Bioshock creator’s next game reportedly ‘in development hell’ at Ghost Story Games

Bioshock creator’s next game reportedly ‘in development hell’ at Ghost Story Games
Ben Borthwick Updated on by

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Ken Levine’s Ghost Story Games’ first title seems to be suffering a troubled development, and isn’t close to a release despite being in production since 2017, according to a recent report.

A report from Bloomberg paints a worrying picture at the studio, which was first established in 2017 following Irrational Games’ dissolution in 2014. It says that the team’s first project has gone through ‘numerous reboots and changes in direction’ according to 15 current and former employees, many of whom have departed since production began.

Some of these employees point the finger at Levine’s management style, saying it has ‘led to burnout’ and ’caused a lot of pain’. One of those named is Mike Snight, who joined the company in 2014 but quit along with ‘half of the original team’ some time later. He cited Levine’s creative processes, saying “When it continuously goes in cycles and you don’t align anymore, you kind of get tired of being part of that. I wasn’t really happy anymore.”

Apparently issues have also arisen with Levine trying to ‘make a game as ambitious as Bioshock with a fraction of the staff’. Another former employee, Giovanni Pasteris is also quoted in the report. “The ideas and ambitions were great. But the scope just grew and grew without concern for the team’s ability to get it done by our fall 2017 deadline. Ken wanted to make a triple-A game with a ‘budget’ team size. It was never going to happen.”

Another roadblock is apparently the ‘narrative Lego concept’ of making the game adapt to player choice is clashing with being able to offer a cinematic narrative. As Andres Gonzalesz says “The type of game being explored does not match well with the creative process being used.”

The Ghost Story Games team are apparently optimistic that the game will get finished, eventually. However, the report says it’s still at least a couple of years away. Take Two and Levine himself have declined to comment on the report at the time of writing. The project still doesn’t have a name or release formats either, so it seems we’ll be waiting a little while yet to hear more.