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Ken Levine goes behind the scenes on System Shock 2

Mike Schramm — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:00:00 EST

Irrational Games continues to empty out its vault of memories and secrets over on its newly commissioned blog -- Ken Levine and the crew are revealing so much old insider information over there you have to wonder how long they'll keep it up. Today, it's "what might have been" on System Shock 2, as Levine relates what they would have liked to do with the SHODAN showdown game, given more time and resources. The game was originally designed as an Apocalypse Now-style assassination in space, and it included some zero-G gameplay ideas (that sound pretty similar to what Dead Space pulled off years later). The ending also had to be rewritten, as the cinematic that Levine got back didn't have much to do with the script that he had originally put together.

And perhaps the most disturbing factoid is that the entire game was created in just 900 square feet of office space, full of overworked (and smelly) game developers. Wandering around the Von Braun was scary and all, but spending 11 months in a tiny room full of developers on crunch? No wonder Levine sounds ecstatic he survived.

Ken Levine goes behind the scenes on System Shock 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Irrational revisits scrapped BioShock, System Shock 2 features

Ludwig Kietzmann — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:20:00 EST

Irrational Games' new community-oriented website continues to impress us with its candid peeks at the inner workings of the studio and interesting developments that may have eluded the public eye. In an update posted today, Shawn Elliott examines five features that were cut from Irrational's beloved pair of 'Shocks.

"In one fell 30-second swoop, we could have prevented about 80 percent of the complaints, or at least redirected them toward Xerxes and the Many, and away from the development team," says designer Dorian Hart on the infamous ire directed at System Shock 2's degrading weaponry. And how would said swoop combat arguments about the unrealistic, accelerated rate of weapon malfunction? An in-game audio log "would have explained that as part of their takeover, the Many had released a special corrosive gas into the Von Braun that damaged weapons but was harmless to organic creatures."

If that seems maddeningly simple, consider "Nav-Bot," a mechanical fellow intended to guide lost players through BioShock's city of Rapture. Designers had several concerns -- what happens if the helpful bot gets stuck in a scrap with enemies? -- but the player's familiarity with a plain ol' map dealt the death blow. "In the end, someone (maybe Jon Chey at Irrational Games Australia) made the executive decision that we needed to suck up the extra work and make a map," notes technical director Chris Kline. "Thus died Nav-Bot." May he rust in peace.

Irrational revisits scrapped BioShock, System Shock 2 features originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2K Boston is bringing back Irrational Games name, legacy

Mike Schramm — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST

[Image credit: Game Informer]

Halo: Reach isn't the only story that you'll find in next month's Game Informer -- the magazine's blog has also revealed that the developer known for the past two years as 2K Boston will be returning to its roots as Irrational Games. The change isn't unexpected, as we've seen hints of the old identity coming back to the spotlight for a while. But apparently the company is going full force with the "renewed commitment" to the legacy: it'll be kicking off a new website soon (in about three days and 16 hours as of this writing, according to the countdown now running on IrrationalGames.com) that will contain lots of community features and information about Irrational's past -- including fan favorites like System Shock 2 and Freedom Force, in addition to 2K Boston's BioShock and future titles.

Meanwhile, the company has a new logo -- spiffy! -- and the next Game Informer will have more information about the studios' history and why it made the choice to turn back the clock on its identity. We look forward to reading all about it.

2K Boston is bringing back Irrational Games name, legacy originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ken Levine: Next project will cost 'a fair amount of money'

Christopher Grant — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:00:00 EST

During his Q&A at the MIT Business in Gaming conference, Ken Levine revealed the cost of some of his projects and hinted at the cost (and scale!) of 2K Boston's latest, still secret, project.

"Freedom Force was $2 million; System Shock 2 was $600K, it was nothing. BioShock, I think it's been published, was $15 million," Levine said. When we asked how much, on that scale, his new project would cost, Levine teased, "It's more than System Shock 2."

He elaborated, "It's a fair amount of money. Our goal is to build experiences." Referring to the craft of building experiences, Levine noted that BioShock "didn't have the best shooting compared to Call of Duty" and "it didn't have the most revolutionary AI." What it did have was an "experience [gamers] couldn't get anywhere else." It was something "that people can look at it and say, 'I can't have this experience anywhere else.'"

Here's the thing: "Generally those experiences cost a fair amount of money to make," Levine says. Of course, he can't say how much - "because I would probably get fired before I walked out the door" - but he assures us "It won't be the cheapest product ever made." So we've got a ballpark here: Somewhere between $600K and infinity.

Ken Levine: Next project will cost 'a fair amount of money' originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 08 May 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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