Levine On His Next Game, Bioshock 2 & Rumour
Kieron's currently out at the Develop conference for us, so expect exciting missives soon. Or, more likely, incoherent booze-addled rambling about Kenickie. So, while he struggles manfully to work out what a wireless internet is, we can instead harken to reports from elsewhere in gamingdom. Specifically Videogaming247's coverage of Ken Levine's bravely-named "BioShock and Awe: Immersing the Gamer in an Alternate World Without Drowning Out the Gameplay" lecture and some quotable interview gobbets they tickled out of him afterwards. Tempestuous Mount Bioshock never quite goes dormant, it seems.
He's not giving away much about whatever his next game is, beyond calling it "pretty crazy ambitious" - though it seems increasingly unlikely it's the rumoured X-COM revamp.
"I’ll say this about it. It’s important to us that whatever we do has the same impact on the gamer that BioShock did. And so, I think that the company’s position on us and what we do is that we’re going to be breaking down barriers and breaking down doors."
He does so like his breaking, that man.
So there's that, but there's also confirmation that he's pretty much done with Bioshock now. The PS3 version and its extra content is nowt to do with him, and he reiterated that he's got little to do with Bioshock 2. Which is good or bad news, depending on your take on the rumours that he's difficult to work with. Which he also addressed:
"Maybe I’m the nicest guy in the world, maybe I’m the biggest asshole. I couldn’t tell you. I think people choose to work with me because I can work with them and make a game called BioShock. Do you like to see people say you’re inconsiderate? No. When it comes to hiring, does it really matter? No.”
Finally, there's a lengthy transcript of his preceding speech, packed with Making O'Bioshock nuggets, thoughts on the upcoming movie adaptation and his claims that it's a game that can change people's lives. Cripes.
Oh - apparently Mrs Ken does get upset about the name-calling, though. Aw.