'District 9,' 'Elysium' Director Working On New AAA Multiplayer Shooter

German game developer Gunzilla Games has officially hired renowned film director Neill Blomkamp as the company’s chief visionary officer to help create its first game.

Blomkamp will be working with Gunzilla Games in a directorial role, guiding teams toward the best courses of action in terms of design, audio and storytelling in ways that resonate with the company’s overall vision with their games.

He told IGN that his role was an “egalitarian version of being a film director” and that his job was to bring his directorial skills to guide the aesthetics of a game.

Blomkamp is best known as the director of “District 9,” a sci-fi action film about stranded aliens who are forced to live under pathetic conditions in a slum on Earth. The film was regarded by audiences and critics alike as one of the best sci-fi films of its time due to its top-tier worldbuilding, emotionally-wrenching plot and stunning visuals.

Other Blomkamp films include “Elysium” and “Chappie.” He also has a number of short films published on Steam and YouTube under Oats Studios, a film production house that Blomkamp co-founded back in 2017.

Despite having a major role in a game development studio, Blomkamp admitted that he does not have enough experience in making video games. He told IGN that he will be working closely with other senior creative staff to make sure that his vision could be translated well into the games they want to produce.

“I can come in with a very definitive point of view, but it has to work on two levels. It has to be accepted by the greater team as the right creative direction to go in. And it also has to be, first and foremost, something that can integrate into the architecture of gameplay in a way that's beneficial to the game,” Blomkamp said.

Gunzilla Games is currently working on a multiplayer shooter using the Unreal Engine. So far, not much is known about what type of multiplayer game its IP is going to be.

The gaming community in Reddit expressed their interest in seeing Blomkamp work on narrative-heavy games instead of a multiplayer shooter, but since his role in Gunzilla is a long-term one, it’s possible that such a game may be produced in the future with the director taking the helm.