When we announced the release date of BioShock Infinite in March, we felt pretty good about the timing.

Since then, we’ve come to realize that some specific tweaks and improvements will make Infinite into something even more extraordinary. Therefore, to give our talented team the time they need, we’ve decided to move the game’s release to February 26, 2013. We wanted to let our loyal (and very patient!) fans know this as soon as possible.

I won’t kid you: BioShock Infinite is a very big game, and we’re doing things that no one has ever done in a first-person shooter. We had a similar experience with the original BioShock, which was delayed several months as our original ship date drew near. Why? Because the Big Daddies weren’t the Big Daddies you’ve since come to know and love. Because Andrew Ryan’s golf club didn’t have exactly the right swing. Because Rapture needed one more coat of grimy Art Deco.

The same principle now applies to BioShock Infinite.

What does this mean for you? It means a bit more waiting, but more importantly, it means an even better BioShock Infinite. The great can be made greater, and we owe it to both ourselves and to you, our fans, to take this opportunity.

We are also going to hold off on showing BioShock Infinite at the big events of the summer, like E3 and Gamescom. That way, the next time you see our game, it will be essentially the product we intend to put in the box. Preparing for these events takes time away from development, time we’re going to use instead to get the best version of Infinite into your hands in February.

In this episode of Irrational Interviews, we sit down with Amy Hennig, Naughty Dog’s Creative Director and writer. Amy is best known for her work on the groundbreaking Uncharted series, for which she’s won two Writers Guild of America awards.

The topic is, of course, storytelling. How does a writer create a complex narrative for a big budget video game? How does one drive the creative process of a large, intricate game development team? In this episode of Irrational Interviews, listen in while Ken Levine — Irrational Games’ own Creative Director and writer – has a reflective conversation with Amy about the unique challenges they both face in their individual, yet strikingly similar roles.

The focus of the conversation is the writer’s process. “It’s not the way films are made,” says Amy.  “I’ve described this to friends of mine who are screenwriters, and they just think we’re insane.”

The two also dig into their personal process — the act of faith involved in embarking on the journey of writing for a game. As Ken says, “Part of that act of faith is the faith that you have to put in yourself.”

The broad-ranging conversation also turns to the challenge of managing complicated production realities while maintaining the flexibility to take creative risks. As Amy explains, “We just sort of loosely plan what we’re doing, because that’s the best you can do with something that’s as iterative and experimental as what we do. We adapt, and we trust each other’s experience – to know that we’re going to make the wisest, most pragmatic decisions we can, while still trying to keep the quality of the product and stay inspired.”

Share your thoughts about this podcast in the comments below, or head over to the forums for a more in-depth discussion.

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• Produced by James Bonney, Elena Siegman, and Julian Murdoch
• Editing by Ant Bear Audio
• Music courtesy of The Happy Hollows

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Throughout the weekend, lucky hat-wearers were taken to a top secret location, photographed, and entered into the casting. After evaluating all the candidates, we’re excited to announce the new citizens of Columbia!

Sam Mans

Chandra Thompson

Everett Sawyer (with father, Benjamin Sawyer)

Congratulations to Chandra, Everett, and Sam!  A big thank you to all who participated in our casting!  Keep your eye out for them when BioShock Infinite launches this October!

Visit http://www.bioshockinfinite.com to see the clip.

The dip back into the bronze age wasn’t totally lost however. Gamers who bought Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich got a glimpse of four of these original concepts:

The Bullet, Eve, The Ant, and El Diablo…

But dozens of characters have remained stuck in the archives, until now. “Robb did a lot of characters that never made it into the game,” recalls Ken. “It was an embarrassment of riches. For every character I’d come up with, he’d then draw another 5.”

So let us introduce a few for the first time anywhere. Ladies and gentlemen, Computress!

Computress’ big distinction was that she was an extension of one of Freedom Force’s classic Villains, Mr. Mechanical. “She was intended to be his ultimate creation – a sort of a Bride of Frankenstein thing,” says Waters. But like all evil creations in comic books, things would have gone wrong right from the start. “She’d up killing him, and then seeing all humans as inferior beings to be conquered by an army of cyborgs in order to take over the world.” And while the plotline never panned out, Waters still has fond memories of what might have been. “I thought it would be great to have her enslave microwave in sort of a love tryst!”

Most of the unused characters in Freedom Force, however, weren’t directly tied to the existing plotline. Witness Young Star, the Man Who Was Never Born!

“This character was inspired by the cosmic themes that were prevalent in the ‘70s,” explains Waters. “I started with the name and drew inspiration from the outlandish KISS costumes.” When Ken Levine saw the original concept, he coined the tag line  “the man who was never born.” And what does that actually mean? “I’m not sure,” says Waters, “but it sounded great and it would have been fun trying to explore that fiction.”

Occasionally, characters would get off the page enough to develop a life of their own, complete with powers and descriptions. Such was the case with one unused villain – Shifty:

“This was to be an attempt at making a stretchy plastic-man type character,” says Waters. A key to the appeal of the Freedom Force series was its homage to many super hero tropes – but always with a signature Irrational twist. “I saw him as a whimsical villain. He could re-shape in ways that would give him appropriate abilities, such as steamrolling enemies as a giant bowling ball and flying as a pterodactyl.”

Another “homage” character was the unused super, Primordial:

“This was my tip of the hat to the 70’s swamp-men of comics,” recalls Waters. “He was sort of the 70’s tree-hugger character. He just wanted to heal mother earth at any price. He wasn’t necessarily a bad guy in this way – he’s just blinded by his beliefs.”

And sometimes, it’s not that a character didn’t quite fit. Sometimes, they actually fit too well. Witness the straight-down-the-middle Thunderclap!

“ I love his design,” says Waters fondly. “But I think he was maybe a bit to on the nose, even for Irrational.” A quick look at the picture tells you pretty much everything you’d ever need to know about this Native American hero. “With a thunderous clap of his hands he would be able to generate an electric bolt to strike his foes down.”

And finally, some characters were designed as tributes that never quite made the cut. Such was the case with Outback.

