Bulletstorm devs shocked by how much swearing was in their own game

The October issue of Game Developer's magazine features a postmortem on foul-mouthed shooter Bulletstorm, which includes one of the greatest anecdotes on cross-cultural development ever. If you've ever had a foreign friend just learning how to swear in your native tongue, you can totally see how Polish developer People Can Fly fell into a snare of its own creation and made a terrible mistake.

"Do you know any swear word in a foreign language? German, French, Polish? When you say it out loud, no biggie, right? Not a problem to use it during a family dinner, I assume?" Adrian Chmielarz, creative director at People Can Fly told the magazine.

He explains the swearing in Bulletstorm was just "exotic and fun" to them, and publisher Epic let the studio run with it, not realizing that they'd gone beyond their own intentions. The developer didn't realize the power of the words.

"It was only at the end of the development," Chmielarz remarks. "When I read the Polish translation of the game, that I realized how dirty we were. I swear a lot. A LOT. And yet still I ... kind of blushed."

Reader Comments (61)

D*ck-T*ts.

Pat, I'd like to buy a vowel.

@Syesta

It's an "o," right?

@Syesta

"U"? There's something that makes me laugh about Duck-Tuts.

@Syesta

Pat Sajak> Let's see what the answer was... Ooops, I'm sorry, that's not the correct answer for the phrase. It was "Duck Tuts", the 18th century philosopher who coined the contemporary popular line, "Hark! The duck tuts on that strumpet make my pantaloons quite betwixt of joy and desire."

@foxhound

haha....pantaloons.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess the devs have never visited 4-chan.

@Faceless Troll

The language isn't that bad there.

It's those images......those.......images.... (0_0 )

@SmashZilla

That's not true. If you were a homosexual, you'd be shocked by some of the things that they say.

@Esposch Or Black even O.o

Oh, Invader Zim, how I miss you.

@ZexionArmando "Wait a minute... humans don't HAVE a squeedlyspooch!"

@ZexionArmando

i miss GURR!!

@ZexionArmando
Bacon?
Soap.

@ZexionArmando
Someone here likes Zim. Same reference was made in the pic for a different article.

I liked Bulletstorm because they were over the top with everything, for me it was what any messing around shooter should be like.

@Kibbles XIII
I would've loved it more if the weapons did more damage without having to sit in the middle of a firefight, trying to combo like mad. Regardless, it was an amusing springtime romp.

Shocked my ass, they knew all about it. Anyhow was still a look game.

"you're going to kill my d*ck? whats that even mean?"

At least they were somewhat creative with it. not just 10 "F" bombs in a row

@Steve R
Exactly as dumb as the swearing was I feel it was closer to real swearing when people are using the English language to it's fullest.

@Steve R
Joe Pesci should have been consulted.

Well, this certainly changes my perspective. The game was great, and I especially liked the over-the-top rudeness. Now that I know that a lot fo the verbal stuff was a mistake, I'm a little less impressed.

@EliminatorZigma Sometimes the best comedy is unintentional.

@EliminatorZigma

They never said it was a mistake, they just didn't realise how much of it was in there.

They saw the end result and were like, "well, shit"

Joystiq, I'm shocked! What happened to standards? There are children that may be reading this! Writing foul language such as "squeedlyspooch" on the front page. For shame.

This article totally reminds me of this foreign commercial on learning English (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RcrRRlKTUM).

Not for the "Too Young" crowd, if it can be managed =P.

@That One Guy : hmm, he capitalizes "rapists", interestiiing.."

Yeah, I played through most of campaign and it was obvious they were straining to make up curse words at points, like "sh*td*ck",etc...

@Lordd G Shitting dick nipples. That is all.

Bulletstorm was probably my best surprise game of the year. 2008's was Dead Space, 2009's was Demon's Souls, and 2010's was Darksiders. So it's in good company.

@A Sandwich

Agreed. I picked it up sometime after release and was shocked I didn't get it sooner. The soundtrack was amazing too.

One of the most satisfying FPS i've ever played, and most of this feeling can be pinned to the dialog sequences. From time to time I still play it again just for hearing these dialogues again and again.

I was reminded of South Park... and of course Invader Zim.

It's kinda like the song "UncleF*cka"

It may seem like a funny word, but if you picture what it actually means it's just wrong...

Who cares about the swearing, the game was god awful bad.

@SaintV

Dunno... it's been a while since I played a game with a grin on my face... Bulletstorm pulled it off.

ST

@SaintV

"god awful bad?"

Surely you must be joking.

@SaintV
I thought it was fun, and it has a Metacritic average in the 80s. Your opinion appears to be well outside the norm.

@notoriousEIC

The game did not even sell well but ok...

@SaintV
So it was a bad game because it didn't sell? Or do you not know because you didn't play it and just think success equals quality.

+1000 for the Zim reference.

This story is funny as heck.

Hey, a little bit of mistranslation gives the world a word like Pussyzilla, then it was all worth it.

@That One Guy

Could be worse, could have all ended up as Analrapists.

I barely notice any swearing in Bulletstorm (not done yet though).

@Enosoma
...Are you deaf?

@That One Guy

too late.

@baby sea tuna

Half analyst, half therapist? How is that worse? That seems like a stand-up job.

Bulletstorm 2 would be good

I didn't like what i played in the demo and i was was really hoping to like it but it never happened.

also people made comments about the swearing in the game to be over the top ( tho only played the demo ) I own Rogue Warrior and i enjoyed that quite abit actually and the Ending Song was Funny.

Ten to Gryffindor for the Zim reference!

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Bulletstorm

Bulletstorm devs shocked by how much swearing was in their own game

Reader Comments (61)

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:06PM Syesta said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:22PM whylekat said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:36PM vidguy said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:45PM foxhound said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 1:09PM PedoJokerBear said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:10PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:30PM SmashZilla said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 6:28PM Esposch said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 9:09PM Vman said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:12PM ZexionArmando said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:22PM MowDownJoe said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 1:30PM balbonits said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 7:48PM KirbyCommando said

Posted: Oct 9th 2011 10:29AM Timerider said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:13PM Kibbles XIII said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:46PM foxhound said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:15PM kmcroc said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:17PM Steve R said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 1:15PM Grimbear13 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:46PM foxhound said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:18PM EliminatorZigma said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:20PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 5:48AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:20PM darkinchworm said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:20PM Schlecht said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:27PM MKID said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:28PM psycros said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:29PM Lordd G said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:51PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:34PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 8:06PM APCMice said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:35PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:36PM Dante G said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:38PM SaintV said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:51PM Steel Toad said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:52PM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 3:17PM notoriousEIC said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 4:52PM SaintV said

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Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:50PM baby sea tuna said

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