Instead of having players choose between a set of predetermined Vault Hunters as their character like in Assault on Dragon Keep, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands introduces custom character creation, as well as new character classes and the ability to multi-class. In doing so, the game aims to help immerse players more in the story of their own character as they adventure through Tiny Tina's in-game world. Four DLC have been announced for the game, with the first two - Coiled Captors and Glutton's Gamble - releasing earlier this year. Originally an Epic Games Store exclusive, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands will finally come to Steam on June 23.

Related: What Borderlands 4 Can Learn From Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

Actress Ashly Burch and Senior Writer Sam Winkler took the time to talk with Screen Rant about the writing process behind Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, introducing custom characters, and the future of the title.

I want to talk about the really amazing collaborative writing process that the Borderlands series has developed over the years. I know both of you have said in past interviews how important it is to make people around you laugh with how you're playing a character or the lines that you've written. How did that factor into the making of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands?

Ashly Burch: I mean, it's a huge part of the game. It's a comedy game, which is great. I feel like that's not a genre that gets hit a lot anymore in games; I think it's a rare, recent example of a game where one of its main goals is to try to make you laugh as much as possible. Which is so great.

For me - I don't know about you, Sam - I grew up on adventure games and mostly comedy games. Games that are funny and are trying to be funny as one of their main goals have such a big place in my heart. Obviously, there's a lot more to the game than just that. But it's a huge part of the franchise in general, and this game is no exception.

Sam Winkler: Yeah, and to that point, I think role playing in particular offers a vector of comedy that isn't just joke- telling. Sometimes it's just a funny character and a funny voice. That's my favorite parts of any tabletop game that I'm playing with my friends: when you force a DM to speak in a ridiculous voice. You take things down a road that you did not think it would be, and it's situational comedy more that just, "Here's a joke with a punch line." 

And if there's anyone that you want saying something in a silly voice, it's Ashly. [Laughs]

This game had an amazing comedic cast too, with really good potential for the ad libbing that comes up a lot in tabletop role playing games. I'm not sure how much, if at all, you guys got to record together with the pandemic. But were there characters that changed over time, or things that got put in that weren't intended originally because of Andy Samberg and Will Arnett and Wanda Sykes playing around?

Sam Winkler: We weren't able to record together, unfortunately. Though I would have given anything to have a room with our table characters, Will Arnett and Ashly just sitting there. That would be a life highlight. 

But they're all down to improv. I've elaborated on Ashly's improv skills constantly over the last few years, but Andy was down to clown. He has a running joke about, "I care about nature and saving the whales," and stuff like that. It gets like increasingly frantic across the campaign, and he would drop them in the strangest spaces. We would have to pause the recording for a second, because we'd be in hysterics. Luckily, I was on mute on Zoom. 

But that's always my favorite thing. I can write something I think is funny on the page - and then having a talented actor not only run with it, but also add their own special sauce to it, is the ultimate writer's dream.

Bunkers & Badasses is essentially D&D and, Ashly, I know you DM in real life. Did that impact anything in of how Tina was DMing the game?

Ashly Burch: I was definitely able to channel my own - I was gonna say my own frustration, but I didn't really get frustrated. I'm a bit more of a sadistic DM, to be honest. I like messing with my players. I will not be messed with; I am the messer. I'm the one who messes. I haven't done a ton of DMing, but one of the sessions that I DMed was some friends who hadn't really played tabletop games before. I was just trying to mess with them the whole time. 

But it definitely helps inform just the way that you approach the script. Sam and I were saying how so much of this game is influenced by love of tabletop games, from so many people involved - and particularly with the pandemic, so many people were connecting that way. It's so fun to have a game like this, because there's a lot of games where you can say, "Yes, I was also a Space Marine!" That's not really a thing; there's not a lot of options that you can pull from the headlines of your life. But with this in particular, the writers and myself have all had tabletop experience, and it was fun to pull that in. 

Although I think Tina is much more confident than I am.

Sam Winkler: Yeah, she does not question her own ability to DM at all. And maybe not enough, one might argue. 

I actually started DMing a D&D game during the development of this game, because I realized it had been years and years and years since I'd actually been on that side of the table. I've been playing RPGs, but it had been a full decade since I'd actually run a game. I was like, "If I'm going to be writing in the voice of a character who is running the world for 30-40 hours, I probably need to know a little bit more about this." And that was extremely enlightening. That process helped me out a lot.

Talking about writing, I want to do a little bit of a dive into both of your writing paths, because you both have really interesting experiences before this. Ashly, you used to write for Adventure Time, and there are some parallels between episodes I know that you worked on and Tiny Tina's character development. Tina’s childlike attempts to change the narrative and make sure heroes are the ones who win while avoiding some traumatic things is similar to Marceline realizing there are traumatic things she's never thought about, or Sweet P refusing to become evil and changing that hero's narrative. Did experience in that style of storytelling impact Tina?