“I needed a new villain and wanted to finally tip my hat to our Australian team,” recalls Waters. “I thought he could be a sort of Kraven the Hunter [enemy of Spider Man] meets Crocodile Dundee. He would make sport of hunting down various members of Freedom Force to claim as his ultimate trophies.”

While it’s fun to think of what might have been, the good news is that thanks to distribution platforms like Steam, the games are still playable on modern PCs – and hold up quite well given their age. “I actually just started replaying Third Reich again,” confesses Ken. “I love the franchise. Because they were comic book characters, and intentionally simple, I don’t look at it and think ‘man I wish we’d had another million polygons.’”

The stylish 1912 fashion accessory was the all the rage with PAX East attendees, and why wouldn’t they be? Not only do they match any outfit, wearing one was the only way to be spotted by our recruiters and to receive an invitation to our photo studio thus getting a chance to have your face in BioShock Infinite. Here are some of those lucky enough to get the coveted invitation:

All of our contenders can be found on our Official facebook page!

On Saturday, we held our panel: Making a Monster, where Ken Levine, Shawn Robertson, Nate Wells and Pat Balthrop went through the signature bad guys of BioShock Infinite that we’ve been showcasing in our Heavy Hitters series here on IrrationalGames.com. The house was more than packed – sorry for those who waited in line and didn’t get a seat.  Those who lined up early and did, however, received a BioShock Infinite poster.  Five lucky fans found hidden red envelopes under their seats, which we exchanged for limited edition 15-year anniversary lithographs signed by Ken Levine. Everyone was a winner though, because at the end of the panel, we celebrated our 15-year anniversary with cupcakes!

Later that evening we had our fan event and cosplay meetup at M.J. O’Connor’s Irish Pub where we got to mingle with some of our most active fans. It was a fun-filled night with food and drink, board games, raffles, gifts bags, and a cosplay competition where two winners walked away with a PlayStation Vita 3G bundle and a Murder of Crows Vigor bottle!

G4TV’s X-Play was also there to capture all the fun for a segment that will be airing on tonight’s episode.

*UPDATE*  You can check out the episode here.

We want to thank everyone who made it out to our event and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!  Be sure to visit our Flickr page to check out more photos!

Are you attending PAX East 2012? So are we! Here’s how you can find us!

Panels:

• Gamers with Jobs Presents: Gaming for Grown-Ups with Ken Levine featured as a panelist. Friday, April 6^th, 2012 @12-1pm in Manticore Theatre

• Irrational Games: Making a Monster panelists include Ken Levine, Nate Wells, Shawn Robertson, Pat Balthrop, and moderated by Julian Murdoch. Saturday, April 7^th, 2012 @12-1pm in Manticore Theatre

• Plot vs Play: The Duality of Modern Game Design with Ken Levine featured as a panelist. Saturday, April 7^th, 2012 @5:30-6:30pm in Arachnid Theatre

Events:

Get your face in BioShock Infinite!

This is your chance to get your face into BioShock Infinite! All weekend long at PAX East, we’ll be giving away special BioShock Infinite paper top hats in the main entrance of the Boston Convention Center. If one of our staff members spots you wearing one, you might be approached and given top secret instructions on how you could get your face featured in the game.

Cosplay Meet-up!

On Saturday April 7^th, staff from Irrational Games will be on the show floor looking for BioShock and BioShock Infinite – themed cosplayers.  The best-dressed and most creative will receive an invitation to the Irrational Games Fan Party.  To sweeten the pot, G4TV’s X-Play will be there to film the event, so this is your chance to be on TV!

Here’s why we think Joe is swell.

Tim Gerritson, Director of Product Development: Joe Fielder is one of our intrepid producers here at Irrational Games, and one of the cat-herders who helps wrangle the game from concept to completion.

The first thing we need to address is Joe’s look. He doesn’t look like a producer. He looks like one of those male cigarette models from the 1960s.The kind of guy who rides that razor-fine line between super suave and hopelessly square. That  has made him our de facto internal Irrational Games spokes-model. He has a look that is tailor made for Photoshop mash-ups, and so the office is festooned with images of him on faux Jazz CDs, or hawking non-existent brands.  But the thing is, he’s a consummate gamer and a quintessential geek in the best sense of the term – he just doesn’t look like one, which is why he strikes us all so.

He has a depth to him that the look belies, and it serves him well. He exudes a calmness, even when he’s freaking out, that’s infectious. He makes you feel better about things, and disarms even the tensest moments. He’s also extremely creative, with talents spanning across music promotion, comic book writing, and general writing to name but a few.  He really is a creative (and I mean that as a noun- ‘A Creative’), which also makes him “one of us” in a studio where everyone lifts their creative shovel. This earns him the respect he’s garnered within the team.

So whether you need a really awesome cocktail party or a host of assets to be delivered by Friday afternoon, Joe can get you both, with a wink, a nod and a can-do attitude.

Your title is Producer. What does that actually mean?

Joe Fielder: Producers make sure all the little details are followed up on, that developers get everything they need to do their jobs, and deadlines are hit. At Irrational, it also means that we keep an eye out to never let anything slip by that’s just “alright.” Everything needs to hit the studio’s quality bar or we don’t do it.

For myself, I don’t feel like I’ve done my job at the end of the day each day if I haven’t made an improvement to the project in some way. Whether that’s corralling developers to work out a direction for a part of the game that’s giving the team trouble, helping problem-solve a tough scheduling issue with our production staff, following up with a contractor to make sure an asset will be ready when others need it, or setting up a recording session that somehow navigates the arcane schedules of six to eight different people at once.

When I started working in development, I felt a lot of personal responsibility to ensure the project went well in every regard, but didn’t have much voice in it. So I became a producer.

You can probably tell that I grew up reading a lot of Marvel Comics.

What games have you worked on?

JF: I was a designer, producer, and/or writer on EA’s Medal of Honor: European Assault, Medal of Honor: Vanguard, Medal of Honor: Heroes, Boom Blox, and a cancelled project. Before that, I was a writer and editor over at GameSpot and Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

JF: Intensely challenging/rewarding.

