fun and then through a couple of game jams and making games for fun and this one video I made on YouTube I met some of the team who we’re working with today on Bornless. So that's that's kind of how the team came to be.

In terms of the idea and the inspiration for that (Bornless), it's all based on a book called ‘the Lesser key of Solomon’. Anyone who's into horror and lore - go Google it.

It's a rabbit hole of misery and darkness and you can go very deep into that but yeah. That's where that came from.

Where does ‘Bloodshed and Happiness’ come from?

that's a - that's a good one.

So the ‘Bloodshed and Happiness’… Harper will be able to… Harper is our community manager he'll be able to correct me if I've got this wrong...

but ‘Happiness and Bloodshed came from the BlackPool telegram chat. I think we were arranging a play test a long time ago and I think the line to describe some of the fun that might have been had in Bornless was ‘Happiness and Bloodshed’ so I think those are the origins there.

What game keeps you up at night?

Yeah the game that I lose sleep over is Elder Scrolls.

I can't wait another 20 years for this game I really need it. I need it now. I need it right now.

So yeah the new Elder Scrolls. I’m becoming old and grey waiting for that game.

What did you like most at The Arcade?

yeah I really enjoyed seeing Bornless on stage, it's always fun.

It's always really nice to see teams have faith in such a such an early access game.

You know, there's a lot of jank and a lot of problems and we're far from finished and we're at a very low level of polish - lots of work to do lots of Jank right.

and it's always super inspiring when - you know - sophisticated teams want to spin up Bornless so I think yeah… The thing I enjoy most - stroking my ego a little bit - but I love seeing Bornless played by people who know what they're doing. It's always exciting. So yeah that'd be my answer.

Many thanks again to Toby, for both enlightening us on the history and backstory of Bornless and for haunting our dreams with his horrifying book recommendations. We look forward to speaking again soon and can't wait to see what is in store for the future of Bornless.

Happiness and Bloodshed!