Ken Levine, the video game developer known for producing the BioShock series, started working on his next project with his studio, Ghost Story Games, about eight years ago. Since then, according to new information from BloombergAnd The game has reportedly gone into “development hell” and experienced several reboots and changes in direction.
Levine’s current project on Ghost Story, which hasn’t been officially announced or a firm release date set, has taken much longer than his previous work, including the year and a half it took to develop System Shock 2 and the nearly five years it took for BioShock to finish. Obviously, game development is a formidable challenge and each project comes with its own challenges, but This is another thing, 15 current and former Ghost Story Games employees say, in part due to the author’s leadership style.
After closing Irrational Games in 2014 and launching Ghost Story Games, the new team began working on a premise that Levine called “narrative LEGO.” I wanted to create a game that would ensure that each person’s experience was unique.. This means that the characters will react differently based on the player’s actions and that different scenarios will unfold each time based on what was previously chosen.
The original plan was to release the game in the fall of 2017.and iba”A sci-fi shooter like BioShock that takes place in a mysterious space station inhabited by three factionsThe player’s choices will determine how these three factions deal with them.
Following Levine’s success in the past, publisher Take-Two Interactive Software has given him creative freedom for a few others in the game industry who have to make that dream come true. Although this “lack of supervision seemed poetic at first,” according to former employees, May become “It harms your job and your mental health.“
Mike SniteLevine, who was a former Irrational Games developer, chose to help launch Ghost Story in 2014, We shared a little info about what it was like to work with Levine.
“Ken is a very difficult person to work with“Snight says.”I think he tried really hard to change, and he really stood out in this company more than Irrational because it’s a smaller group of people.“.
While one employee says that the current team “optimistic“The project is back in and it is believed that the launch date could take two years, Snight (and half of the original team) has already left the studio.
“I’m not really happy anymoreSnight says, referring to the ongoing changes in development brought about by Ken Levine’s decisions.
One of the biggest problems, according to former employees, is that Levine wanted to create an AAA experiment as ambitious as BioShock with a small portion of the workers who made it..
While I have served you in the past and contributed to the production of successful and beloved games, Ken Levin’s search for perfection also caused endless problems for those who made these journeys with him. In the words of Bloomberg,One of the constants of Levine’s projects is that he never seems satisfied“.Levine has a history in the theater world and has aspired to be a screenwriter from the beginning, which is”I learned that the process of achieving greatness is to keep rewriting until everything is perfect“.
This means that months of work can be canceled if they are not up to the task.. In 2012, Levin said AusGamers which – which”Maybe two setsWhen developing BioShock Infinite.
This philosophy extended to the Ghost Story project and even It is said that weeks or months of work can be canceled after Levin’s tastes change “After playing an exciting indie version, like the side-scrolling Dead Cells or the Void Bastards-inspired comic book shooter, I insisted on checking out some of the features to emulate those games.“.
Many of these factors contributed to the game’s unpreparedness for Fall 2017, and while that may be frustrating to many to hear inside and outside the company, There was something positive: “Lax approach to deadlines reduces crisis time, a welcome change from irrational, three former employees say. “
Eight years later, many have questioned how long Take-Two will keep this project. apparently, Levine told the cast that Ghost Story is nothing more than “rounding errorFor a story editor like Grand Theft Auto, which means that the author will likely have all the time he needs to create a new result that can reach the level of BioShock.
While fans wait for the first Ghost Story game, 2K also announced that a new BioShock game is in the works from in-house Cloud Chamber studio.. However, this project appears to be far from being launched.
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