What is your favorite game of all time?

JF: Tough one. GoldenEye 007, Catan, Half-Life 2, Bushido Blade, Civilization Revolution, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are probably the games I’ve logged the most hours on. Wizard of Wor gets the nostalgia vote.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

JF: Half-Life 2. I think that the way they introduce new gameplay elements is elegant.

What is your favorite movie?

JF: I flip between Seven Samurai, The Last Picture Show, and Army of Shadows. My favorite movies from the last few years are Attack the Block and House of the Devil.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

JF: I keep pretty busy. I write comic books, contribute to the music web-site radiofreesilverlake.com, help put on concerts, read, run and drink increasingly powerful brands of whiskey.

You write comic books? Do you have any favorite writers that inspired you to do that?

JF: For comics, I’m a big fan of Garth Ennis, Alan Moore, Jason Aaron, and Grant Morrison. For crime novels, it’s all about Edward Bunker. For movies, Paddy Chayefsky and Dan O’Bannon are kind of my heroes. For non-fiction, I like Mark Bowden, Peter Biskind, and Hampton Sides. For fiction, I heart Robert E. Howard, Jack London, Cormac McCarthy, and Ernest Hemingway.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational.

JF: I can’t because it contains spoilers, but I remember being on the phone with Ken as he was driving to the office right before we were going to record the voiceover for Saltonstall for the first demo. He rattled off the character’s entire speech, nailing it seemingly just off the top of his head. I wrote it out, we recorded a few minutes later with our actor, and the lines made it into the demo without needing any further edits.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pre-order your copy now!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pre-order your copy now!

BioShock was selected to be one of 80 video games featured at the exhibit, which Melissinos and his team first culled the entire catalog of gaming down to 240 titles they felt represented not just visual artistry, but technical mastery and narrative. From that large list, the museum polled the public for what should be included in the final exhibition. “I looked for games that ran the gamut of art, social commentary, storytelling and artistic license, and BioShock combined these elements in new ways,” said Melissinos.

“The thought of seeing BioShock on display next to Georgia O’Keeffe and Thomas Hart Benton is, well, humbling,” said Ken. “The fact that gamers put us there makes it all the better.”

The exhibit opened Friday, March 16^th with a series of opening activities dubbed “GameFest”, which includes a keynote from Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, and a panel on the future of video games featuring Ken; Paul Barnett, Creative Director for Mythic Entertainment; Mark DeLoura, ex-THQ VP of Tech and Kellee Santiago, co-founder of  thatgamecompany.

An interview with Ken will be featured as part of the exhibition, but you can take a sneak peek here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

At Irrational, it’s likely no surprise that we play a lot of games. In this podcast, Level Designer Shawn Elliott talks to folks in the studio about which games in 2011 inspired them, gave them new professional insight, or maybe just introduced them to new ways to grief their friends. Listen as we wax philosophical about how Dead Island’s reward loop hypnotized us, how Naughty Dog inspires us with their voice over recording process, and how Modern Warfare 3’s weapon mechanics satisfied and delighted us. You’ll also hear how the complex decisions we had to make in Deus Ex fascinated us as gamers and game designers, and the lessons we learned about ourselves as people while playing Skyrim.

• Part 1: Dead Island – Shawn Robertson, Nate Wells
• Part 2: The Use of Voice Over in Games in 2011 – Jim Bonney, Jeff Seamster
• Part 3: Deus Ex – Forrest Dowling, Alexx Kay, Ken Strickland
• Part 4: Modern Warfare 3 – Ray Holbrook, Dan Scholten
• Part 5: Skyrim – Ken Levine, Sarah Rosa

Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments section below!

iTunes Link

Direct Download Episode 10

Irrational Podcasts RSS Feed

• Podcast produced by James Bonney and Elena Siegman.
• Editing by Ant Bear Audio.

Podcast music provided by:

• George Glass
• The Monolaters
• Taxpayer
• Elena Siegman

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check back next week for part 3 in the Heavy Hitters Series!

Pre-order your copy now!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check back next week for part 2 in the Heavy Hitters Series!

Pre-order your copy now!

Irrational Games’ staff will be walking the show floor all day Saturday in search of BioShock- and BioShock Infinite – themed cosplayers.  If we spot you — and if we think your costume is awesome — you’ll be given a wristband with instructions on how to attend the meet-up. This is your chance to become immortalized in our costume hall of fame.  As an added bonus, G4’s X-Play will be there with their cameras to capture the festivities so  make sure you’re TV ready!

We’re excited to see what our fan community comes up with, but one thing’s for sure: you’ll have to dress to impress. Only the best costumes will get the nod!

Hope to see you there!

Irrational Games is proud to announce that BioShock Infinite will be released on February 26, 2013!

“After BioShock, we had a vision for a follow up that dwarfed the original in scope and ambition,” said Ken Levine. “BioShock Infinite has been our sole focus for the last four years, and we can’t wait for fans to get their hands on it.”

BioShock Infinite will be available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC.

Pre-order your copy today!

Here’s why we think Jamie is swell.

Shawn Robertson, Lead Artist: Jamie was here for the original Bioshock. Remember Andrew Ryan’s office? Jamie sat down with a theater lighting book and learned how to manipulate the lighting in-engine in order to squeeze every possible ounce of drama out of that scene.

After Bioshock, Jamie went to another game company but we later found out he wanted to come back to Irrational. This was before we had even announced BioShock Infinite.  We were so psyched to have him back that we failed to mention one little detail: what we were actually working on.  Jamie showed up on the first day of work without a clue what the project was, or even his exact role. Regardless, he’s been kicking ass ever since. That’s what I like about the guy. He just jumps in, knowing he’s got it covered, and he’s got the chops to back up his confidence.

Your title is Level Builder. What does that mean?

