Ever since Irrational Games shut its doors in February of 2014, all eyes have been trained on Game Director Ken Levine as he looks to pursue a “smaller, more entrepreneurial” project.
As one of the leading creative minds behind the System Shock and BioShock series, Levine’s nebulous new title has garnered a lot of attention across the industry, and while speaking during a charity stream, the former Irrational head honcho offered some fleeting details about the embryonic concept – specifically which games it’ll take inspiration from.
In the words of Levine, his next creative venture has a “broad range of influences,” and as his first-person title begins to come to form, the developer has took cues from franchises such as Dark Souls, Fallout, System Shock and even Monolith’s RPG Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. But rather than releasing as some melange of these established series, Levine noted that the title will be “in the realm” of his previous work, which would put it alongside the themes of steampunk and vehement racism glimpsed in sci-fi gems such as System Shock.
Indeed earlier this year Levine confirmed that his new experience will release as a science fiction game, incorporating artificial intelligence and themes of consciousness into the story.
“I’m so deeply involved in the themes of our new thing, our new game is a science-fiction game,” he said at the time. “It involves themes like artificial intelligence and what it means to be programmed, that you are a thing that was created by programming.”
One caveat worth keeping in mind is that Levine’s post-Irrational debut won’t boast the huge AAA production values of BioShock, and will instead release a smaller title. But what do you think Ken Levine is cooking up?
