BioShock fans are waiting for the brand new production of Ghost Story, namely Judas. And for good reason, the studio is headed by Ken Levine, the man who was creative director on the three BioShock. Although Judas has been rather discreet in recent months, some information about him has just been shared during an interview.
The structure of Judas will be very different from that of BioShock
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Ken Levine confirmed that BioShock and Judas are very different games in their structures. From a development point of view, he considers that BioShock are corridors, while in Judas, the story will be told based on the actions of the players.
“BioShock and BioShock Infinite, if you look at it from a development perspective, and this may be a little alienating for some readers, are essentially a corridor. A very, very long corridor with a bunch of trigger points that allow story elements to happen. Judas is done very, very differently and that makes it much more representative of player agency, but also much, much harder to do. »
In Judas, players should not expect the story to be served to them like in the vast majority of games. Ken Levine wants to give them the keys so that they can discover the game through their actions, although this requires much more work for the developers.
“The more control you give to the creator, the easier it is for them to give people what they would perceive as a very easy-to-get story.” The more power the player has, the more work the developer has. In Judas, we really chose to lean into that and try to give players what they want from us in the story, but also open it up in a way that they never have. seen from us before, but it's a lot of work. »
The universe of Judas should be very organic
It was confirmed that in Judas, NPCs should participate in making the universe organic, at least by commenting on the player's actions and giving their opinions. Once again, it takes a lot of work for Ghost Story, as the studio has to think through all the actions players could take.
“The approach we take with Judas is heavily based on recognizing player actions and responding to those actions. It is enough for the characters to observe a large number of player actions and comment on them. “Hey, you saw this and you did that and then you did this and it was interesting because it caused that.” This is what we are doing at the moment. It's just about observing the players and writing the types of lines that might react to different types of things. It's a huge job because you have to think of all the things a player can do and then write different characters' responses to those actions in a way that feels organic. »
Finally, Ken Levine has made it clear that quests will not be assigned simply by pressing a key to accept an NPC's request. Here too, we should expect something more organic and immersive.
“We also discovered that continuity is very important. You can write individual moments like a Mad Libs, filling in the blanks. An orc comes to you and sets you on a quest to find X, right? These moments are very annoying and come out of a random number generator. But once you start looking at sequences of events, and the characters are looking at, “You did this, and then you did that, and that caused this, and I'm mad because it did that,” it's This is where it gets really interesting. This is the space we explored. »
When will Judas be released?
In February 2023, Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, of which Ghost Story is a subsidiary, confirmed that Judas would be released before March 2025. There is currently little chance that the title will be released in the coming weeks , we can therefore assume that it has been postponed.
Last year, he gave his news in January via a trailer during the release of a new PlayStation State of Play. We can cross our fingers that the blue brand will soon share a new show in which we will have news on this very intriguing Judas, which will be available on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC.
To refresh your memory, we invite you to (re)discover the very last trailer which now dates from a year ago.
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