Interview BioShock Q&A at GameSpy

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: BioShock

There's an <A href="http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/bioshock/730626p1.html">interview</a> with <b>Ken Levine</b> about <b>BioShock</b> over at <A href="http://www.gamespy.com">GameSpy</a>. And here's a good question from the thing:
<br>
<blockquote><b>GameSpy: How difficult is it to craft "atmosphere" in a project like this?
<br>
<br>
Levine:</b> Well, if you judge it by how many times we failed, then it was pretty difficult. We didn't hit it until less than a year ago. I remember the first demo we delivered to 2K Games, after they spent millions of dollars on buying us, was something that I brought to them and I said, "You know what? This is a piece of shit!" And to their credit (they said), "OK, well what are you going to do about it?" And instead of flipping out, we sat down and made a bunch of changes; we refocused and we got the world right.
<br>
<br>
That was a huge process. Originally the game didn't look anything like it is now. It wasn't this beautiful, unique utopia, but instead it was very traditional looking. We didn't have the little girls and the big daddies; we didn't have that relationship, and it really didn't have the heart of what makes BioShock. So we said that instead of trying to make the whole thing at once, let's try and get one room right. Let's get one character right. We didn't have any monsters or anything like that, so we concentrated on doing one thing at a time. We just worked on it and worked on it until we had one thing right, and that's how the game evolved. </blockquote>
<br>
Well, it's better to try and fail, then repeat that process a hundred times, than to get it wrong the first time and finish the game.
<br>
<br>
Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.ve3d.com">Voodoo Extreme</A>

 

[Zomg]

I wish he'd shut the fuck up about the Little Girl/Big Daddy thing. It sounded like a neat little feature the first time I read about it, but he brings it up so much I'm thinking it's 90% of the game.

 

[Mr. Teatime]

I bet they also discussed the console development as well, since wasn't this game initially only PC? Someone here said something that's very true IMO: any game in development for consoles alongside PCs always suffers in some area because of that. Oh well it might still be great.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Hey, any game that has children in this day and age has my vote:

Gatherers: (Little Sisters) Genetically modified children, the Gatherers were created as a solution to the Adam shortage. They extract Adam from the dead, and their bodies reprocess it into a usable form (Eve) again. The team designed them so the player would have a moral conflict in killing children to obtain Adam.

Moral conflict is good. I can do moral conflict. Actually, it looks like it's 100% of the game too, given these things are the only source of "Adam" and that's what the game appears to be all about.

we've moved to Unreal 3, we've done a lot of modifications on top of it," particularly to the way the engine handles water effects, which he claims will be very impressive, "we've hired a water programmer and water artist, just for this game, and they're kicking ass and you've never seen water like this.

Nice to see they're putting their financial resources to good use. Soil erosion anyone?

I'm willing to bet that each "truly unique experience" I get everytime I play the game will be akin to wandering around the Imperial City with everyone waking up like clockwork at 6am though. "OMG, he's in a different spot at a different time of teh day! That my friend, is truly unique. I'm going to play it again just to see where he is at 5pm on my thirteenth play-through."

 

[Top Hat]

Tips Top Hat. Greetings!

Little Girls? Big Daddies? Oh great, another game about pedophiles...

Exit.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Wait wait wait, another game about pedophiles? What where the other ones? And if necessary, please provide links to locate them.

 

[FrancoTAU]

What's with all the new gimmick posters?

Anywho, I love his interviews. I don't always agree with him, but he's an entertaining read and he usually produces good to great games. He had a fun interview at 1up too.

 

[Voss]

Does the pedophilia mean that VD is going to threaten to ban anyone that talks about the game?

 

[Cycloptis]

I'm becoming wary of how BioShock may turn out. I know this is Irrational, but great developers have faced simealtaneous PC-Console development and failed before.

I also hope that the enthusiasm towards potentially trivial aspects such as water dynamics isn't indicative of how the rest of the project is progressing.

After System Shock 2, it's difficult not to have faith in the team, but you never know.

 

[z3r'0']

The level of anticipation for Bioshock that quietly pervades many a game-forum, as well as the gaming news industry;
is imo just so much undeserved, unwarranted hype.

Largely riding on the coat-tails of System Shock, namely by being a rumoured ...
spiritual successor? (..wtf does that even mean?)

The platform development anouncement to include xbox after starting out pc-only , is a major red flag.

I suspect that hoping for something inspired like Deus Ex etc. may just be wishful thinking. Combined with the hype, its a classic recipe for heady but unrealistic expectations, culminating in inevitable disapointment.

Granted, maybe Irrational can prove me wrong, but
their mediocre endeavours on Tribes, SWAT etc., may yet bear me out.

