Ken Levine on "Stupid" Game Stories, Continued

Keep it Simple

While BioShock's game world and concepts (Objectivism, for example) are very different than your average action first-person shooter games, the plot is fairly straightforward. Like a lot of games, the playable character is mostly anonymous and shrouded in mystery. In the case of BioShock specifically, the main character has no memory of his past. The game's narrative is structured into three simple parts. The first act involves players searching for a way out of Rapture. The second act focuses on the player's mission to kill Rapture founder Andrew Ryan. And the final act deals with players confronting and defeating the treacherous Fontaine. There are some twists and turns along the way, but the basic approach is simple and, most importantly, comprehensible to the gamers that have no interest in the details of the story.

Levine referenced "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to describe this approach. "If you stop Indiana Jones in any scene in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,'" and ask him what's he's doing, he'll say he's looking for the Ark," Levine said.

Let the Story Evolve

Levine showed a few slides during his presentation that provided some insight into how BioShock changed over time from the earliest sketches and storyboards to the final product. For example, the "Little Sisters" weren't originally genetically mutated girls running around with over-sized syringes. Instead, they were glowing, slimy sea slugs (which produce the super stem cells for genetic mutation known as "Adam"). But as Levine explained to the audience, the Big Daddy-Little Sister relationship made no sense. Why would the Big Daddy feel the need to protect a little sea slug? So the design team shifted gears and came up with a new Little Sister, which was a mutated dog with wheels for hind legs. The idea was to make the Little Sister types more sympathetic, but the early sketch of the mutant dog elicited laughter from the audience. "It is what it is," Levine joked. Fortunately, the development team for BioShock team finally settled on making the Little Sisters young girls, which helped simplify the relationship with the Big Daddies and also made the players' moral choices - harvest or save the Little Sisters? - much more difficult and emotionally affecting.

Don't Sacrifice Gameplay

Throughout the development process, Levine and the 2K Boston/2K Australia teams constantly revised and reduced BioShock's story to help the narrative and plot better fit the gameplay. In fact, Levine said the third act of BioShock failed on a story level. But on the other hand, the third act had some of the best gameplay of the entire experience (thanks to the player using a Big Daddy suit). Levine indicated part of the reason BioShock's story faltered at the end was because the twist regarding Fontaine, Ryan and the main character was revealed and the mystery was solved. At this point, Levine emphasized how presenting players with questions was more fun for them than forcing the players to answer them. "Think of 'Lost'? What is their entire stock in trade? It's asking questions they don't answer," Levine said. "What is'Cloverfield'? It's Godzilla with less information."

The Story Should Come Late

Levine's final and perhaps most important point was that video game stories should come late into the development of the game. In the case of BioShock, Levine said the final story for the game didn't come together until about eight months before the title's launch last August. And part of the process involved letting the gameplay dictate the narrative. Levine said it was crucial to be open to new ideas and to let the game's design tell him how the story should go.

"If you feel the narrative of BioShock is successful," he said, "then it's because we were able to make these changes so late in the game." Therefore, delivering a script for a game ahead of the game's development will cause problems because the two won't be integrated.

In the end, Levine said game narratives are a new medium and that writers need to be flexible in the way they approach the story. He left the audience with three points of advice. The first was respect the audience; don't force the story on all players and make the narrative in a way that can please a diverse crowd. The second was trust the mystery; not all questions have to be answered. And the third was to empower the gamer to experience the game and its story the way he or she wants. "[If] you give him that little bit of trust," Levine said, "he will give it back to you by engaging in your story, and engaging in your game world."

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