“I don’t think it would work very well,” admits Ken Levine, who says he feels no envy toward the team behind BioShock 4 and believes they’re stronger without his involvement. With Judas, he’s finally getting the chance to make the kind of game he always envisioned back at Irrational.

When Judas was first revealed during the 2022 The Game Awards, one of the biggest questions surrounding it was whether Ken Levine was essentially creating another BioShock in all but name. Years after his high-profile departure from the franchise and the closure of Irrational Games, his new studio, Ghost Story Games, has returned with a first-person science fiction adventure that clearly carries echoes of his earlier work.

Speculation about a new BioShock only intensified this conversation — but Levine himself seems completely at peace with it. Speaking with MrMattyPlays, he explained that he has no involvement with the upcoming sequel, not even as a consultant, and that he’s genuinely pleased to see it progress without his input. “I think the thing is, me coming in and just kind of saying A, B, C… that’s not how games are made. You want to be there every day. You can have a great idea and then the next day when you think about it, you’re the biggest idiot in the world. So I don’t think you can just be like, ‘Oh, let’s call Ken and he’s going to come in and do a kick-ass punch.’ I don’t think it would work very well.”

Why Levine values absolute creative control

Levine also made it clear that he has no issue with others continuing his legacy, recalling how exhausted he felt after stepping away following BioShock 2. “It was a lot harder when BioShock 2 happened because I wanted to go in a different direction, and for a while it wasn’t clear if that was going to happen. There were disagreements about it.”

While it’s easy to draw parallels between Judas and BioShock, Levine emphasized in the interview that his new project goes far beyond a spiritual successor. The thematic DNA of his past work is still there, but he describes Judas as deeper, more replayable, and filled with branching possibilities that BioShock never offered. Most importantly, he now has full creative authority over the project. “To be honest, and very selfishly, with Judas, I have the final say,” Levine explained, referring to the many compromises he had to make during the development of BioShock Infinite.

That same creative freedom, however, is one reason the project has taken so long to finish. A 2017 report by Jason Schreier described the game’s development as turbulent, with Levine frequently changing priorities and shifting the direction of the project. In that sense, Judas shares something with the upcoming BioShock, which has also faced production challenges — so much so that Rod Fergusson was recently brought back to help guide the team and steer development toward completion.

Source: 3djuegos