14 DAY TRIAL // Ken Levine, the leader of development studio Irrational Game, has admitted that initially in the development process BioShock Infinite looked like the original, underwater game in the series only translated to use the sky as the main setting.
Speaking to Gamasutra in an interview Ken Levine, who is the leading developer working on Infinite, has talked about the development process for BioShock Infinite and said, “For a long time, it looked like ‘BioShock 1 in the sky”, with Tim Gerritsen adding that the look was close to the art nouveau movement of European art.
The problem with the look was that it was not different enough and did not convey the themes that Levine planned to explore in BioShock Infinite.
Shawn Robertson, who is the lead artist working on the game, says, “It was uncomfortable for us. Ken started literally pushing back the clouds — ‘bluer, bluer!’ We were really uncomfortable with it, our initial reaction is it’s a little bit cartoonish…. but when we saw it in context, that was our a-ha moment.”
The members of the development team believe that the fact that all those involved were searching for a vision that could satisfy them all was crucial to arriving to the current look of the game, which combines a certain BioShock core aesthetic with the style of the late XIX century, all seen through a fantasy tinged mirror.
Infinite is built upon the interplay between two characters, a detective from the Pinkerton agency and his target, Elizabeth.
They need to navigate a floating island together while facing off against two rival factions, with one of the main mechanics of the game being rifts in time and space that seem capable to take them to a number of parallel dimensions.
BioShock Infinite is set to be launched at some point during 2012 and will arrive on the PlayStation 3 from Sony, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PC.