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Debut Trailer:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tMawxwQjFs[/ame]
Preview: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/12/bi...inite-preview/
The Event
This wasn't a normal video game press event. First, and perhaps most obviously, the security was thick. While an allegedly corrupt politician celebrated his birthday upstairs an endless procession of well-dressed upper crusters made their way into the historic Plaza Hotel while protesters held court outside another high-profile event was being held on the second floor. And while there was no police presence like outside, the black-pants, black v-neck crew that Irrational Games brought with them had things on lockdown. "Does that computer have a camera on it?" one of them asked me. "You'll need to check it." I went back into the hallway and got back in line. The same line I already stood in to check my cellphone. Security was thick.
But that's been the Boston-area developer's modus operandi since work began on its new title nearly three years ago. It's exceedingly rare in our industry to have a high-profile developer like Irrational keep something so completely under wraps for so long. And now, a room full of gaming press were assembled to see what Ken Levine and Co. have been working on. With an embargo less than 24 hours away and the promise that no outlet would be getting an early exclusive, Irrational wasn't about to let up on security now. After an introduction by a PR representative, again pleading with us to keep things quiet until today, Irrational Games' founder Ken Levine took the stage. "It's a long way to come for a trailer, a demo, and a little conversation," he admitted. "We also appreciate the patience you've had with us. It's been three years and we've said nothing about what we're doing," but it was finally time to see what was beneath the curtain. Cue the trailer.
The City of Columbia
"I can't talk about this game without talking about the city of Columbia," Levine begins. Much like System Shock 2's Von Braun ship or BioShock's underwater city of Rapture, BioShock Infinite's Columbia, a fantastical city-in-the-sky, is front and center.
"This is like the Apollo project of 1900," he says. Like the 1960's space program, Columbia is a testament to American ingenuity, technology, ideals and, yes, strength. Levine points out that the America of the 1880s was an agrarian society, still reeling from the devastating effects of the Civil War. Just 20 years later, with the Industrial Revolution in full swing, the national landscape was fundamentally changed. "You go from people with cows and outhouses and growing wheat in fields, to having radios and cars and movie stars, and all these incredible things," Levine later told Joystiq. "It's almost as if they felt a city was suddenly floating in the sky. That's how much the world had changed." And so they build a city floating in the sky, a literal metaphor for the country's rapid ascent on the world stage. But it's not as well-intentioned as it may seem. "Columbia is a Death Star."
The Black Ships
In 1854, American Commodore Matthew Perry brought four gunships into the waters just off Japan. The presentation of American naval might and technological superiority was instrumental in opening Japan up to American trade. I bring up that example from history because the story of Columbia, and the context that Levine places it in, is very much about gunboat diplomacy.
"This isn't a game about history. This is a game set in the context of history," Levine said. Though turn-of-the-century America was transformed into a manufacturing powerhouse, there was one thing it couldn't manufacture more of. "We needed markets," he said. And like Perry's Black Ships, Columbia can be seen as both a vehicle for trade but also a means of gunboat diplomacy. Trade ... or else. To give us an example of that "context of history," Levine read the following passage from President William McKinley discussing the annexation of the Phillippines:
I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night. And one night late it came to me this way-I don't know how it was, but it came: (1) That we could not give them back to Spain-that would be cowardly and dishonorable; (2) that we could not turn them over to France and Germany-our commercial rivals in the Orient-that would be bad business and discreditable; (3) that we could not leave them to themselves-they were unfit for self-government-and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain's was; and (4) that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died. And then I went to bed, and went to sleep.
Fin de siθcle first-person shooter
While context and setting have everything to do with BioShock Infinite's elaborate setting, and like Levine we couldn't talk about the game without first giving Columbia its due, there was more to last night's presentation than context. Actually, there's a lot more. "The notion of American exceptionalism [in the game], that didn't even exist until six or eight months ago," Levine told us after the demonstration. Like BioShock before it, the philosophical underpinnings of Infinite haven't been static over the last three years. But what has: It's a first-person shooter, very much in the vein of other "shock" titles.
