By: Jon Christensen on August 10th, 2009 pm31 4:42 pm
A new job listing has appeared over at 2K Boston’s classified section. The posting is rather interesting because the developers behind the original BioShock are looking for candidates for “an unannounced shooter.” Not only that, the person hired will be responsible for some sort of multiplayer level designing. At the same time, the company isn’t looking for some generic online experience, but something more groundbreaking than previous multiplayer videogames. “No applicants will be considered who aren’t able to demonstrate they’ve got the skills to build an industry-changing multiplayer design,” is posted on the job listing.
What could it be? Well of course we’re not too sure. But the the creative director over at the studio, Ken Levine, teased the idea of the company’s next project.
“We had a scope and ambition in mind which is more ambitious than anything we’ve ever done. Even more, substantially more ambitious than BioShock,” said Levine last month.
So this is what we know so far. 2K Boston is working on a ambitious shooter, with industry-changing multiplayer aspects which has yet to be announced.
You had me at “hello” 2K Boston.
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By: Jon Christensen on July 13th, 2009 pm31 10:37 pm
BioShock‘s designer Ken Levine admitted when he was younger, he was a little too obsessed with the Legend of Zelda and it even ended a relationship with an ex-girlfriend. When Levine graduated from college, he moved into an apartment in San Francisco. He then met a girl who was a few years younger, who overtime became his ‘better-half’. Her being younger meant when the summer ended, she would have to move back to school.
When the last day came, Levine started to play the Legend of Zelda and quickly became engrossed in the adventure game. So much, he forgot to pay attention to the girl.
“After I graduated from college, I moved to an apartment San Francisco with first super-serious girlfriend. She was a couple of years younger than me, so at the end of the summer, she was set to go back to school. On our last day together in San Fran, I for some reason picked up The Legend of Zelda. As she stood by waiting for some romantic gesture to happen on our last day living together, she was instead treated to watching me obsessively plow through Hyrule for around 15 hours. By the time the cab showed up to take her to the airport, I realized if I had any hope of keeping her as my girlfriend, it was time to shut off the NES. Needless to say, we didn’t spend the next summer together.”
You know, I completely understand why he chose the game over her. Zelda was and still is badass, plus she was a serious girl from San Francisco. I would pick the game over her any day. And guess what, her heart break is our gain. I’m pretty sure Zelda influenced Mr. Levine in someway.
Source: rockpapershotgun (Pic)
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By: Jon Christensen on September 16th, 2008 am30 1:40 am
Alright, we’ve got semi bad news. One of our favorite designers today and the mastermind behind Bioshock-Ken Levine, broke some awful news while speaking with OXM.
Flashback: Not to long ago, we were all told that 2K Marin was working on BioShock 2. Before fanboys were outraged, Take-Two promised us that Ken Levine was still going to head the project in some capacity.
Present: Someone apparently forgot to ask Mr. Levine, because according to him, it seems like he’s barley involved:
“I am, at best, sort of informally engaged in certain scenes, a couple of things in it. But I’m not really working on it at a material level. Melissa, who was the producer on Bioshock, is over there running that group now. It’s going to be their thing, their project. I think they’re cogniscent of the reaction and people’s feelings on the first game. I’m not going to be substantially involved.”
Although, this isn’t a huge surprise to us, considering last month Levine said his next project was going to be “very, very different [than BioShock].” If he’s already working on a project, wouldn’t it be kind of hard to create BioShock 2?
If you’re a fan of the series, I wouldn’t give up hope just yet — 2K Marin is made up from a bunch of developers from 2K Boston/2K Australia. Because most of them would have worked on the first BioShock and the port of the PS3 version, they must be familiar enough to create a similar atmosphere. The one thing that does concern me about Ken Levine not working on the title, is the story. And we all know that was the best part of BioShock.
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