BioShock Developer Talks About First Looking Glass Game Design Job

The original BioShock, created by Irrational Games when they were known as 2K Boston, has been praised for its narrative and characters design and recent statements from the leader of the studio have suggested that his own background in screenwriting might have something to do with that.

Speaking to IndustryGamers, Ken Levine, who is the leading developer at Irrational Games, said, “I had a couple of false starts with screenwriting and computer consulting and graphic design, all these different things. And then it occurred to me – I was reading NextGen magazine, which they don’t publish any more – and I saw their ads in the back for jobs at game companies and one ad that really stood out to me was an ad for a company called Looking Glass, which also doesn’t exist anymore unfortunately.”

He added, “And there was a game designer job and I was like, ‘Game designer. Well, that sounds good. Let me try to do that.’ And I applied for a job and they called me up and they gave it to me. I got in fairly quickly.”

Levine says that it was the first time that he understood what game development meant and quickly understood that this was what he was interested in doing for the rest of his career.

The focus on narrative will return in the upcoming BioShock Infinite, which ditches the underwater Rapture and moves the action to Columbia, a flying island that was initially intended as a show of the technological edge of the United States, but it is now used for more nefarious purposes.

Players will be cast in the role of a detective who needs to get in and out with a very special package, a superpowered girl called Elizabeth.

BioShock Infinite is set to be launched during 2012 and will be playable on the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 and the PC.