Ken Levin explained why he left a series of Bioshock: “I drove myself into a trap”
In a recent interview with Sacred Symbols, Bioshock Vizioner Ken Levin talked about why he decided to leave the series. Levin emphasized that major success exacerbates stress, and that developers and creators are forced to constantly release large hits that surpass their previous games.
After Bioshock Infinite, the Creator, in fact, felt in a trap of his creations. Levin did not want to feel that he had to compete with himself and increase the bar each time, so he decided to work on another game-the one that took many, many years before it was presented.
Here is an excerpt from what Levin said in an interview:
I know how stupid it can sound. I know that I was very lucky that the game was successful, but this is some kind of trap for you, right. Because you think: "Ok, I have already done this, and now I need to do it again. Irrational co -founder John Cheem joked: "Oh, if we sell a million copies of the game, our life will end there, and we will be absolutely happy. But it was sold much more. Then I thought: "But what if a new part is not sold? There is a bunch of static data – what does it mean? I think this can lead to unhealthy thoughts about competition with oneself. I remember we had the announcement of [Bioshock Infinite] in New York in 2009, and one of my favorite editors told me: "Ken, you know, they all supported you last time, because you were an outsider. This time they crave your blood". I thought he was probably right. This is a natural cycle of things – no one highlighted me. Everyone is rooting for an outsider, and if he achieves great success, then everyone is waiting for him to stumble a little. This is a completely natural thing. I decided, and this was my decision that I needed an even bigger audience. I needed a kind of blockbuster. Therefore, much in Infinite was planned to try to attract an even wider audience. The problem was that I was not quite such a gamer. I rarely play multiplayer games because I am not very good at them, and I like more strange and abstruse games. Mostly I play indie rogalics and strategies, for example, XCOM. I liked Midnight Suns. I am a big fan of Jake Solomon, he is a genius. I think in this I have become a little my worst enemy, and one of the reasons why I stopped making Bioshock games after that is what is that. Okay, you can’t rely on something. You can’t compete with yourself again. This is wrong and this is not a healthy way to live your life. So I didn’t want to make another Bioshock game. I have nothing against Bioshock, just working on it was not very fun, because I seemed to have created a trap for myself.