Jamie McNulty: A lot of the time it means you wear many, many hats. You have to be an architect, a level designer, a concept artist, and a lighting ninja all at once. Generally, I have to take a basic idea of a level and figure out how to make that visually interesting and relatively fun to be shooting splicer dudes in. I get to make the layout for levels and then make them purrdy. It’s a lot of fun.

What games have you worked on?

JM: I worked on a mish-mash of stuff before BioShock. I also worked on a bunch of cancelled projects early in my career; an MMO, a platformer, a superhero game, a big story RPG, and a couple shooters. The published ones I worked on were several ports for old games from Konami, Open Season, and of course BioShock.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

JM: A bit loony.

What is your favorite game of all time?

JM: I would have to say Another World (or Out of this World). I played it on my cousins Amiga 500. It’s so good.  It was probably the first game that ever transported me to a place and really got me into it. It was like reading a good book but I got to play it out myself.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

JM: Just one?! Seriously? Well here is a good one: I doubt you can still find this to play nowadays but I would say Karateka. Probably one of the earliest, if not the first, story based game ever and it was tough as hell.

What is your favorite movie?

JM: Kickboxer. It’s a bad Jean Claude Van Damme movie, but for some reason I love it. I think it dates back to my pre-teen years and being a martial arts fanatic. I loved anything where people would kick the living bajeebers out of others or inanimate objects. Ahh life was good.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

JM: I have been working on a creator-owned comic in my spare time for forever. I don’t know if I will ever finish it because I keep redesigning it over and over. I also do Kenpo for the 1980s ninja fan in me.

Comics? Kenpo? What inspired you to get into those things? Does one have anything to do with the other?

JM: I did martial arts from age of 14-22 and I taught some basic self-defense classes when I was in college as a way to work out. I have always loved martial arts in any form more than any sport or physical activity. I stopped for a long time due to work.  I’ve only recently gotten back into it and it feels awesome to be doing it again.

I used to draw comics with buds in high school. We used to play this tabletop RPG game called Marvel Super Heroes (the old version with the crazy one chart to roll them all!). We used to make our own characters, draw them up and/or create comics based on them. Now when you create art for a living, it’s difficult to do your own thing when you come home. This new comic is a way for me to work on my skills and have some fun while I am at it. Rest assured though, there will be some form of martial arts ninja action of epic proportions in the comic.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational.

JM: So Ken Levine is one of those guys that is a bit unpredictable when it comes to what he might like. Often, we have to review our work with him, and he gives us feedback on things and challenge us on what we made. During one particular moment, I was sitting at my desk and they (the powers that be) brought Ken over to review the level I was working on because I was trying out something different.

Now, you have to understand when Ken usually reviews things, you can instantly tell if he likes something or if he hates it. This time though I was a bit unsure, until after I was done explaining things and maneuvering around the level to show him.  He appeared to be pleased though but then he turned to me and said, “so…do you wanna make out?”  He had this devious smile on his face and I was so caught off guard that I stuttered through my reply and said with a shocked and flabbergasted expression, “um…uh…like right here?”

Anyway, it was awkward and funny. And no, we never made out.

But were they successful? All signs point to yes.

The team had several specific objectives to meet.  It wasn’t that they were starting from a completely blank slate; Irrational already has a large collection of audio assets to draw from, but much of that library is sampled from more modern weapons.  While that’s hardly a bad thing, they believed a broader-and older-range of weaponry would help players feel that little extra something when in combat.

As soon as the team heard the older firearms being fired, they knew they were right – these were the sounds they were looking for. “There’s a beautiful pop that makes standing behind a gun feel so dangerous,” says Senior Sound Designer, Jeff Seamster.  “Frankly it was something we were missing – but we have that in our guns now!”

The distinct sounds of these guns come from the materials that they were made from, and the very nature of their engineering. Modern weapons are designed to minimize recoil, flash and report while getting ammo downrange. Turn of the century firearms were designed to reliably fling lead as hard and accurately as possible, period. “As soon as we picked up these weapons, we knew the trip was worth it,” Seamster continues.  “There were a lot of clunks, and that’s exactly what we were after.”  Those ‘clanks and clunks’ combine with raw explosive power to create an imposing aural experience that simply can’t be faked by modern weapons.

But as much fun as recording live-fire was, it was really just the beginning. After the recording sessions, the team had plenty to work with – countless samples they could simply drag and drop. But to create each BioShock Infinite weapon, in every combat situation, requires molding those samples into something unique, something signature.

“We have stuff like these beautiful tails of the gunshots from the mics we placed way down range,” Seamster says. “There’s the big boom, but we also have the echo of the bullet crack, like, for example,a big Colt revolver echoing down a city street. We’re assembling and designing these sounds as we go, and by doing it with those pieces we captured from each of our recorders, we get something that feels better to the player than any purely realistic recording could.”

It’s a balancing act between hyper-realistic and satisfyingly awesome.  For example, the team noticed that when they were firing these guns for themselves, they would often hear the mechanical sounds of the weapons overwhelm the actual explosion of the gunpowder.  While it was definitely memorable, that sort of accuracy would lack the “pop” that makes a gun feel so threatening.  So carefully, sample by sample, they’re building the boom back into each gun.

Critically, the role of the sound designer isn’t just to be a mimic for the virtual environment, but to help craft the experience.  Audio Director Patrick Balthrop cites a sound design aphorism: “it’s not thunder; it’s the memory of thunder.” The sound of thunder isn’t exactly the most notable noise on its own, but when it’s coupled with the context of the storm that makes it memorable.  Thunder can be terrifying, portentous, or even soothing in the distance.  The rain, lightning, wind and world all contribute to a lasting memory of thunder.  And a gunshot is no different.

“Being there in person reinforced the belief that memory is a really powerful thing,” says Balthrop.  “I’ll always remember the first time I shot a gun in an emotional way.  I’ll bring that feeling to all of my designs, including something as simple as a gun.  People might think that’s a really boring thing, but in order for it to sound immersive, the emotion needs to be designed back into the recording.”

Whatever the team did during this recording session, they seem to have done it right.  Care to hear the final result? Get your hands behind, say, a Rolston Reciprocating Repeater when BioShock Infinite launches later this year.

