BioShock Infinite

THE BUZZ: Ken Levine has revealed that he is keeping some parts of the story from his team in order to properly gauge their response to various plot twists.

Speaking in the latest issue of PSM3 Levine said, ”I want to preserve it and observe the team, so I can see their reactions. Keeping people virgins to that content is really important because you never get that reaction from someone a second time.”

However, this hasn’t proved popular with some members of the team: ”I think (it’s) a frustration on the team here. I don’t want them to know the game story, and they want a document from me that tells them the whole game story. I’m not going to do that. That’s not the way we present stuff to the gamer. We don’t ship a document. The story is only relevant in terms of how you present it, not the details of what it is,” he revealed. “I don’t want to send out a document which is the game story, because to me that’s not the game story – that’s an outline or a blueprint for us to build the game story from.”

EGM’s TAKE: Keeping parts of the story from the team can be both a good and a bad idea. On the one hand you have the shock and awe from plot twists that allow the team to put real emotion into their work, as it’s the first time they are hearing it as opposed to be it being drilled into them. Although the opposite can occur, the team can become annoyed at being kept in the dark or it could increase the pressure of development not knowing things in advance. The move appears to be working with what’s been shown so far, but we’ll have to wait for the finished product to pass judgement.

Is this a good way to go about development? Leave your thoughts below.