Ken Levine delivered his last game, Bioshock Infinite, for a period of seven years. Because the time was too long for him, the journalist Jason Schreier went on a search.
As you are used to now, it is in the columns of Bloomberg that the journalist publishes a summary of the statements of fifteen employees of Ghost Story Games, the new name of Irrational Games, who have therefore been working on “Ken Levine’s next game” since 2014. It is an understatement to say that the screenwriter, who also doubles as artistic director, has spoken more than once to speak about his future play that “could cross the line”. But behind the statements everything seems very complicated.
Levine needs the no …
The testimony gathered by Schreier confirms the state of relative chaos that is being imposed on the teams at Ghost Story Games.
The publisher gives Levine a level of autonomy that few creators enjoy. Some of his former employees say that the lack of supervision seemed idyllic at first, but had a detrimental effect on their work and their mental well-being.
Take-Two probably tolerates this for the same reason that has moved many people to work on Irrational and Ghost Story over the past two decades: because a writer is able to produce something great. But Levine’s management led to burnout and, according to former employees, caused them great pain.
After seven years of fiddling, the former developer estimates that Ken Levine’s new game won’t be released in at least two yearsbecause those who chose to stay now know which direction to go. A vacancy posted in 2020 indicated this.
… to win against the no
Allegedly, the ambitious project in the form of an FPS in space, in which each player would discover new things based on their actions, was originally planned for fall 2017. Problem, the Restricted team has nothing to do with those who delivered BioShock or its Prequel Infinite.
The game has grown in scope without worrying about the team’s ability to meet that fall 2017 deadline. Levine wanted to do a triple A with an “economic” team. It was not possible.
The hardest thing to bear are Levine’s sudden fluctuations, which our beloved colleague Raphaël Lucas was able to talk about during the conversation from Levine’s portrait produced in 2017 for iGamesNews. The development of his new game is unfortunately no exception.
Ghost Story employees sometimes spend weeks or months creating content for the new game only to get Levine to give up everything. His tastes sometimes change after playing a new indie game like Dead Cells or Void Bastards, and he insisted that some features be redesigned to mimic these games. Former developers say these constant changes are demoralizing and seem like an obstacle to their careers.
You’ll understand: when Ghost Story Games’ first game finally seems on the right track, shouldn’t we expect a release before … 2024? Of course, without counting on Covid-19.
What do you expect from Ken Levine? Can his next game still surprise? Let us know your disappointed or (bio) shocked reviews in the comments below.