The gun may only live in the world of Columbia. But the feeling you’ll get from firing it started on a gun range in Massachusetts.

It all started with a shopping list. “We brought the range master in and showed him the weapons we had in our game” says Scott Haraldsen, Audio Lead. “He then came up with the guns he thought would provide the desired sounds.” Of course, the world of Columbia isn’t a mirror image of 1912 America, and even if it were, finding perfectly operational 1912 era guns and ammunition isn’t easy. “We didn’t necessarily use the exact guns, but rather, guns that gave us the sounds we were looking for. We got a list, got coordinated, and went out and had a blast … literally.”

The audio team not only set up the field recordings, they fired the weapons personally.  Just to be sure they got the right sound, of course. Of the weapons at their disposal, they were particularly excited to fire a Barrett M82 .50 caliber sniper rifle – and with good reason. The M82 is one of the most well-known firearms in the world, in part because of its imposing ammunition, the 4-inch long 50 caliber Browning machine gun round. This go-to long range sniper rifle for the U.S. military represents a level of power that is not easily found elsewhere, with an effective range of over a mile.

Imagine the reaction, then, of Audio Director, Patrick Balthrop, who had never fired a gun. Any gun.

“Holy sh*t.”

“When I shot that gun, I was in position. I had that thing right up against my shoulder,” recalls Balthrop. “When I pulled the trigger, the chair I was sitting on moved back about six inches.” It was like learning to drive in a car that just happens to be a Maserati.

“It’s not even hearing,” says Music Director, Jim Bonney. “It’s experiencing.” The team had never experienced anything as loud as the .50 cal, and with each shot thundering from the sniper rifle, they’d jump and giggle. Despite the mental preparations and expectations, the shockwave from the Barrett would get the better of everyone; time and again.

Even though the team was excited about the Barrett, it wasn’t necessarily the team’s favorite firearm from their hard-working day of shooting – and recording – at the gun range.    For Senior Sound Designer, Jeff Seamster, that honor went to the Mauser C-96 pistol, a semi-automatic pistol first produced in 1896. Until the introduction of the .357 Magnum, it was the most powerful handgun in the world, but nobody on the team had ever even seen one in real life. Though the final sound effects will be enhanced and crafted from these original recordings, the Mauser was unlike any other weapon on the range that day, and will contribute a unique element to Infinite’s sound arsenal.

However, it was a weapon familiar to any gamer that Jeff may remember most: the AR-15. A civilian version of the military M16, this particular AR-16 was nicknamed “Skittles,” and it was a crowd pleaser.  “It was the closest thing to the weaponry in modern combat that we shot,” Seamster explains. “Any of us who has played Call of Duty or Battlefield know this gun from using it in-game. We were just wowed. This is it – this is a gun that I’ve only fired before in a video game. It’s something else.”

Be sure to check back next week for part three, in which our heroes put it all together.

Here’s why we think Shane is swell.

Emily Brinkert, Operations Director: Shane is fairly new, but out of the gates he is clearly a badass. He immediately took the lead in making sure our team has all of the technology and infrastructure that we need in order to make a groundbreaking game. He is upgrading left and right and using his Southern charm to get the job done. Most importantly, he has an amazing Donkey Kong painting in his office, which in and of itself has raised the class level of the operations department. Now, if we can just teach him how to drive in the snow, he’ll be golden.

Your title is IT Director. What does that mean?

Shane Smith: I help manage the process that keeps the bits flowing so the developers can focus on making great games. I help make sure just about everything with a plug or a battery is working. My role requires a love of technology and a desire to support creative people. Every now and then, I get a chance to script or design — and “pretend” to be a programmer too.

What games have you worked on?

SS: The entire Gears of War series, Unreal Tournament III, Bulletstorm, Shadow Complex and Infinity Blade 1 & 2.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

SS: Very passionate people… well, that, or “I’m on fire.”

What is your favorite game of all time?

SS: I’m hoping to not catch a bunch of grief from my new coworkers with this answer. Even though I’m not very good, I have a lot of good memories playing StarCraft in college. Not much has changed; I play SC2 now and I still suck.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

SS: I’m sure it’s cheating to say BioShock . It’s hard to say: I grew up with so many great games, it’s hard to choose the one that got me excited playing them. I’m going to say Pong. If you play that, you’ll have to appreciate all the amazing games out now and how far we’ve come.

What is your favorite movie?

SS: Again, at the risk of getting made fun of… Amélie.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

SS: Hiking, road biking, running, gaming, live music, attempting to play guitar and banjo, and tinkering.

What sort of tinkering have you done? Have you built anything you’re particularly proud of?

SS: I’ve made a lot of furniture. Most of it was old furniture that I’ve repaired and restored. I just like fixing and building things. I also fix old electronics, like classic arcade cabinets. Like a boss.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational.

SS: I just got here a few weeks ago, so I can’t say that I have a favorite story. However, I can remember when I was in a meeting about BioShock Infinite. It was a pretty amazing feeling to realize I could give feedback and that it was valued. It’s a simple thing, but it’s nice to realize I was part of such a talented team.

“We basically gathered up all the gear we had, made an assessment and chose the best layout,” explains Audio Lead Scott Haraldsen. The layout that was settled on was fairly robust, allowing a great range of audio frequencies to be captured, and the options the team had afterwards were certainly inspiring when dealing with the task at hand. Four mics were dedicated to close-weapon recordings, with several stereo recorders placed throughout the range – 150 feet away pointing at the weapon, 300 feet downrange pointed away from the guns, and an omni-directional mic right in the center of the field.

The reasoning behind this approach is to capture the entire dynamic soundscape. While some of the mics placed further downrange would capture the echo from the weapons, the ones placed a bit closer to the source would be able to best capture the immediate transients.

