14 DAY TRIAL // Ken Levine might be best known for his work on video games with a linear story and progression system like BioShock and System Shock, but the veteran developer is determined to make his next project, which does not yet have an official name, an experience that allows players to replay it often and with very different results.
NeoGAF quotes him as saying that the titles he used to create are no longer viable because players are interested in getting more content for the money that they pay, which means only a small number of experiences manage to generate solid sales.
Levine says he is working with a small team to make sure that each element of the game allows players to deploy different approaches, allowing them to dictate the pace of progress and the way the story is molded around them.
The game maker has previously said that he is planning an approach that can be described as narrative LEGO, with the studio trying to find the best way to configure the pieces initially while also putting together interesting configurations for the player community to aim for.
Ken Levine states, "The thing we're working on is a small-scale open-world game [...] because if you want to give the player the agency to drive the experience, that fights against the linear nature of the games we made before like BioShock and BioShock Infinite."
The game creator also says that his team will have to deal with a range of issues associated with this new approach and that there's no guarantee that their narrative-driven title will be easy for gamers to understand or to play.
At the moment, the new Ken Levine team does not have a clear story for its project and even the core mechanics are still in a state of flux.
BioShock remains linked to Take Two
Levine is working with a small team because he is no longer interested in the big scale development that took place at Irrational Games team that he was previously leading.
Given that he is still experimenting with new ideas the actual video game will probably only be announced later in 2016 and might only be offered to gamers at some point in 2018 or even later.
The three BioShock video games have been praised for their unique combination of weapon and plasmid combat and for the way they managed to create unique narrative moments by allowing gamers to explore locations like Columbia and Rapture.
The rights to the series are still linked to publisher Take Two, but no official announcement has been made about its future, although executives have suggested that new installment will be introduced at some point in the coming years.
It's possible that 2K Marin will handle development duties, given that they created BioShock 2, and that the game will explore an entirely new location to avoid comparisons with previous installments.
Many fans see the Minerva's Den downloadable content pack for that title as the most interesting narrative moment in the history of the franchise, which means a return to Rapture is also a possibility.