Ashly Burch: Well, I can't take any credit for the writing of Wonderlands. That's all lovely Sam and the writers. [Laughs] In of where her narrative went and her story, that's all the writers, for sure. But I will say that writing in general is extremely helpful when it comes to any form of acting that I do now. I think it's so helpful to know the larger scope of what you're trying to accomplish. And I think as a writer, you're thinking about everything; not just your character and not just a single character, but all the characters that arcs and their relationships. 

Performing, obviously, my purview is just Tina. But because I write a lot and my brain thinks that way, it's really helpful because you think not just, "What am I trying to accomplish with this character?" It's also, "What is this character accomplishing for the larger narrative? How does what I choose to do in this moment impact this character and influence this storyline?" It gives you a more holistic view of the game and the narrative. Which I think is helpful for me. 

I'm always thinking about more than, "How is my performance?" It's also, "How am I serving the larger game?"

Sam, if you want to add on to that in of Tiny Tina's narrative, feel free. But I also wanted to dive a little into Battleborn.

Sam Winkler: Oh, lord. Well, I'll say something very quick about that. In of me being able to write for Tina, a big part of it was just that when you take on a character that you did not originate, you have to be simultaneously respectful and also willing to change things. Otherwise, why are you doing it?

Ashly is such an incredible collaborator, so I do use Ashly as a barometer sometimes to just be like, "Did I do Tina correctly?" That is just the most amazing resource in the entire world. When I write a line that is on my worst day the driest thing in the world, I can hand that to Ashly and be like, "Please Tinafy it. I'm begging you." Luckily, I didn't have to lean on her for that too often. 

But when you have a narrator across the entire game, there's going to be a certain amount of gameplay that's like, "You picked up a gem!" There's only so many things you can do there. 

You helped develop some of the characters for the Battleborn DLC, and a lot of those have a similar bombastic nature - whether they're obsessed with explosives or vengeance and justice, that sort of thing - and they're also living in a world that's really filled with violence, just like the Borderlands universe. Did that impact your development style for Borderlands in any way?

Sam Winkler: That's a really good question, because it's not something I've interrogated much. When I first started at Gearbox, the first character I wrote for was Alani. She's this teenage character who is simultaneously a stoic monk that has to be a one with the elements, but also a teenager without a grounded world and without . Her whole world has been destroyed, and so she's wildly oscillating between trying to keep it all together and trying to befriend other people on the crew. 

Just now, I am thinking, "Wow, there's some Tina there." There's this constant shifting balance for her character, and I think those are the most interesting characters you can write. Especially with Battleborn, because that's a character that the player inhabits. They're not just observing; they're not an NPC. With Alani, I was so intrigued with showing that push and pull. I don't think that a good character ever resolves that push and pull; I think they only find new equilibriums and new extremes. 

With Tina, it was kind of the same way. We don't want to put her in a hermetically sealed chamber and never change her, but we do have to find new stories within the two extremes. Tina's constant desire to explode things, while also keeping everything exactly the way it is because it can't change and she wants this forever, are diametrically opposed. I tried to bring that to the characters in Battleborn too.

Continuing the topic of creating characters, this is the first Borderlands game that has custom characters, which is a really awesome development. What made you decide to make that change? Was it just the nature of tabletop games and customization?

Sam Winkler: Yeah, it was a huge part of that. When Bunkers & Badasses is a DLC, you can kind of just port it. "Okay, I'm taking these characters that I've already developed across the main game and other DLCs, and I'm just going to experience a fantasy world and interesting story there." When you're starting from scratch, and we're promising this is our own version of a tabletop RPG, there are certain trappings that it would be disingenuous to not include.

Number one was the player being able to inject themselves into that world, and visually and character-wise represent themselves the way that they wanted to be represented. I love Borderlands having these defined, interesting player characters with very specific skills that the players can tweak and make the builds that they want. Because we want to tell stories about those characters. When you are playing an RPG, you are telling your own story, and so it's very crucial to start from that step. 

Tina as the Bunker Master is making this world for you, and leaving a player-shaped hole for you to fill in.

Related: Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands Review: Tales From The Nerdy Lands

I think it's a really big draw for this game, especially with the ability to multi-class, which is awesome and difficult to do in Dungeons & Dragons.

Sam Winkler: Yes, profoundly.

In of developing the classes themselves, did you take a lot of influence from other tabletop games, or was it more Borderlands-centric thinking?

Sam Winkler: I don't want to speak too much for the gameplay designers, because they are brilliant and did a lot of that thinking. But absolutely, there was a lot of, "What can we do here that we can't do in Borderlands? What's a little harder to get away with?" I know these designers must have hidden vaults of side ideas and things they've always wanted to be able to do. And when we started thinking that it's a more of a mix and match, a la carte experience, I think some light bulbs started going on over their heads. 

Every time there's a change, you have to discuss it. What do Borderlands players expect? And one of those things was the multi-classing. How many skill trees are there? We went back and forth on a bunch of different designs, but ultimately, you're always going to win when you put the most amount of power in the players' hands. It's like, "You know how you want to play. You tell us."