When the team focused on the finer details of the sounds a gun makes, they also noticed that there are specific audio characteristics, giving each weapon its own personality. When someone listens to a gun being fired from a few feet away, there’s that distinct, sharp pop most associate with it, but when shooting the guns themselves, a new experience awaited. When firing a weapon, the team could hear all the fine mechanical sounds the weapon had to offer. They’d be able to hear all the metal parts moving around, even hearing the bullet leaving the chamber, all over that small timeframe.

“There’s a lot of action taking place, so there are interesting characteristics that you’d never really know about without firing a gun,” Audio Principal Patrick Balthrop said. “What makes a gun sound interesting from first person is actually how the gun is designed; the mechanics of it, the materials of the gun – metal, wood, the actual firing mechanism. It’s possible to record that stuff, but we decided to take what we heard in first person and design those intricacies later.”

After hearing those mechanical sounds when firing these guns, the team opted to ensure these characteristics were properly captured. The mechanical action of each weapon was recorded separately from the firing session since the sound of the gunfire was overwhelming the microphones. “To make all of our guns feel more tactile, we’re building a lot of that mechanical action back into the guns, because otherwise it would have been missed,” says Senior Sound Designer Jeff Seamster. “When you’re holding a machine gun and you’re aiming down the sights, we want this to feel like this jangling, unstable machine in your hands, so you’re getting that nice clack each time the slide comes back. Each time you have a grip or a piece of hardware jingling on the side makes the guns feel that much more visceral, exciting and dangerous.”

Be sure to check back next week for part two of our trip to the gun range, in which our heroes pull the trigger.

During the Irrational Games Voice Actor panel at PAX Prime 2011, there were a lot of great questions from those in attendance, questions we sadly couldn’t answer due to a lack of time. Fortunately, we heard many of them from the Irrational Games community, so we decided to pay tribute to our fans in this latest installment of Irrational Interviews by going straight to the source for the answers.

In this episode, Creative Director Ken Levine is joined by BioShock Infinite voice actors Troy Baker (Booker DeWitt) and Courtnee Draper (Elizabeth), as they tackle questions taken directly from our audience. Things kick off with Ken, Troy and Courtnee discussing the process of voice acting, how they approach their characters in BioShock Infinite, the emotions involved in a memorable performance, and even the collaborative process between the actors and director.

The podcast closes out as our trio explores how their characters evolve over the project, and how they identify with them as they become more familiar with the roles. Each person has a different perspective on how they learn about the characters, but the actors are able to shape the Booker and Elizabeth relationship as they build the connection between each other.

Share your thoughts about this podcast in the comments below, or head over to the forums for a more in-depth discussion.

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• Produced by James Bonney, Eduardo Vasconcellos, and Julian Murdoch
• Editing by Ant Bear Audio
• Music courtesy of The Happy Hollows

Are you going to need to complete the game to unlock 1999 Mode or is it available from day one?
-Facebook User Brandon Jackson

Bill Gardner: 1999 Mode doesn’t require you to complete the game before you can experience it. However, since we don’t want just anybody stumbling across it by accident and getting overwhelmed, we’re toying with the idea of “unlocking” it from the main menu. I’m sure you can imagine some ways we might do that.

Will it have a limited number saves, or designated save points, or anything that interferes with saving your game?
-Facebook User Sam Gross

Bill Gardner: We have no plans to change the save system. We felt that this would not enhance the experience we’re going for with 1999 Mode.

Many regret adding weapon degeneration in SShock2, but I loved that disadvantage. Will there be weapon degen in 1999 Mode?
-Twitter user acantophis3rd

Bill Gardner: Weapon degeneration won’t be a feature in 1999 Mode.

Will this harder mode make the enemies smarter or merely tougher and more accurate like many games do?
-Irrational Games user danielhill

Bill Gardner: The scarcity of resources and the fact that you’re having to deal with enemies using the tools you’ve specialized in make the enemies feel a lot tougher. That said, we’re not changing the enemies on a behavioral level. Things like health and accuracy will be tuned differently, but enemies won’t be using any screw attacks, showing off fancy new abilities or anything like that.

I had understood that the Nostrums were a permanent modification of the player character, as opposed to the Tonics of BioShock which could be swapped out at a Gene Bank. If the permanent player mods are in the 1999 Mode, does that mean that Nostrums in the regular version are modifiable?
-Irrational Games user 1019ice

Bill Gardner: One of our goals in BioShock Infinite is to give your choices more meaning across the board. Nostrums are permanent choices in every mode. However, in 1999 Mode, we take this even further by raising the stakes and make it so that if you’re not specializing in something, you’re really not going to be use that tool effectively (be it a weapon, vigor or other tool). Your choices push you towards specific play styles, and these are choices you’re going to need to commit to. Once you walk down a path, it’s going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to change course.

Besides the experience and ultimate bragging rights, would 1999 Mode have a payoff you’d miss in a normal playthrough?
-Twitter user phonehands

Bill Gardner: Aside from the zen of achieving such a masterful feat? Yes, we’ll have regular achievements/trophies as well.

Does higher difficulty imply enemies will become bullet sponges or more aggressive / intelligent / numerous?
-Twitter user Frobitz

Bill Gardner: We have a bunch of ways we’re adjusting how deadly they are. The mode isn’t about introducing new content. Rather, it’s about approaching decisions with more caution. You have to choose which fights you can take on, along with which tools to specialize in, while committing to a long-term strategy.

For more info on the BioShock Infinite 1999 Mode, Bill and Ken Levine answer some questions to provide some additional reading:

BioShock Infinite Gets Hardcore – IGN
BioShock Infinite’s 1999 Mode Forces You To Live With Your Choices – G4
Ken Levine On BioShock Infinite’s 1999 Mode – Game Informer

You can ask us your questions via our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or you can simply add them to the comments section below. Your questions will be answered in a blog post early next week, so be sure to get them in before it’s too late!

Back in December, there was a survey from us here at Irrational to better understand how you play games. We had a hunch about a new feature for BioShock Infinite, and we built this survey to see if it’s something that our fans wanted. The results of the survey are in and we heard what you want loud and clear, which is why we’re proud to announce something new for the game: 1999 Mode!