In BioShock Infinite, "you're not an unknown cipher. You're Booker DeWitt, a disgraced Pinkerton agent" and your office, if you can call it that, is in a room above a bar. You're a fixer given a job: Find a woman named Elizabeth. Here's the catch: Finding Elizabeth isn't the problem, she's in Columbia ... but "nobody knows where Columbia is," Levine says. It went missing a decade ago. When our gameplay demo starts, the hero is on a cobblestone street. A poster with George Washington reads "It is our holy duty to guard against the foreign hordes." A horse-drawn carriage comes down the street, the wheel missing on one side, its axle sparking against the stone. A stream of (presumably foul) water runs along the edge of the street. As DeWitt passes the cart, you can see it's plastered in pamphlets. The message: This is a place of great political and ideological rhetoric.
As you enter into an open square of sorts, you can see things are a little ... off. A woman sweeps her stoop while the house behind her burns. An enormous statue looms over you, holding an American flag. There's a dead horse on the ground. While things look pretty bleak, Levine tells us "this is not a city that's as devolved as Rapture." It's not all Splicers everywhere, itching to attack anything without a bunny mask on.
As DeWitt turns towards a pavilion, you see the vista of other floating buildings. This is Columbia. There's a man on the ground feeding crows. There are sounds of prosetlyzation coming from loudspeakers, and you read four signs: They'll take your gun; They'll take your wife; They'll take your business; They'll take your life. Mixed in are signs for one Mr. Saltonstall, a political candidate, and ostensibly the same man in the pavilion. As you approach, there's a barrel full of guns with a sign above it reading "Patriots, arm thyself!" Well, don't mind if we do ... this scoped sniper rifle oughta do nicely.
As you take the gun, which now satisfies the familiar first-person framework in the lower right corner, Saltonstall turns to you, his eyes glowing. He commands Charles evidently the man with the birds to attack. Charles, and his feathered friends, are only too happy to oblige. A swarm of crows flies towards the screen. While Saltonstall hooks onto a winding track connecting various floating sections of Columbia, zipping away, DeWitt takes down Charles, sending him over the edge. Looking over, he's dead on a platform below. Using some telekinetic powers, DeWitt pulls a bottle shaped like a crow towards him and he does what any good video game character would do with a strange bottle found on a dead man on a floating city that's gone missing: he drinks it. Unsurprisingly, that leads to a vision of a bloody crow.
"FIRE!"
You hear the charge in the distance and, as the buildings move and float all around you, you can just make out a cannon before seeing the arc of fire coming from it. Using the scope on the sniper rifle, you can see Saltonstall directing men to fire upon you. Another massive fireball heads in your direction. Using the same hook device that Saltonstall did, DeWitt engages the zipline and makes his way across the open sky to the other section of the city. An enemy climbs on and heads in your direction and you've got a joust, happening far above the ground, traveling at 60mph. A well placed hit from a wrench and the enemy goes flying.
Upon landing, DeWitt evades some cannon fire and enters a bar to take cover. The patrons turn to look and, for a second, things seem to be quiet. A painting on the wall appears to shimmer and then you're hit. A splatter of blood strikes the edge of the screen. Turning around, one of the bartenders is holding a shotgun. DeWitt grabs it using that handy telekinesis, turns it around in midair, and remotely pulls the trigger. Then he uses his "murder of crows" ability thanks mysterious bottle to enable his escape. Exiting the bar, the cannon turns, fires a shot, only to have the shell plucked out of the air shotgun-style turned against it. Fleeing on foot, DeWitt uses an electricity attack to take care of a large group of attackers Levine tells us later you "can fight fifteen enemies at once" as opposed to BioShock's "one or two guys in a corridor."
Luckily, Elizabeth makes her appearance here ... did we mention she's "incredibly powerful" before? Well, she is and she uses one of those powers now to make a raincloud. Do you see where this is going. DeWitt uses his lightning attack and zap! the lot of them are electrocuted. You take cover behind a pile of scrap metal while another group attacks. Elizabeth uses her power to assemble a giant metal ball of scrap before commanding DeWitt to grab it. One telekinetic throw later and another batch of baddies have been dispatched. But now, whatever that thing with the giant hands and the floating heart that we saw in the trailer is which Levine told us wasn't what we thought it was is back. You can see it has a face complete with old-timey hair parted right down the middle. It lands, conveniently, on a bridge which Elizabeth immediately gets to work on dismantling. Again, working together DeWitt telekinetically fires an explosive at the structural component she's been working on and the giant monster falls. DeWitt asks, "That's the one that was chasing you, right?" "No, that wasn't him. That wasn't him," she answers just as a massive bird lands on (and summarily trashes) a building behind them. "That's him!"