That can help create more impactful moments, because a player is seeing more of themselves within the game than they might with a pre-made Borderlands character.

Sam Winkler: Absolutely. And it was hugely important for us on the team to have a wide breadth of player character voices and representational genders and all sorts of personalities. I wanted to make sure that players were making up some of their own backstory as they were doing it. That's where you shift from headcanon to, "That's just canon. That's the character!" 

If you get to the point about halfway through the game, and the player is going like, "Yeah, I think my character would want to do this," or "I think this reaction is correct," then you've won. And I think we did a pretty good job in of injecting the player into that world.

Ashly, when voicing of Tiny Tina, was it difficult to have the so-called canon be malleable for the player? Did that impact how you needed to deliver your lines or anything like that, to match what a player might be up to in the game? 

Ashly Burch: Interestingly, with this game, I think the narrative moves for Tina are really with the other of the table. They're sort of internal, so I think what's nice is that there's obviously variability and different things that you have to consider based on player choice. But I think the narrative as a whole exists more within Andy Samberg and Wanda Sykes' characters - and Will Arnett's character of the Dragon Lord. It's that sort of tension and conflict. 

I think what's nice about that is that you get to have ownership as the player, and then you also get to enjoy a curated story. So, you get the best of both worlds. I've definitely had characters where it's like, "My God, if this person chooses this, and then does first before this, then that changes everything!" And it's like the meme with the math equations happening over your head. But what's great about this is that it's such a clean and streamlines narrative that it was not as hard to figure out where you were.

In of the future of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, I know there's four DLCs planned for it. I've heard it will have new bosses and even a new class introduction, which is really exciting as well. Can you offer any insight into what players can expect?

Sam Winkler: Well, there's a sniper just outside my office. [Laughs] I'm not sure how much I can say. 

I am excited for this new character. I genuinely don't think I can say much, but we're adding a new character as well as a new player character voice alongside them. We're in love with Wonderlands, and we're treating it as a new IP. I think it's not going anywhere.

It has so much potential to grow, even in the late game with the bosses that get increasingly harder. What was trying to add that replay ability like when you were going into it? Did you always have that idea in mind?

Scott Winkler: Yes. Early on, we made certain calls like, "Let's have a shorter mainline quest and a wider world, so that more people are more likely to see endgame content and see the side stuff." With a longer game, a lot of the time people roll credits and go, "Alright, I had my fun. I'm good. I'll move on." Because, Lord knows, we all have 20 games in our to-do pile.

The thing we are seeing is a much higher rate of players continuing on to endgame content, because of the shorter main narrative and wider world. But also, The Chaos Chamber system was our ultimate hope of, "What if it is infinitely replayable?" Other people have made the comparison, so I think I can, but a lot of people were playing Hades over the course of the pandemic. And we're like, "There's something here." This ability to direct your own experience through these combat chambers is really rewarding. 

I don't know if you've seen the hidden bosses in the Chaos Chamber, but there are some truly devious bad guys in there if you do it correctly.

In of a roap for Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, is there any vague timeline? Or is it all up in the air still?

Sam Winkler: They don't tell me anything. They put me back in the pod in between interviews. [Laughs] I think I'm supposed to get a nutrient flurry after this.

Ashly Burch: This is a rare moment for you to breathe fresh air in between.

Sam Winkler: Yeah, I'm gasping for it. Sorry, I wish I could be more helpful there.

That's okay. 

Sam Winkler: I know we've got PLC 3 and the Steam release on Thursday. That's about it.

Is there anything either of you really want players to know about the creation of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands or its future? 

Ashly Burch: To steal a line from Sam, I think everyone that worked on the game is a fan of it. So much love and ion went into the creation of this. It was born of people being fans of the original DLC enough to build it into this standalone game that we've made.

I think one of the things that's so great about it, which Sam sort of touched on earlier, is the freedom of expression that you can have when you're creating your character. I would just say that I really feel this is a game for everyone, which is something that is so exciting to me about it. If you've never played a Borderlands before, if you've never played a game before, or if you identify in a way that you feel is not really exhibited or honored by other games? You're going to find a spot here. I think that's really exciting and cool about wonderlands.

Sam Winkler: Ashly took my line, and I'll never forgive her. I'm just gonna be really miffed for a while. [Laughs] 

No, everything she said is [right]. I think one of the reasons why this game has been a success, and why I think it nailed its creative goals, is because everyone making it believed in it. Even in a very dark time where we weren't even sure how to make games, or laugh, or necessarily get out of bed in the morning. 

For me, at least, it became this tentpole of my brain propping me up to be able to say, "We're gonna give people a little escape into a magical land where anything is possible." Will Arnett, Andy Sandberg, Wanda Sykes, and Ashly Burch guiding you through an adventure! To me, it was a dream and I'm still waiting to wake up.

Next: Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Gun Nerfs Make The Game More Fun

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is available for Playstation consoles, Xbox consoles, and PC via the Epic Games Store, and will become available on PC via Steam on June 23, 2022.