BioShock Infinite’s 1999 Mode will feature an especially demanding gaming experience, forcing you to examine your decisions while going through your adventure in Columbia. With every choice you make, there are irreversible implications, and if your choices guide you down a path not suited to your play style, you will suffer for it.

It’s not simply a matter of adjusting the difficulty sliders in the game – the team went much further than that. Resource planning? If you’re to survive this mode, proper planning will be crucial. Combat specializations? You’ll need to develop them efficiently and effectively throughout the story; any weapon will be useless to you unless you have that specialization. Combat? You will need to carefully target every shot, and your health will be set to an entirely different baseline. Game saves? Well, yes, there will be those, but according to Irrational Games Creative Director Ken Levine “there are game saves, and you’re gonna f***ing need them.”

“We want to give our oldest and most committed fans an option to go back to our roots,” said Levine. “In 1999 Mode, gamers face more of the permanent consequences of their gameplay decisions. In BioShock Infinite, gamers will have to sweat out the results of their actions. In addition, 1999 Mode will demand that players pick specializations, and focus on them.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

“If you’re not freaking psyched for BioShock Infinite, you may be missing some synapses in your mind grapes. Exploring the twisted, floating world of Columbia is something we can’t wait to do.” – IGN.com

“Where Rapture introduced us to an underwater dystopia filled with drugged riddled enemies, here we will be plunged into a civil war featuring sky mortars, ultranationalists who can summon flocks of crows, and varied automata resembling circus strongmen and the Maltese Falcon. We’re eagerly looking forward to what is next for this franchise.” – 1up.com

“Set in 1912, the action takes place in Columbia, a huge floating city constructed by the U.S. government as a lofty tribute to American ideals. Of course, this being a BioShock game, wrinkles abound: rival factions vie for ultimate control of Columbia even as the airborne community passes through rifts in the space-time continuum (occasionally placing its citizens at various points in time, including the early 1980s). If nothing else, Infinite has origins perhaps unique in the annals of gaming: lead designer Ken Levine got the central idea of his game while watching a history documentary on PBS.” – Time.com

“It’s tough to downplay the insane amount of hype that BioShock Infinite has around it, but it’s one of the only game franchises that really deserves it. Because the original had such an engaging storyline, brilliant art direction, and fantastic gameplay, we can only assume BioShock Infinite will deliver in all these areas and more.” – Cnet.com

“Returning to the BioShock helm is game designer Ken Levine, who dazzled players five years ago with the first chapter of this amazing franchise. There’s also the dizzying combat while riding the city’s skylines.” – USA Today

“Bioshock Infinite has been wowing audiences since its announcement in 2010 and has already won numerous awards even before its official release next year. Taking the action from underwater to the skies, creator Ken Levine is hoping fans will embrace the new direction and explore the new setting.” – CNN

“As if I wasn’t already champing at the bit for this after talking with the director and his voice cast, the latest trailer has me jonesing even harder. Listening to the Elizabeth character sing ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken’ gives me goosebumps.” – WIRED & ArsTechnica

“But with creative director Ken Levine and the team at Irrational back behind the wheel, there is a definite buzz surrounding the development of BioShock Infinite, which trades the dark ocean depths for the blue skies and American Exceptionalism of the early 1900s.” – VentureBeat

“Infinite moves the action backwards in time and up in the air, sending you on a mission to the fascinating steampunk air-metropolis called Columbia. It’s like a secret adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day!” – Entertainment Weekly

“Expect imaginative design, compelling themes, and nail-biting gameplay to power Infinite to early Game of the Year consideration.” – Yahoo!

“Featuring an all-new setting and cast of characters, BioShock Infinite looks to take storytelling in games to another level.” – Game Informer

““There’s political and class warfare going on in the story, an AI companion in Elizabeth that seems like she’s really going to push the boundaries of anything we’ve seen before, the creepiness of the Songbird, and just the fact the game looks so damn pretty.” – Official Xbox Magazine

“It’s hard to not be excited for Bioshock Infinite, and when a game looks that good, it’s hard not to take notice.” – MediaKick

“BioShock has never been a series that shies away from moral decision making either and it will be the player’s choice whether to risk hurting their vulnerable partner in exchange for the extra power wielded.” – TheSixthAxis

“Columbia looks to be one of the most artistically realized settings in the history of gaming, and BioShock’s classic guns-meet-plasmids gameplay makes this our most anticipated game of 2012.” – VGChartz

BioShock Infinite was also named as a most anticipated game for 2012 at:
GameSpot.com
MSNBC.com
Complex.com
Videogamer.com
GeekSugar.com
Amazon.com

Here’s why we think Ken is swell.

Clint Bundrick, Principal Designer: Ken loves language and is quick to display that in everything he generates. Whether he’s putting lines like “the Handyman’s grabby, porcelain ape-hands can pound the player into meaty bits” into design documents, describing a weapon as “the bastard child of a hospital lab and the slaughterhouse” or creating temp Nostrum names like “filth gorger” he’s always good for a laugh and a clever name. He happens to be a great systems designer as well and can intelligently discuss everything from the Skinnerian reward structure to how we’re seriously lacking a dude-bro moment in one of our beats.

Your title is Principal Systems Designer. What does that mean?

Ken Strickland: It’s my job to bring the core gameplay of Bioshock Infinite to life, which is kind of like being a surgeon in the school of Victor Frankenstein. I raid the graveyard of terrible ideas for new parts, grab some of the good stuff from the big brain trust we have going on here, and hack away until only the useful bits remain. Stuff like our weapon set, Vigors, or our AIs.

That’s the easy part; almost anything sounds good in isolation. Once I sew all these component pieces together I see whether our core combat experience has become more than the sum of its parts. When my creation inevitably fails me, I take it apart, preserve the parts that work, and tinker with the rest. I’ll do that about a thousand times before we ship.

Luckily, I’ve got a great team of systems designers that I can point at all the really hard problems. And I have not once called any of them “Igor.”

What games have you worked on?