The Stage Show
At this point, the demo is over, Ken thanks us for coming, and a series of releases are triggered dropping the black curtain lining the room we're in. The large arches on the surrounding walls have been filled with images of the floating city, the screen in front of us is filled with more political paraphernalia and, thanks to an awkward failure to launch, the rear curtain remained in place. Behind it were old-timey hot dogs (Ken later tells us he's low-rent when it comes to food) and carnival midway games, with stuffed animal prizes. We leave to prepare for our interview and wrap our heads around everything we just saw. After all, it's not every day you find the ideas of Imperialism, American exceptionalism, and lengthy quotes from 19th century Presidents in your video game press events. We gather our confiscated electronics, and are whisked through the Plaza Hotel a luxurious monument to American exceptionalism, built in 1907 right against New York City's Central Park. It's not floating in the sky but especially with the air of political corruption and mystery, thanks to the party and the protesters it's a suitable stand-in for Columbia.
This wasn't a normal video game press event. First, and perhaps most obviously, the security was thick. While an allegedly corrupt politician celebrated his birthday upstairs an endless procession of well-dressed upper crusters made their way into the historic Plaza Hotel while protesters held court outside another high-profile event was being held on the second floor. And while there was no police presence like outside, the black-pants, black v-neck crew that Irrational Games brought with them had things on lockdown. "Does that computer have a camera on it?" one of them asked me. "You'll need to check it." I went back into the hallway and got back in line. The same line I already stood in to check my cellphone. Security was thick.
But that's been the Boston-area developer's modus operandi since work began on its new title nearly three years ago. It's exceedingly rare in our industry to have a high-profile developer like Irrational keep something so completely under wraps for so long. And now, a room full of gaming press were assembled to see what Ken Levine and Co. have been working on. With an embargo less than 24 hours away and the promise that no outlet would be getting an early exclusive, Irrational wasn't about to let up on security now. After an introduction by a PR representative, again pleading with us to keep things quiet until today, Irrational Games' founder Ken Levine took the stage. "It's a long way to come for a trailer, a demo, and a little conversation," he admitted. "We also appreciate the patience you've had with us. It's been three years and we've said nothing about what we're doing," but it was finally time to see what was beneath the curtain. Cue the trailer.
The City of Columbia
"I can't talk about this game without talking about the city of Columbia," Levine begins. Much like System Shock 2's Von Braun ship or BioShock's underwater city of Rapture, BioShock Infinite's Columbia, a fantastical city-in-the-sky, is front and center.
"This is like the Apollo project of 1900," he says. Like the 1960's space program, Columbia is a testament to American ingenuity, technology, ideals and, yes, strength. Levine points out that the America of the 1880s was an agrarian society, still reeling from the devastating effects of the Civil War. Just 20 years later, with the Industrial Revolution in full swing, the national landscape was fundamentally changed. "You go from people with cows and outhouses and growing wheat in fields, to having radios and cars and movie stars, and all these incredible things," Levine later told Joystiq. "It's almost as if they felt a city was suddenly floating in the sky. That's how much the world had changed." And so they build a city floating in the sky, a literal metaphor for the country's rapid ascent on the world stage. But it's not as well-intentioned as it may seem. "Columbia is a Death Star."
The Black Ships
In 1854, American Commodore Matthew Perry brought four gunships into the waters just off Japan. The presentation of American naval might and technological superiority was instrumental in opening Japan up to American trade. I bring up that example from history because the story of Columbia, and the context that Levine places it in, is very much about gunboat diplomacy.
"This isn't a game about history. This is a game set in the context of history," Levine said. Though turn-of-the-century America was transformed into a manufacturing powerhouse, there was one thing it couldn't manufacture more of. "We needed markets," he said. And like Perry's Black Ships, Columbia can be seen as both a vehicle for trade but also a means of gunboat diplomacy. Trade ... or else. To give us an example of that "context of history," Levine read the following passage from President William McKinley discussing the annexation of the Phillippines:
I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night. And one night late it came to me this way-I don't know how it was, but it came: (1) That we could not give them back to Spain-that would be cowardly and dishonorable; (2) that we could not turn them over to France and Germany-our commercial rivals in the Orient-that would be bad business and discreditable; (3) that we could not leave them to themselves-they were unfit for self-government-and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain's was; and (4) that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died. And then I went to bed, and went to sleep.