 

[Top Hat]

Tips Top Hat. Greetings!

Wait wait wait, another game about pedophiles? What where the other ones? And if necessary, please provide links to locate them.

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, anyone?

Here's a link: http://free-game-downloads.mosw.com/aba ... alker.html.

Don't know if it works or not, however. I've never played it, but there's a review on this site: http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/reviews/moonwalk.html

Exit.

 

[Dogar]

The level of anticipation for Bioshock that quietly pervades many a game-forum, as well as the gaming news industry;
is imo just so much undeserved, unwarranted hype.

I disagree. System Shock 2 was the best game that Irrational ever made. The fact that Bioshock is so obviously set in the SS2 mould allows for a certain amount of cautious excitement. This sort of game is right up their alley.

 

[St. Toxic]

So we said that instead of trying to make the whole thing at once, let's try and get one room right. Let's get one character right. We didn't have any monsters or anything like that, so we concentrated on doing one thing at a time. We just worked on it and worked on it until we had one thing right, and that's how the game evolved.

Our bosses are more powerful than the other guys, but because our toolset is so broad and the player can express themselves in so many ways, we don't want to prescribe a way to defeat any of these bosses.

BioShock is talking about people who take any belief system and just turn it into an extremist belief system.

For us, the story is the skeleton around which the game lies on, and then the meat of it is what the player does. Our focus is on expanding the "meat" space and keeping a really tight, really formed, really smart skeleton of a story intact.

We have the great shadows and lighting, and frame buffer effects and the particle system, but everything we're doing is focusing on not just the "wow" factor, but on "What emotion are we trying to illicit?"

Hell, sounds totally dreamy.

 

[Jason]

I really liked the sound of this:

There are tons of different splicers in the game and they all have different genetic powers that you face up against. Unlike a lot of games where you have generic enemies, any of our characters can have any of the powers in the game. So just like you, they are genetically (modifiable), and really unpredictable. We really did that to try and move away from the standard FPS genre. Because our enemies are spawned dynamically and because they move through the world with their own goals and intentions, we really see all these combined to create a world that exists on its own terms.

But not this:

And then there are all the active plasmids which can potentially serve as different types of weapons. These provide X-Men-like powers, so anything you could imagine an X-Men-type character doing, you'll be able to do something similar.

 

[dongle]

What's with all the new gimmick posters?

Like he says, trying to elicit emotion from the player.

Showing how a normal world changed into the decrepit place it is now. But, mostly, increasing the sense of decrepit-ness by letting it's former state show through. Like; This used to be an elegant art-deco tobacconists, with well-heeled patrons idly shopping. Makes the creepy mutants look even creepier, more so than if they were hanging out in a creepy toxic waste dump, all being creepy.

Like how Led Zeppelin sound louder and more raucous because they mix in some quite passages, or colors from opposite side of the color-wheel make both stand out all the more, or Courtney Love's kinder-whore look. . . .

 

[DarkUnderlord]

I really liked the sound of this: <snip> But not this:

And then there are all the active plasmids which can potentially serve as different types of weapons. These provide X-Men-like powers, so anything you could imagine an X-Men-type character doing, you'll be able to do something similar.

I'm totally going to be Wolverine.

 

[obediah]

I really liked the sound of this: <snip> But not this:

And then there are all the active plasmids which can potentially serve as different types of weapons. These provide X-Men-like powers, so anything you could imagine an X-Men-type character doing, you'll be able to do something similar.

I'm totally going to be Wolverine.

I'm gonna fuck Halle Berry in the ass.

 

[don_tomaso]

Oh i can shoot lasers out of my eyes.. The smell of my ladyfriend, look at that burned spline..


http://www.thisisgame.com/board/files/0 ... 8841ee.jpg

he seems like a cool enough guy

 

[Dementia Praecox]

Am I the only one concerned about the fact that Ken is constantly refering to the game as a shooter . And comparing it to other shooters. Like how he says the genre hasn't evolved since Half-Life. What about fucking System Shock 2? How is that not an evolution? Is he to modest to admit he's own game is far superior to the always overrated Half-Life? And does it mean they're aiming for something like Half-Life? Is it going to be the fucking spiritual successor to Half-Life? Note that over those four pages worth of interview, he doesn't mention skills even once!

The story is a very particular story. The reason we have done this with all our games is that any writer who thinks they can write seven great stories for one game is kidding themselves. It's hard enough to write one great story alone. For us, the story is the skeleton around which the game lies on, and then the meat of it is what the player does. Our focus is on expanding the "meat" space and keeping a really tight, really formed, really smart skeleton of a story intact.

