Ghost Story Games’ Launch Title is Nowhere to Be Seen
Kevin Levine, the creator of the BioShock series, is not having an easy time creating his follow-up game. The renowned developer has spent eight years working on his next project at Ghost Story Games. However, the nearly-decade-long investment has resulted in nothing.
According to recent reports, the new game has entered “development hell”. Ghost Story Games has seen its game undergo multiple reboots over its time. Yet after all this time, this untitled game has never seen an official announcement or release date.
What we know about this game comes from reports of Levine wanting the game to be a “narrative LEGO”. Basically, the game’s story mode would be completely unique for each player. The game’s scale and production quality were both alluring and overly ambitious.
This sci-fi shooter reportedly targeted a release in fall 2017. But that quickly became an unrealistic goal. Take-Two Interactive, the game’s publisher, granted Levine creative freedom over the project and that became a mistake.
According to 15 current and former employees at Ghost Story Games, the game’s banishment to development hell is in part due to Levine’s management style. These employees described Levine’s struggle with communication and his tendency to alienate his employees.
The studio had essentially no oversight and no one to correct this management style. The lack of supervision also led to ambitious and unachievable standards based on the smaller team they built.
A game the scale of BioShock was simply not possible with such a small number of team members working on it. Add a lack of man power onto Levine’s reported desire for perfectionism, and that has led the game’s fate to dangle in uncertainty for so long.
Weeks and months of work have reportedly been thrown away during the game’s development. And while there is a reported new optimism at Ghost Story Games, there is little to promise that resulting in anything concrete. You can read more details about this situation over at the original story.