Bioshock Designer Ken Levine Interviewed

We launched too late to get on the Bioshock train—and that's fine, considering the ample (and deserved) press the game is getting—but now that the game is out and a critical and sales smash, some of the more thoughtful pieces about the game are floating to the surface, like this interview with lead designer Ken Levine on 1UP. Bioshock isn't without its faults—I think the plot sort of falls apart in the second half—but there's no doubt it's a lovingly crafted game with a little something for everyone.

When discussing BioShock's story, Levine often points out it's one of the few games that wasn't influenced by The Lord of the Rings or Aliens -- it's a pitfall he calls the seventh-grade-notebook problem. "A lot of game designers have a world they've been working on since they were sitting in math class," he explains. Influenced by LOTR, these kids created their own fantasy world and characters. They are desperate to tell their story -- even at the sacrifice of player interest. "You'll see this when you start a game where they've hired Anthony Hopkins, Brian Cox, or somebody with an English accent...there's a long oratory, 'In the beginning...,' that makes you want to kill yourself in the middle of [it]."

Pity about all the DRM issues.

Levine's been taking a victory lap around videogame message boards across the internet, sharing anecdotes about the development process while simultaneously addressing concerns about the game's screwy copy protection and other post-launch hiccups. This one's my favorite, posted (to a spoilers-heavy thread) after some players complained about one of Bioshock's character's horrible French accent:

Pierre Gobbi was played by Greg Gobbi, the creative director at 2k in NYC. He's about as French as they come. The Gobbi diary was inspired by a "research" question I asked him. Knowing nothing about wine, and trying to find a good angle for a diary that gave info about distilled water in the winery, I asked him: "Greg, they don't add water to wine, do they?"

He nearly went ballistic. "Water? In WINE? NEVER!!!"

He started on a long rant about my obvious ignorance to all things of the vineyard, and I bowed out and ran back to my desk, and wrote the diary in around 10 seconds.

When I tell him people think he has the worst french accent of all time, he may kill me. But it will be worth it to see his face.

Irrational Man [1UP.com]