Fin de siθcle first-person shooter
While context and setting have everything to do with BioShock Infinite's elaborate setting, and like Levine we couldn't talk about the game without first giving Columbia its due, there was more to last night's presentation than context. Actually, there's a lot more. "The notion of American exceptionalism [in the game], that didn't even exist until six or eight months ago," Levine told us after the demonstration. Like BioShock before it, the philosophical underpinnings of Infinite haven't been static over the last three years. But what has: It's a first-person shooter, very much in the vein of other "shock" titles.
In BioShock Infinite, "you're not an unknown cipher. You're Booker DeWitt, a disgraced Pinkerton agent" and your office, if you can call it that, is in a room above a bar. You're a fixer given a job: Find a woman named Elizabeth. Here's the catch: Finding Elizabeth isn't the problem, she's in Columbia ... but "nobody knows where Columbia is," Levine says. It went missing a decade ago. When our gameplay demo starts, the hero is on a cobblestone street. A poster with George Washington reads "It is our holy duty to guard against the foreign hordes." A horse-drawn carriage comes down the street, the wheel missing on one side, its axle sparking against the stone. A stream of (presumably foul) water runs along the edge of the street. As DeWitt passes the cart, you can see it's plastered in pamphlets. The message: This is a place of great political and ideological rhetoric.
As you enter into an open square of sorts, you can see things are a little ... off. A woman sweeps her stoop while the house behind her burns. An enormous statue looms over you, holding an American flag. There's a dead horse on the ground. While things look pretty bleak, Levine tells us "this is not a city that's as devolved as Rapture." It's not all Splicers everywhere, itching to attack anything without a bunny mask on.
As DeWitt turns towards a pavilion, you see the vista of other floating buildings. This is Columbia. There's a man on the ground feeding crows. There are sounds of prosetlyzation coming from loudspeakers, and you read four signs: They'll take your gun; They'll take your wife; They'll take your business; They'll take your life. Mixed in are signs for one Mr. Saltonstall, a political candidate, and ostensibly the same man in the pavilion. As you approach, there's a barrel full of guns with a sign above it reading "Patriots, arm thyself!" Well, don't mind if we do ... this scoped sniper rifle oughta do nicely.
As you take the gun, which now satisfies the familiar first-person framework in the lower right corner, Saltonstall turns to you, his eyes glowing. He commands Charles evidently the man with the birds to attack. Charles, and his feathered friends, are only too happy to oblige. A swarm of crows flies towards the screen. While Saltonstall hooks onto a winding track connecting various floating sections of Columbia, zipping away, DeWitt takes down Charles, sending him over the edge. Looking over, he's dead on a platform below. Using some telekinetic powers, DeWitt pulls a bottle shaped like a crow towards him and he does what any good video game character would do with a strange bottle found on a dead man on a floating city that's gone missing: he drinks it. Unsurprisingly, that leads to a vision of a bloody crow.
"FIRE!"
You hear the charge in the distance and, as the buildings move and float all around you, you can just make out a cannon before seeing the arc of fire coming from it. Using the scope on the sniper rifle, you can see Saltonstall directing men to fire upon you. Another massive fireball heads in your direction. Using the same hook device that Saltonstall did, DeWitt engages the zipline and makes his way across the open sky to the other section of the city. An enemy climbs on and heads in your direction and you've got a joust, happening far above the ground, traveling at 60mph. A well placed hit from a wrench and the enemy goes flying.
Upon landing, DeWitt evades some cannon fire and enters a bar to take cover. The patrons turn to look and, for a second, things seem to be quiet. A painting on the wall appears to shimmer and then you're hit. A splatter of blood strikes the edge of the screen. Turning around, one of the bartenders is holding a shotgun. DeWitt grabs it using that handy telekinesis, turns it around in midair, and remotely pulls the trigger. Then he uses his "murder of crows" ability thanks mysterious bottle to enable his escape. Exiting the bar, the cannon turns, fires a shot, only to have the shell plucked out of the air shotgun-style turned against it. Fleeing on foot, DeWitt uses an electricity attack to take care of a large group of attackers Levine tells us later you "can fight fifteen enemies at once" as opposed to BioShock's "one or two guys in a corridor."
