Ken Levine's New Game: 'Substantially More Ambitious' Than BioShock

Coming from another developer, I might hear that remark and call it hubris. But coming from the man who tied Ayn Rand, Citizen Kane and fantastic gameplay together - and then built it all at the bottom of the sea - I'm inclined to believe it.

Actually, I'm inclined to salivate.

Listen to Ken describe his attitude going into 2K Boston's newest venture:

"When we thought about this project, we accounted for the fact that hiring the staff that we needed to hire would take some time.

And when we thought about the shipping date of the project... We needed a certain kind of length for the title, because we had a scope and ambition in mind which is more ambitious than anything we've ever done. Even more, substantially more ambitious than BioShock. And we knew that was not going to happen overnight."

Gamasutra's six-page interview with Ken Levine goes way beyond these few crumbs of information about his next project - he delves into the philosophy of managing a development team (and, really, about management in general), then exposes some of the most interesting comments on console vs. PC development I've heard:

And we have a lot of younger guys coming in, newer guys coming in, who don't know the classics -- and the challenge for them is saying, "Go read the classics! Go play System Shock 1 or 2, or go play Deus Ex. Go play these classics." But then let's take the lessons we learn from those things, and bring them into the modern day.

And I think it's not an accident. You look at the great developers now? Of console games? Bungie, and Lionhead. You look at BioWare; you look at Bethesda; and where do they all come from? They come from the PC side. Valve? They come from the PC side.

Because, I think the PC developers, working in the space they worked in, they were probably in a lot of ways -- not all ofthem, I mean, Shigeru Miyamoto, clearly, I think, is probably the most innovative person who ever lived, in the gaming space -- but, more innovative, pound for pound, than their console counterparts.

Check out the interview for more bits of Ken Levine wisdom - he's an intelligent leader with a reliable perspective and a good mouth on him. And we can't wait to see the substance of his new ambition.

Ken Levine on Studio Culture: From Looking Glass to 2K Boston [Gamasutra]