Sun 14 Oct 2007
Dang, spending ten days in Japan takes twenty to recover… That is, I meant to post this BioShock postmortem video a while ago…
Inspired by prolific video taking action in the San Diego and New York IGDA chapters, the Montreal chapter got its act together and recorded Chris Kline’s insightful recounting of BioShock’s gestation back at the September 11th chapter meeting. In short, I was utterly amazed at how clueless/directionless the game was from the start and how long it took for all the various aspects to materialize, and then come to together as a cohesive whole.
If you don’t want to watch the full 60-minute lecture + 20-minute Q&A, the Montreal chapter also whipped up a summary report (along with Chris’ PPT file).
Related, Clint Hocking has written up an in depth critique of BioShock, looking at how the game ultimately fails to fully marry ludic and narrative elements.
October 17th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
“I was utterly amazed at how clueless/directionless the game was from the start and how long it took for all the various aspects to materialize, and then come to together as a cohesive whole.”
You will find, if you poll enough people in the industry, that most game projects follow this process. It is the source of most, if not all, the industry’s ills.
I will say this for Bioshock; the art and sound direction deserves accolades. Wonder how frustrating it was to get there, from the artist’ POV?