KS: I worked on a bunch of the PS2 and PSP Ratchet and Clank games, some prototypes that never saw the light of day, and the original Resistance: Fall of Man. Lots of playing with fun, absurd weaponry.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

KS: Fantastic creative maelstrom.

What is your favorite game of all time?

KS: Silent Hill 2. This is how you do horror, not with monster closets but by investing a character with stakes and slowly peeling them away. Incredible monster design, too.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

KS: Mass Effect 2. Halo’s core combat is still uncontested champ, but Mass Effect 2 brought together RPG, FPS, and Hollywood movie DNA in a way I find really compelling. Definitely a case of the sum being greater than its parts.

What is your favorite movie?

KS: “The Big Sleep” beats out “The Usual Suspects” by a nose. I’m a huge mystery buff, mostly in the style of Chandler and Ross Macdonald, and Bogart captures Marlowe’s weird combination of compassion and being a super-judgmental asshole. I also think it’s hilarious that they slid a movie about gambling, sex scandals, and the corruption of wealth past the Hayes Code; maybe having William Faulkner on the screenwriting credits bamboozled the censors.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

KS: I do a bunch of writing and toying around with indie game dev engines, but of course that waxes and wanes depending how engaging my current work project is. Needless to say, that home edition of Visual Studio isn’t seeing a whole lot of use right now.

I also enable my terrible baked-goods binges by going to a small Kenpo school a few blocks down from work.

Kenpo? That sounds fun! How’d you get involved with that?

KS: I’ve been doing some form of martial arts since the Resistance days, when a bunch of us designers decided we needed a little less “crunch gut” and a little more “flying kicks delivered at midnight from head-height cubicle walls”. We enlisted en masse at a local Kung Fu school, and it ended up becoming this crazy, pivotal experience for a lot of us. I got my black belt with those same friends years after we had moved on to different projects and roles within the industry.

Of course, when I moved to Boston, I spent way too long forgoing exercise in favor of exploring the city (by way of its restaurants), so I’m trying to plug holes in my Kung Fu training while starting afresh in this new style.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational.

KS: There are a ton of great stories, but I think my favorite is still my first day in town! I had just moved into some temporary housing at the edge of Quincy, and after an hour I was convinced the complex was deserted except for phantom sounds and ghosts from “The Shining”. I had to get out. I called Bill Gardner to arrange lunch later in the week, and after thirty seconds on the phone he stops and says “Wait, you’re here, in town, now? Don’t move WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU.” Ten minutes later, no joke, this Black SUV pulls up and some game designer I’ve never seen before jumps out and tells me to hop into the back, and that it’s almost “too late”. No one can explain exactly what we’re going to, except that “It’ll be fun” and “Oh, it’s in the abandoned schoolhouse on the hill.” At this point I’ve texted my girlfriend to arrange ransom money.

We arrive at the school in the dead of night, and we enter one at a time into a pitch black hallway. I feel my way forward through some twists and turns, and eventually a series of tiny tea lights in the floor lead me into a room which my tired brain first identified as the dream sequence from “Twin Peaks”. Red draped walls, small stage with a jazz crooner, and a bunch of confused people all holding playing cards. A man in a white mask, the bird equivalent of Sander Cohen’s rabbit fetish, hands me a card and tells me to wait my turn. Then and only then am I told that I’m actually seeing some experimental take on MacBeth called “Sleep No More”, and not say, attending some sort of cult sacrifice already in progress. The show itself was incredible, but the experience of hurtling towards some deserted stretch of night with one’s soon-to-be coworkers, wondering if you trust them with your life, well, it’s the sort of thing that sticks with you.

One of the largest facets of the video game industry lies with the various game conventions that all developers must attend in order to show off their wares. Throughout the history of Irrational, the minds behind the games would often travel to the various gaming shows throughout the year, giving them unique experiences, including past events where some team members attended as part of the press. Not only did the team get to meet some of their heroes from the industry, but they also gained invaluable lessons when examining the wins, the failures, and the gaps between making and promoting a game.

• Part 1: The First Con – Ken Levine, Nate Wells
• Part 2: The Middle Years – Ken Levine, Nate Wells, Shawn Robertson, Chris Kline
• Part 3: Showing BioShock Infinite – Ken Levine, Nate Wells, Shawn Robertson, Chris Kline
• Part 4: The Other Side – Shawn Elliott, Joe Fielder, Chris Remo
• Part 5: Press Past – Shawn Elliott, Joe Fielder, Chris Remo
• Part 6: Covering Conventions – Shawn Elliott, Joe Fielder, Chris Remo

Be sure to let us know what you think in the forums, and in the comments section below!

iTunes Link

Direct Download Episode 9

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• Podcast produced by James Bonney and Shawn Elliott.
• Editing by Ant Bear Audio.

Podcast music provided by:

• Signal Hill (Theme music)
• Cathode Rays (Part 1 intro)
• The Monolaters (Part 2 intro)
• The Monolaters (Part 3 intro)
• Cathode Rays (Part 4 intro)
• Justin Schwenk (Part 5 intro)
• Signal Hill (Credits music)

Click here to view the embedded video.

As you can see, Xander put in quite a bit of care while making these, mixing and matching parts while improvising for the rest. The end result isn’t just any army, it’s a formidable force straight out of the depths of Rapture. Be sure to head over to The Warhammer Forum to get a deeper look at all of Xander’s work, while finding out all the details on how these modded miniatures were created.

Whatever could it mean? There’s one way to find out! Be sure to tune into the 2011 Video Game Awards this Saturday, December 10 at 8pm ET / 5 pm PT for the world premiere of the new trailer for BioShock Infinite.

As we journey towards the end of 2011, we’re entering the season of reflection, gazing at the past year, and looking forward to the next. While we’re in the thick of creating BioShock Infinite, one common thought occurred as we reminisce about this past year: We’d love nothing more than to better understand how you play games.

To do just that, we’ve created this survey to help us get a better grasp on what’s important to you, our wonderful fans. To take this survey, simply head to survey.irrationalgames.com – It only takes a few moments of your time, and better yet, it’s your chance to be heard!