Ken Levine
Ken Levine (born September 1, 1966 in Flushing , New York ) is an American computer game developer and author . He was the creative director and co-founder of the Irrational Games developer studio . His best-known works include the award-winning stealth game Dark Project: Der Meisterdieb (1998) and the multiple award-winning action titles System Shock 2 (1999), BioShock (2007) and BioShock Infinite (2013).
Career
Levine comes from a Jewish family in New York, but describes himself as a secular Jew and atheist . He studied drama at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie . He then moved to Los Angeles to pursue a film career, where he wrote two screenplays. In 1995 he was hired as a game designer by the Cambridge, Massachusetts- based development studio Looking Glass Studios . At Looking Glass, Levine worked with designer Doug Church on the background scenario and design of Dark Project (original title: Thief ).
In 1997, following his work on Dark Project , Levine left Looking Glass with his two colleagues Jonathan Chey and Robert Fermier to jointly found the development studio Irrational Games. The studio's first release was the RPG / shooter genre mix System Shock 2 in 1999 , a direct follow-up to Looking Glass' 1993 sci-fi title System Shock . Levine worked as lead writer and designer on the highly critically acclaimed title received. Irrational's next project was Freedom Force , a tactical real-time role-playing game that emerged from Ken Levines and Robb Waters' predilection for the so-called Silver Age of Comics (1956-1970). After the first Freedom Force developed Irrational Tribes: Vengeance and SWAT 4 , on which Levine worked as a screenwriter and executive producer respectively.
Although Tribes: Vengeance , SWAT 4 and Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich was published every year between 2004 and 2005, and Irrational also worked on the preproduction of the first-person shooter BioShock . The game about a dystopian underwater world was conceived as a spiritual successor to System Shock 2 , for whose scenario Levine was strongly influenced by the objectivism theory of the Russian-American philosopher Ayn Rand . The game went through several revisions and Irrational was taken over by its publisher Take 2 Interactive in the course of development . When the game was released in August 2007, it received high critical acclaim and also became a huge commercial success. BioShock and its successor BioShock 2 sold together over eight million times. After BioShock was released , Levine worked as creative director on BioShock Infinite , a continuation of the BioShock series dealing with the subject of American Exceptionalism and set in the fictional flying city of Columbia in 1912. The title was published in March 2013 and, like the first series title, received great critical acclaim.
In February 2014 Levine surprisingly announced the dismissal of almost all Irrational employees except for 15 people. Levine justified this by saying that in future he would prefer to work in a smaller team on action-oriented titles that were to be distributed digitally . Afterwards, former employees reported on the difficult collaboration with Levine. He was described as extremely perfectionist and obsessed with detail, who was able to lead his employees to top performance by allowing them a lot of creative freedom and strong leadership, but could also hurt them through harsh criticism. Levine's project management of BioShock Infinite was also inadequate, development was slow for a long time due to numerous rounds of correction. It was not until Jordan Thomas switched from 2k Marin to Irrational and Rod Fergusson joined as Vice President of Development, who supported Levine in organizing the project from 2012, that the work was managed in a regular manner.
Levine was in 2013 by Warner Bros. commissioned the screenplay for the remake of the film Escape to the 23rd century ( Logan's Run post). However, in 2015 he left the project. In 2016 Levine was involved in the development of an interactive new edition of the television series The Twilight Zone , which, however, was never realized. Levine is currently working with his current development team, Ghost Story Games, on a still unannounced single-player game with a focus on narration.
Ludography
- Looking Glass Studios
- 1998: Dark Project: The Master Thief (co-designer and story concepts)
- Lumis Studios
- 1999: Wall Street Tycoon (co-designer)
- Reality bytes
- 1999: Dark Vengeance (Co-Designer)
- Irrational Games
- 1999: System Shock 2 (lead designer and story)
- 2002: Freedom Force (Story)
- 2004: Tribes: Vengeance (Story)
- 2005: SWAT 4 (Executive Producer)
- 2005: Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich (Story)
- 2006: SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate (Executive Producer)
- 2007: BioShock (Creative Director and Story)
- 2013: BioShock Infinite (Creative Director and Story)
Awards
The editorial team of the 1UP game network voted Levine 2007 Human of the Year for his contributions to the field of narration in the game field. In 2009 he was named one of the 100 best game developers of all time by the game magazine IGN . In the same year, the industry magazine Gamasutra also counted him among the top 20 computer game authors. In 2010, Levine was listed as one of the best storytellers of the decade by game magazine Game Informer . In 2013 Levine received the Golden Joystick Award for his life's work.
literature
- The Art of BioShock Infinite by Splitter , 2014, ISBN 978-3-86869-760-5
Web links
- Ken Levine at MobyGames (English)
- Ken Levine at the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Ken Levine on the success of BioShock
- Gamasutra interview: Ken Levine on studio culture
- GameStar.ru Interview: Ken Levine "In the Game Industry Will Not Be a Tarantino"
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cody Mello-Klein: BioShock's Jewish Roots Run Deep on kotaku.com (accessed July 28, 2018)
- ^ Jillian Scharr: Levine '88 discusses career as game developer ( English ) In: The Miscellany News . Vassar College . February 24, 2010. Archived from the original on March 13, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
- ↑ Collin Moore: PAX 2008 Keynote ( English ) In: Irrational Games Insider . Irrational Games . August 30, 2008. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
- ↑ Feedback LIVE! At PAX East 2011 With Ken Levine ( English ) In: G4 TV . March 16, 2011. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
- ↑ Omni: Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich Q&A with Ken Levine ( English ) In: The Armchair Empire . March 10, 2005. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
- ↑ Studio ( English ) In: Official company website . Irrational Games . Retrieved November 25, 2012.
- ↑ Collin Moore: From the Vault - The BioShock Pitch ( English ) In: Irrational Games Insider . Irrational Games . May 20, 2010. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
- ↑ Jamie Davey: Take-Two: Grand Theft Auto franchise sells over 100 million units, GTAIV accounts for 20m ( English ) In: Strategy Informer . March 10, 2011. Archived from the original on March 13, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
- ↑ Chris Plante: The final years of Irrational Games, according to those who were there ( English ) In: Polygon . Vox Media . Retrieved March 7, 2014.
- ↑ BioShock 'creator Ken Levine to pen' Logan's Run 'remake for Warner Bros. ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Hitflix , July 31, 2013, accessed July 21, 2014 (in English)
- ↑ Ken Levine no longer writing Logan's Run, but is working on another movie on polygon.com (accessed March 4, 2018)
- ↑ Ken Levine's Interactive Twilight Zone Movie Might Not Happen on ign.com (accessed March 4, 2018)
- ↑ BioShock Creator Ken Levine's New Studio Is Named Ghost Story on ign.com (accessed March 4, 2018)
- ↑ 1UP editorial team: 2007 1UP Network Editors' Choice Awards ( English ) In: 1UP . News Corp . January 30, 2008. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
- ↑ The Top 100 Game Creators of All Time ( English ) In: IGN . News Corp . February 2009. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
- ^ Bonnie Ruberg: The Gamasutra 20: Top Game Writers ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . February 20, 2009. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
- ↑ Best Storytellers of the Decade . In: Game Informer . No. 212, December 2010, p. 70.
- ↑ Ken Levine being honored at Golden Joystick Awards on polygon.com (accessed July 28, 2018)
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Levine, Ken |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American computer game developer |
DATE OF BIRTH | September 1, 1966 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Flushing , New York |