Ken Levine On Why He Quit Making BioShock Games--"Scary And Risky And Crazy"

"Levine said BioShock remains “very important” to him and that he feels “incredibly fortunate” to have worked on a franchise that means so much to so many people. He stepped away in part because he “didn't have a lot else to say in that world.” He also reflected on how working on established franchises can be something of a trap, describing how a franchise can define and own a creator if not handled carefully."

"“A franchise is an interesting thing because it can come to own you if you're not careful. It can define you. It was scary and risky and crazy to walk away from a very successful franchise. I didn't [walk away] because I didn't love the franchise,” he said. “I wanted to step away and challenge myself in a different way, and challenge a team in a different way. Things can own you if you hold them too tightly rather than the other way around. I will always love [BioShock] and I can't wait to see what they do with it.”"

"Levine also talked about how, even when he was making BioShock Infinite, he was questioning what a BioShock game even is. He said the franchise has core tenets like being a first-person shooter that takes place in some kind of alternate history. He said the Call of Duty series may be able to jump to a new location with new enemies with each installment, but BioShock--at least as Levine envisioned it--didn't want to go this route. Nor did Levine want to make a BioShock game set in the future, though he said maybe another team could come up with an idea for a future-set BioShock game."

"Levine touched on how he felt “bound by the reasonable expectations fans would have in a BioShock game.” He cannot define what a BioShock game is. This sense of constraint connected to his earlier uncertainty about the franchise’s identity and what it should consistently deliver, including its alternate-history first-person shooter foundation and the limits he saw on changing settings or time periods."

Levine said BioShock remains very important to him and that he feels fortunate to have worked on a franchise that matters to many people. He stepped away because he didn’t have a lot else to say in that world. He warned that a franchise can come to own a creator if held too tightly, defining them and limiting creative freedom. He described walking away from a successful franchise as scary and risky, but he did it to challenge himself and a team in a different way. He also questioned what a BioShock game should be, citing core tenets like being a first-person shooter in an alternate history. He did not want to follow a model like Call of Duty’s frequent reinvention, nor did he want to set a BioShock game in the future, though he left room for other ideas. He also felt bound by reasonable fan expectations and could not fully define what a BioShock game is.

Read at GameSpot