Luckily, Elizabeth makes her appearance here ... did we mention she's "incredibly powerful" before? Well, she is and she uses one of those powers now to make a raincloud. Do you see where this is going. DeWitt uses his lightning attack and zap! the lot of them are electrocuted. You take cover behind a pile of scrap metal while another group attacks. Elizabeth uses her power to assemble a giant metal ball of scrap before commanding DeWitt to grab it. One telekinetic throw later and another batch of baddies have been dispatched. But now, whatever that thing with the giant hands and the floating heart that we saw in the trailer is which Levine told us wasn't what we thought it was is back. You can see it has a face complete with old-timey hair parted right down the middle. It lands, conveniently, on a bridge which Elizabeth immediately gets to work on dismantling. Again, working together DeWitt telekinetically fires an explosive at the structural component she's been working on and the giant monster falls. DeWitt asks, "That's the one that was chasing you, right?" "No, that wasn't him. That wasn't him," she answers just as a massive bird lands on (and summarily trashes) a building behind them. "That's him!"
The Stage Show
At this point, the demo is over, Ken thanks us for coming, and a series of releases are triggered dropping the black curtain lining the room we're in. The large arches on the surrounding walls have been filled with images of the floating city, the screen in front of us is filled with more political paraphernalia and, thanks to an awkward failure to launch, the rear curtain remained in place. Behind it were old-timey hot dogs (Ken later tells us he's low-rent when it comes to food) and carnival midway games, with stuffed animal prizes. We leave to prepare for our interview and wrap our heads around everything we just saw. After all, it's not every day you find the ideas of Imperialism, American exceptionalism, and lengthy quotes from 19th century Presidents in your video game press events. We gather our confiscated electronics, and are whisked through the Plaza Hotel a luxurious monument to American exceptionalism, built in 1907 right against New York City's Central Park. It's not floating in the sky but especially with the air of political corruption and mystery, thanks to the party and the protesters it's a suitable stand-in for Columbia.
Interview With ken Levine (creator of the first Bioshock and lead creator of Bioshock Infinite): http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/12/vi...hock-infinite/
n an industry filled with rumors and leaks, last night's reveal of BioShock Infinite managed to take nearly everyone by surprise. After nearly three years of silence, designer Ken Levine and the Irrational Games team unveiled their new title -- an extension of the BioShock franchise. We had a chance to talk to Levine after the reveal to discuss his inspirations for the heavily guarded title, and why the team chose not to pursue a completely new IP. While BioShock Infinite may share a name with its predecessor, Levine explains how Infinite has the spirit of a completely new game. Watch our video interview above, or read the full transcription below.
Joystiq: BioShock went through a lot of prototypes, even late in development. How static has Infinite been?
Ken Levine: Unfortunately, we're no better at knowing exactly what we're doing at the very beginning than we were with BioShock. The notion of American exceptionalism, that didn't even exist until six or eight months ago. It was always a city in the sky from the very beginning. But very similar to BioShock 1, where we didn't have Andrew Ryan and the notion of objectivism -- we leave ourselves very open for evolution. When we build these demos, they teach us things about what we're making. We don't just work from a design document; it's just not our way.
BioShock had a strong philosophical influence. You see a lot of the same things in Infinite. What's the philosophy behind it? What would be a good reading guide for someone to get caught up?
BioShock 1 wasn't historical, but it was set in the context of history. There was a feeling in America that we were trying to represent. And very much the same here. At the turn of the century, there was this feeling of optimism. All these technologies came in place in the span of twenty years. You go from people with cows and outhouses and growing wheat in fields, to having radios and cars and movie stars, and all these incredible things. It's almost as if they felt a city was suddenly floating in the sky. That's how much the world had changed.
There's a lot of books you could read. I think Teddy Roosevelt is a great place to start. He really is the center of where America was at the time, and America's role from being a small provincial power to placing itself on the world's stage. This feeling of optimism -- we can do all these huge things -- we have the technology, we have this incredible democratic system, which really was a beacon of hope at the time. It was a world filled with monarchies and despots. And Columbia [Ed's note: fictional city of Infinite] came out of that. We really wanted to base something on that time, which people haven't really seen before, but also, in a lot of ways, feels very familiar to some things that are very much in our consciousness today.
