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Veteran game developer Ken Levine stepped away from the BioShock series after 2013’s BioShock Infinite, and while the series is going ahead with BioShock 4, it’s doing so without him. Why did Levine step away to work on a different game, Judas, instead of sticking with the series he created?<\/p>\n
Speaking to IGN, Levine said BioShock remains “very important” to him and that he feels “incredibly fortunate” to have worked on a franchise that means so much to so many people. However, he opted to step away in part because he “didn’t have a lot else to say in that world.” He also reflected on how working on established franchises can be something of a trap.<\/p>\n
“A franchise is an interesting thing because it can come to own you <\/em>if you’re not careful. It can define you. It was scary and risky and crazy to walk away from a very successful franchise. I didn’t [walk away] because I didn’t love the franchise,” he said. “I wanted to step away and challenge myself in a different way, and challenge a team in a different way. Things can own you if you hold them too tightly rather than the other way around. I will always love [BioShock] and I can’t wait to see what they do with it.”<\/p>\n