How about: "Yes, it's linear"?

 

[St. Toxic]

Am I the only one concerned about the fact that Ken is constantly refering to the game as a shooter .

Well, it's not a racing game.

And comparing it to other shooters.

You'd rather he compare it to some classic crpg's?

Like how he says the genre hasn't evolved since Half-Life. What about fucking System Shock 2? How is that not an evolution?

Well, have a look at the fps games that came after SS2. It didn't exactly impact the genre enough to evolve.

Is he to modest to admit he's own game is far superior to the always overrated Half-Life? And does it mean they're aiming for something like Half-Life? Is it going to be the fucking spiritual successor to Half-Life?

Yes, and it's going to be sold over Steam exclusively.

Note that over those four pages worth of interview, he doesn't mention skills even once!

You didn't hear? They scrapped em'. I asked Mr. Levine himself how he would adress this question, and his response was swift and decisive:

We have all this other stuff; weapon crafting, character choice and plasmids, and hacking.

 

[Dementia Praecox]

Well, it's not a racing game.

It's not a sports gaem either, tee-hee, lolz.

You'd rather he compare it to some classic crpg's?

Yes of course. That would have implied that the game had something in common with those classical crpgs, would it not?

Well, have a look at the fps games that came after SS2. It didn't exactly impact the genre enough to evolve.

Yes, the genre didn't evolve. What's your point?

Yes, and it's going to be sold over Steam exclusively.

You're quite a comedian, aren't you?

You didn't hear? They scrapped em'. I asked Mr. Levine himself how he would adress this question, and his response was swift and decisive:

We have all this other stuff; weapon crafting, character choice and plasmids, and hacking.

Bah, this will be Invisible War all over again. I just stumbled over this gem:

I'm not a fan of dialogue trees, and I never have been. I think they're limiting in the sense that your options are always either A, or B, or C. I've never liked digital options--I've always liked expressability. I've always liked being able to choose by action, rather than choosing by pressing the 1 or 2 keys on a keyboard.

What the hell, "I've never liked digital options", it's not like pressing left mouse button for "action" or what ever button you've assingned, is anything less digital than selecting amongst several, well written and clever dialogue-options. Whatever choice you can do through action in the gameworld still has to be thought of, planned and scripted by the developers. As a counterpart to dialogue trees he mentions (agein) the big daddies and little sisters, and the whole "moral dilemma". While I'm all for killing children, genetically altered or not, the entire example (at least when filtering out the PR-speak I'm reading into it), boils down to:

A) Killing little sisters for adam.
B) Not killing little sisters for adam.

WOW! That's like, analog.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

IIRC, you could kill their bodyguards as well, buy Adam from them (I think), intimidate it out of them, or befriend them and get loads for free, not just kill them or not kill them.

 

[St. Toxic]

It's not a sports gaem either, tee-hee, lolz.

No, but it is a shooter.

Yes of course. That would have implied that the game had something in common with those classical crpgs, would it not?

Being revamped and sold on consoles? I don't know, saying it's "what shooters should have evolved to" is much nicer than "what rpg's are supposed to be like, meaning uh -- shooting guys in realtime and leet skillz".

Yes, the genre didn't evolve. What's your point?

Not my point. Levine's point.

You're quite a comedian, aren't you?

Thank's for raking that up. I failed comedian school y'know. They said I wasn't jewish enough.

Bah, this will be Invisible War all over again.

Only this time it'll be a failed non-official sequel to a good game.

 

[denizsi]

Little sisters and bid daddies? Drawing comparisons to HL and Doom? Wtf happened in the last 4-5 months? And the picture of that bitch with dual-wielding those two things similar to butcher hooks. Could it get any more generic?

then there are characters in the world that you see and can directly interact with, too.

I can only hope that by interaction, he doesn't mean poking them around to uphold the greatness of Havok phsyics applied to them.

Because they split off from the world in the '40s, they split off with the most brilliant minds of the time, and so they developed all their technologies. So instead of writing letters, they developed an early form of email but that were in an entirely analog format which they would send through these pneumatic tubes. So you'll find lots of communications on these audio logs, and I think one of the best forms of communications in the world is actually the world itself as a character. It communicates its personality because the world still thinks it's this wonderful utopia and doesn't realize that it's been destroyed.

Translation: We came up with these new shiny buzz words for logs. So totally next -gen.

I can't say I like what I've read in this interview. Sounds worrying too.

 

[Direwolf]

I bet that despite how crap that game might actually turn out, everybody since hail as a best game evar (after Oblivion of course). Unless they make it too hard for console kiddies. Then they will be completely fucked. Oh yeah. They will blame it on piracy as well.