The inside story on how Irrational Games created the critically acclaimed current generation game using new technology.
“We're talking about a world where entire buildings are moving around in the sky, you're fighting AIs at 90 miles per hour on Sky-Lines as you dangle high above the earth, and racing through vicious weather to rescue Elizabeth while battling your way through hordes of enemies determined to stop you at any cost,” said Kline. “Right from the outset we realized that this was going to be a monumental undertaking on the tech side, but decided it was a challenge that we simply had to take on in order to give gamers the kind of quality experience they've come to expect from Irrational Games and BioShock.”
As the raves from fans and the most nitpicky gaming press have expressed, Columbia is unlike any game world that we’ve ever seen. The “Floating Worlds” technology Irrational created keeps players on the edge of their seats at all times, since the very ground beneath you can fall out of the sky at any moment. Add in the armed mechanical enemies like the Gatling gun-armed Motorized Patriots and the giant Songbird and this is likely the least of players’ worries as they progress through the 12 hours of story.
The open world looks gorgeous, or even unreal, and its bright open outdoor spaces are in stark contrast to the dark and gloomy, claustrophobic environments from the original BioShock. Kline said his rendering team created a new deferred renderer based as well as a proprietary per-pixel dynamic relighting scheme that allows characters and dynamic objects to receive global illumination. It’s this type of new technology that brings this unique interactive world to gamers, creating a canvas on which Levine and his team have painted an intriguing story with many layers. With his creation now complete, except for the upcoming DLC, Levine is looking forward to the future of game development.
“What excites me are the unknowns,” said Levine. “I think a lot of people would get very nervous about change, but I think it keeps us on our toes. We have to keep changing. When I started this I was making half-million-dollar budget PC games and now we’re making these big-budget PC and console titles, and that may change again. Who knows what the future may bring. Maybe we’ll have to readjust and rethink how we do things, but I find that exciting, and I love understanding how the space is changing. I play every kind of game and if you think today is going to be tomorrow, or you think yesterday is going to be tomorrow, you have a real problem. Tomorrow is tomorrow and none of us really know what it is, but that can either cause you anxiety or you can enjoy it.”
Gamers are certainly enjoying BioShock Infinite, which has become one of the best-reviewed Unreal Engine games of all time. With this tech at its very core, it’s the creative minds of Irrational Games that have pushed both storytelling and the ability to create brilliant new worlds to new heights, literally. BioShock Infinite showcases why current generation consoles can still bring amazing experiences to life with the perfect marriage of technology and creativity.
