Bioshocked Brighton

Develop 08 is over, so I thought I'd share part of my write up of it...

2K Boston’s Ken Levine - joined on stage by Bioshock co-creators Nate Wells (lead technical artist), Chris Kline (lead programmer) and Bill Gardner (head of level design) - kicked off the conference proper with a session entitled ‘Bioshock and Awe’. Mainly focusing on the creative forces that lead to the final version of the game, the session described how it’s important for developers to work as a single unit (as opposed to isolated groups each with a different task; AI, design, sound etc.) and to keep an open mind about your ideas possibly being a load of twaddle.

In an attempt to demonstrate just how important it is to listen to feedback Nate Wells explained how an early build of the game involved a boss known as ‘Eelman’, a disfigured creature that slithered across the floor. “It’s as good as it sounds,” said Levine. “… It could turn invisible” continued Wells “[but] its main attack was making you feeling awkward”.

The guys went on to talk about how it’s important for games companies to hire people from a diverse range of backgrounds, saying that many games feel so similar to each other because they’re made by people who know nothing but games. “We're hiring designers at the moment,” said Levine “and we want the guy who's buying Dungeons and Dragons on the first day, but we also want to hire the guy who's into the movies of Truffaut. Bringing that mix of people in is really important.”

In fact Levine referred to himself as “the pretentious one”, often taking ideas and inspiration from classic French art-house cinema, only for Bill Gardner to bring him back to reality by telling him that no-one will buy the game if the content is too obscure or inaccessible. Levine admitted that in it’s early stages focus groups found it difficult to play through the game, “I mean, try asking people if they want to play a first-person shooter in an objectivist art-deco dystopia.” - apparently, the answer was no.

Conversation turned to talk of the upcoming Bioshock movie and how Levine is particularly pleased that director Gore Verbinski and screenwriter John Logan are working on it. Levine praised Verbinski for creating films that packed a visual punch and as such was a perfect choice for recreating the world of Rapture on film. Likewise Levine was confident that Logan was the perfect writer considering his work on Howard Hughes biopic ‘The Aviator’ as, we learnt, Rapture’s Andrew Ryan was based on Mr Hughes himself.

The session also spent a little time discussing whether or not the purchase of Irrational Games (now 2K Boston) by Take-Two in 2006 hampered Bioshock’s development. Levine was adamant that it didn’t, and went so far to say that due to a sense of creative freedom formed by the guys at Rockstar (also a Take-Two company) the company had faith in projects that challenged the established formats. “Take Two was a unique company because they'd been through the wars…” Levine said, “…they understood the artistic importance of something. The audience is not a bunch of mouth-breathing Neanderthals. The audience is ready for this sort of thing.” Amen Mr Levine.