The settings have been major characters in your games. Going into designing Infinite, was building that locale an early part of the game's inception?
We knew we wanted a city in the sky because that's what they thought would happen at that time, at the turn of the century. The same way BioShock 1 had a sense you could create these utopias, you could create these perfect worlds based on these radical systems or ideals. There was this sense that America had this mission at the time. Even aside from the American aspect, there was a sense that technology will transform everything. Because it was transforming everything! So this notion of putting this -- almost ridiculous concept, perhaps no more ridiculous than a city at the bottom of the ocean, maybe even less ridiculous -- city in the clouds struck us as a great visual metaphor for certain ideas. That was fairly early. But everything else has been evolving ever since.
How does Infinite's team and budget compare to the original BioShock? Is this a far bigger project?
It's a reasonably big team. We're still not as big as the Ubisofts of the world, not even close. We're not 350 people. We got, like, 80. We like to stay relatively smalls. Not compared to a bunch of indies that do amazing things with five people. We used to do that, but the scale is obviously very large. There's not a single shared asset between this and any previous BioShock game. All the code we're writing is entirely new. It's an entirely new engine.
In our engine, buildings actually float. Buildings can actually collapse. Buildings you're standing on can collapse out of the sky. Every surface is floating.
Rapture was a bit of a fake, in a sense that you never engaged with the ocean in a real way. That was a function of the engine
and the time we had to make it. I think people, with some justification, criticized us for that. And we said that if we're going to do a city in the sky, it has to be in the sky. In our engine, buildings actually float. Buildings can actually collapse. Buildings you're standing on can collapse out of the sky. Every surface is floating. The scale of the space. The fact that you can fight fifteen enemies at once, where you're used to fighting one or two guys in a corridor in BioShock 1.
We have this saying: "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." That's why some of the combat in previous BioShock games got to be a tiny bit samey is because when you're fighting just one or two guys in a tight corridor, electro-bolt with shotgun tends to work really, really well. Well, let's really open up the kinds of challenges you can face. Okay, maybe you will have some of those tight spaces. Maybe you'll have much broader spaces, where long-range weapons are a lot more important. Maybe you'll have lots of enemies at once, where area of effect weapons become really important. Maybe you'll move at 60 miles per hour along the sky lines, where weapons that can be used in that context become really important. So, we want to demand more out of the player, so they had to be much more engaged in their tool set.
The first game was built on a heavily modified version of Unreal Engine 2.5. Is this fresh tech, from the ground up?
It's built on Unreal 3 this time, but there's no shared code between any of our previous games and this. This game was about getting out of our comfort zone for us, because we had used that engine on several games before. It was used on SWAT, Tribes, BioShock 1, and we were very comfortable with it. But it was also a limitation which didn't allow us to do the things we wanted to do with this game. It was a lot of work, and that's one of the reasons here we are, two and a half years talking about it.
What were some of the hard choices you had to make with Infinite? Do you have any anecdotes about the concept or the dev process that was specifically difficult?
I think the first rule we made for ourselves when working on this game -- and this is a hard rule -- is there's no sacred cows. There's no BioShock sacred cows. Anything that doesn't fit in BioShock Infinite, doesn't belong in BioShock Infinite. So people say, "what about this? You gotta have that in a BioShock game!" But we say, how does it fit? Does it belong? Is it telling the story we want to tell? Is it the gameplay experience we want to say? There are probably some very iconic things that when you think of BioShock that you didn't necessarily see tonight.
What's an example?
You probably didn't see a large guy in a diving suit and a little girl walking around.
There was a big guy with big hands!
If you know our previous games, it's very much an extension of the DNA of the stuff we've done before. I think you'll see this game has evolved as much from BioShock as BioShock had evolved from any previous games we've done.
That wasn't ... um, what you think it was. That guy was not a Big Daddy. For a BioShock, that's the guy on the cover! That's the little girl on the cover in both games. I think that's a big thing, when you think of Rapture, that's another key thing. How do you take all these things you've created -- everything about how the game was presented was tied into that -- and I think that, for us, we didn't have a choice. We felt like we said what we wanted to say about Rapture. Not about BioShock, not about the gameplay motifs, not about the narrative motifs. But we said what we wanted to say about Rapture, and that kind of space and the kind of combat you have there, and some of the kind of experiences you have there. We created this franchise, and we love this franchise. If you know our previous games, it's very much an extension of the DNA of the stuff we've done before. I think you'll see this game has evolved as much from BioShock as BioShock had evolved from any previous games we've done.
