Assassins Kill BioShock Renaissance Edition

[Karloff]

Assassins Kill BioShock Renaissance Edition

Enough content has been cut from BioShock: Inifinite to make five or six other games.

You can blame Ezio Auditore da Firenze, says Irrational Games' Bill Gardner, for a distinct lack of Renaissance-flavored BioShock [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122153-BioShock-Mockumentary-Separates-Truth-From-Legend]. There were plans afoot to take the BioShock franchise in a direction da Vinci would have approved of, but when the Assassin's Creed franchise staked its claim to the winding streets of Florence, and beyond, Irrational had to look elsewhere for new setting ideas.

That wasn't the only thing to go, during the development process. "We cut off enough things to make five or six full games," says Gardner, adding that the writer's imperative - cut, cut, and then cut some more - meant that, over time, a lot of interesting things got the chop, either because they didn't work or because there just wasn't room. This wasn't limited to story threads; weapons, characters, whole levels had to be culled, to make the game work as Irrational intended.

"Ultimately you've got to look at the final piece," says Gardner, "a year later the audience is not going to care, and eventually you don't care."

BioShock: Infinite will get its time in the sun on March 26th, for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Source: Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2013/2/18/3994648/bioshock-infinite-had-enough-cut-from-it-to-make-five-or-six-full]


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[Smooth Operator]

Not to worry guys the season pass is already up for grabs on Steam, get it while it's hot!

 

[Daystar Clarion]

'Enough cut content to make 5 or 6 full games.'

5 or 6 good games?

Because that's really the question here

 

[MercurySteam]

People actually want to buy DLC if it is the same quality as the rest of the game. Perhaps we may see the best of the cut content as future DLC?

 

[Marik Bentusi]

Valve's approach to QA, eh? Interested in how that'll work out for them.

 

[DrunkenElfMage]

Now I can appreciate that actually, it takes a good amount of balls for a game developer to look at something that has taken so many hours of development to make and decide that if it didn't work it needed to go. It seems like the developer knows that gamers appreciate quality over quantity.

This seems to be a film like way of making a video game; shoot as much film as possible and cut what isn't needed later. Your film maker origins are showing, Kevin Levine.

 

[VanQ]

I can smell DLC all over this. "Hey guys, remember those parts of the game we said we cut? Good news! For just $39.99 you can get a season pass to download them all as DLC!"

 

[Ishal]

I can smell DLC all over this. "Hey guys, remember those parts of the game we said we cut? Good news! For just $39.99 you can get a season pass to download them all as DLC!"

All this talk of DLC... it could happen, but eh... I'm not so sure. They way these guys usually work, if its cut because it didn't fit into the story, then its cut for good.

We'll see what happens.

 

[AT God]

I wish game companies would throw all their extra, not quality assured cut content up online. If they had a build for a renaissance world, put it up so modders can make it work.

This makes console players kinda suffer but maybe one day they will be blessed with open platform support.

Also talking about cutting content doesn't seem like a good idea, its gonna make people look for areas that seem out of place or have content missing.

I really hope they put the cut parts together for a DLC, but a one time DLC instead of this season pass crap I have refused to participate in.

 

[Sylveria]

Also talking about cutting content doesn't seem like a good idea, its gonna make people look for areas that seem out of place or have content missing.

I agree on that. This is one of those things you say after the game has been announced and was well received. Now if the game is short, we're going to blame cut content. If the game gets any DLC, we're going to assume it was the content they cut.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Now I can appreciate that actually, it takes a good amount of balls for a game developer to look at something that has taken so many hours of development to make and decide that if it didn't work it needed to go. It seems like the developer knows that gamers appreciate quality over quantity.

Gearbox made these same claims about A:CM.

OT: This seems like a lot of it's almost release time hype and fluff. Nothing more.

 

[Beautiful End]

I smell some DLC cookin...

At any rate, so who cares if AC was the first one to use the Reinassance theme? First, that was only AC2 mostly and that came out ages ago. And second, they can still use the same theming as long as they do it their own way! If all developers stopped making games because of that reason we would have no games at all.

 

[Kapol]

I wish game companies would throw all their extra, not quality assured cut content up online. If they had a build for a renaissance world, put it up so modders can make it work.

It's likely that they aren't talking about already produced content. He's likely referring to things that they've built up concepts for, and maybe some preliminary models at most, but never actually finished due to feeling it wouldn't work in the full game. It's highly unlikely that they'd get to the point they'd have any finished content and then just decide it doesn't fit.

Hence why all these claims they'll likely be put up as DLC seem unfounded to me. Is it possible? Yes, but then those were likely planned as DLC or decided to be before they were produced. Worst, but also more possible, case is that they did build some of the models or begin working on some things like weapons or levels, then decided they didn't want it in the main game, so they decided to put it into a future DLC rather than just scrap the many hours of work.

Also:

"Ultimately you've got to look at the final piece," says Gardner, "a year later the audience is not going to care, and eventually you don't care."

This is likely one of the most depressing quotes I've heard from a game developer. I guess it doesn't surprise me mind you. But the idea that they put all this time and effort into something, then eventually just stop caring about it... I dunno. It makes me sad. And the developers that don't care are the ones who churn out the worst games normally.

 

[Woodsey]

I can smell DLC all over this. "Hey guys, remember those parts of the game we said we cut? Good news! For just $39.99 you can get a season pass to download them all as DLC!"

It's the design process of pretty much everything, ever. Hell, school essays go like this. Any time a developer offers this sort of insight they all say the same thing.

 

[Darth_Payn]

It's just as well; I can't imagine how BioShock's alternate history and mad science would work with the Renaissance.

 

[AlbeyAmakiir]

I don't see how this is news. If a game doesn't have lots of stuff cut from it, I'd be worried.

 

[kael013]

How is this really news? That's the process of making games: you build and build then cut and cut. That's a near universal aspect of the creative industries. However this last bit is really depressing:

[quote/]"Ultimately you've got to look at the final piece," says Gardner, "a year later the audience is not going to care, and eventually you don't care."[/quote]

I think I will care - even a year later. But then again I'm one of those weirdos who likes his games to be around 20 hours long with good twisty stories and looks back at his shorter games wistfully and wishes their DLC had been more story-based and less map pack-y.