Why call it BioShock, then? What not call it something else? Is that marketing? Is that artistic option?
I think it's both because I think BioShock is a lot more than just Rapture. This is a game; it's a first-person shooter set in an amazing place with a story wrought with from our perspective ideas that are tied with history. And everything else really is up for grabs. But we felt that if we made this game and it wasn't a BioShock game, that would be a bit of a cheat. To say, "Oh, it's a totally new thing." But it is a new thing, but it's also a continuation of the things we've done before.
It has a shared heritage.
Final Fantasy is a very similar thing. They have some similar elements. But it's a little strange because usually when you do sequels, the reason it's so similar is because there's a lot of the same assets, a lot of the same gameplay systems.
BioShock 2, for example, versus BioShock Infinite.
Yes, and that's one of the reasons BioShock 2 wasn't the right project for us and, as we agreed with the company, we didn't have the timeframe or the scale to make the product of the ambition we had. But we felt very much it was a BioShock game. There is connective tissue to this and previous titles we've done as well.
What's "infinite" mean?
That's something you're going to have to find out.
Joystiq: BioShock went through a lot of prototypes, even late in development. How static has Infinite been?
Ken Levine: Unfortunately, we're no better at knowing exactly what we're doing at the very beginning than we were with BioShock. The notion of American exceptionalism, that didn't even exist until six or eight months ago. It was always a city in the sky from the very beginning. But very similar to BioShock 1, where we didn't have Andrew Ryan and the notion of objectivism -- we leave ourselves very open for evolution. When we build these demos, they teach us things about what we're making. We don't just work from a design document; it's just not our way.
BioShock had a strong philosophical influence. You see a lot of the same things in Infinite. What's the philosophy behind it? What would be a good reading guide for someone to get caught up?
BioShock 1 wasn't historical, but it was set in the context of history. There was a feeling in America that we were trying to represent. And very much the same here. At the turn of the century, there was this feeling of optimism. All these technologies came in place in the span of twenty years. You go from people with cows and outhouses and growing wheat in fields, to having radios and cars and movie stars, and all these incredible things. It's almost as if they felt a city was suddenly floating in the sky. That's how much the world had changed.
There's a lot of books you could read. I think Teddy Roosevelt is a great place to start. He really is the center of where America was at the time, and America's role from being a small provincial power to placing itself on the world's stage. This feeling of optimism -- we can do all these huge things -- we have the technology, we have this incredible democratic system, which really was a beacon of hope at the time. It was a world filled with monarchies and despots. And Columbia [Ed's note: fictional city of Infinite] came out of that. We really wanted to base something on that time, which people haven't really seen before, but also, in a lot of ways, feels very familiar to some things that are very much in our consciousness today.
The settings have been major characters in your games. Going into designing Infinite, was building that locale an early part of the game's inception?
We knew we wanted a city in the sky because that's what they thought would happen at that time, at the turn of the century. The same way BioShock 1 had a sense you could create these utopias, you could create these perfect worlds based on these radical systems or ideals. There was this sense that America had this mission at the time. Even aside from the American aspect, there was a sense that technology will transform everything. Because it was transforming everything! So this notion of putting this -- almost ridiculous concept, perhaps no more ridiculous than a city at the bottom of the ocean, maybe even less ridiculous -- city in the clouds struck us as a great visual metaphor for certain ideas. That was fairly early. But everything else has been evolving ever since.
How does Infinite's team and budget compare to the original BioShock? Is this a far bigger project?
It's a reasonably big team. We're still not as big as the Ubisofts of the world, not even close. We're not 350 people. We got, like, 80. We like to stay relatively smalls. Not compared to a bunch of indies that do amazing things with five people. We used to do that, but the scale is obviously very large. There's not a single shared asset between this and any previous BioShock game. All the code we're writing is entirely new. It's an entirely new engine.
In our engine, buildings actually float. Buildings can actually collapse. Buildings you're standing on can collapse out of the sky. Every surface is floating.
Rapture was a bit of a fake, in a sense that you never engaged with the ocean in a real way. That was a function of the engine
and the time we had to make it. I think people, with some justification, criticized us for that. And we said that if we're going to do a city in the sky, it has to be in the sky. In our engine, buildings actually float. Buildings can actually collapse. Buildings you're standing on can collapse out of the sky. Every surface is floating. The scale of the space. The fact that you can fight fifteen enemies at once, where you're used to fighting one or two guys in a corridor in BioShock 1.
We have this saying: "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." That's why some of the combat in previous BioShock games got to be a tiny bit samey is because when you're fighting just one or two guys in a tight corridor, electro-bolt with shotgun tends to work really, really well. Well, let's really open up the kinds of challenges you can face. Okay, maybe you will have some of those tight spaces. Maybe you'll have much broader spaces, where long-range weapons are a lot more important. Maybe you'll have lots of enemies at once, where area of effect weapons become really important. Maybe you'll move at 60 miles per hour along the sky lines, where weapons that can be used in that context become really important. So, we want to demand more out of the player, so they had to be much more engaged in their tool set.
The first game was built on a heavily modified version of Unreal Engine 2.5. Is this fresh tech, from the ground up?
It's built on Unreal 3 this time, but there's no shared code between any of our previous games and this. This game was about getting out of our comfort zone for us, because we had used that engine on several games before. It was used on SWAT, Tribes, BioShock 1, and we were very comfortable with it. But it was also a limitation which didn't allow us to do the things we wanted to do with this game. It was a lot of work, and that's one of the reasons here we are, two and a half years talking about it.
What were some of the hard choices you had to make with Infinite? Do you have any anecdotes about the concept or the dev process that was specifically difficult?
I think the first rule we made for ourselves when working on this game -- and this is a hard rule -- is there's no sacred cows. There's no BioShock sacred cows. Anything that doesn't fit in BioShock Infinite, doesn't belong in BioShock Infinite. So people say, "what about this? You gotta have that in a BioShock game!" But we say, how does it fit? Does it belong? Is it telling the story we want to tell? Is it the gameplay experience we want to say? There are probably some very iconic things that when you think of BioShock that you didn't necessarily see tonight.
What's an example?
You probably didn't see a large guy in a diving suit and a little girl walking around.
There was a big guy with big hands!
If you know our previous games, it's very much an extension of the DNA of the stuff we've done before. I think you'll see this game has evolved as much from BioShock as BioShock had evolved from any previous games we've done.
That wasn't ... um, what you think it was. That guy was not a Big Daddy. For a BioShock, that's the guy on the cover! That's the little girl on the cover in both games. I think that's a big thing, when you think of Rapture, that's another key thing. How do you take all these things you've created -- everything about how the game was presented was tied into that -- and I think that, for us, we didn't have a choice. We felt like we said what we wanted to say about Rapture. Not about BioShock, not about the gameplay motifs, not about the narrative motifs. But we said what we wanted to say about Rapture, and that kind of space and the kind of combat you have there, and some of the kind of experiences you have there. We created this franchise, and we love this franchise. If you know our previous games, it's very much an extension of the DNA of the stuff we've done before. I think you'll see this game has evolved as much from BioShock as BioShock had evolved from any previous games we've done.
Why call it BioShock, then? What not call it something else? Is that marketing? Is that artistic option?
I think it's both because I think BioShock is a lot more than just Rapture. This is a game; it's a first-person shooter set in an amazing place with a story wrought with from our perspective ideas that are tied with history. And everything else really is up for grabs. But we felt that if we made this game and it wasn't a BioShock game, that would be a bit of a cheat. To say, "Oh, it's a totally new thing." But it is a new thing, but it's also a continuation of the things we've done before.
It has a shared heritage.
Final Fantasy is a very similar thing. They have some similar elements. But it's a little strange because usually when you do sequels, the reason it's so similar is because there's a lot of the same assets, a lot of the same gameplay systems.
BioShock 2, for example, versus BioShock Infinite.
Yes, and that's one of the reasons BioShock 2 wasn't the right project for us and, as we agreed with the company, we didn't have the timeframe or the scale to make the product of the ambition we had. But we felt very much it was a BioShock game. There is connective tissue to this and previous titles we've done as well.
What's "infinite" mean?
That's something you're going to have to find out.
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