We are pleased to announce that on Saturday, during our joint panel with Game Informer at Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, we will be screening that gameplay demonstration to the public for the first time. The session, “From Concept to Cover: The Game Informer Selection Process,” will feature team members from Game Informer and Irrational discussing how video game magazine covers are chosen, with examples drawn from the upcoming October issue of the magazine.

We’re looking forward to releasing the footage later this month for everyone to enjoy–and we’ll keep you updated on when and where that will happen once those details are locked down–but PAX attendees who show up for the Game Informer panel will have the first opportunity to see the world of Columbia explored in real-time.

When: Saturday, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Where: Unicorn Theatre

Who: Andy McNamara [Editor In Chief, Game Informer], Andy Reiner [Executive Editor, Game Informer], Leonie Manshanden [Director of Marketing, Irrational], Shawn Robertson [Lead Artist, Irrational]

“The city is an equal lead character to whoever your leads are,” says noted comics writer Brian Michael Bendis, author of successful independent series Powers as well as numerous Marvel lines including Ultimate Spider-Man. That philosophy makes Bendis the perfect interview subject for Ken Levine, whose contributions to BioShock’s city of Rapture helped make the game’s setting its most defining element.

Both creators made their biggest impact on fiction after exploring other forms. Bendis cut his teeth on crime fiction, while Levine began his writing career as a screenwriter. Those experiences helped them develop their ideas about writing, as well as an appreciation for what makes their chosen forms unique.

In the second episode of Irrational Interviews–recorded prior to the announcement of BioShock Infinite–Levine, Bendis, and Shawn Elliott discuss lessons learned in writing, the challenges of character permanence in games and comics, and much more.

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

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• Produced by James Bonney, Shawn Elliott and Alan Bise
• Music provided by The Happy Hollows
• Spider-Woman Motion Comic clips courtesy of Marvel Comics

Here’s why we think Phil is swell:

Philip James Frechette makes an amazing first impression. Visitors to Irrational Games could ask for no better.

Phil is warm, gracious, fashionable (depending upon the state of his beard) and makes everyone feel welcome. He goes to great lengths to keep the team happy, never shying away from doing what needs to be done, even if it means plunging a toilet. Or shipping a package at 7:00 p.m. Or running and grabbing the last copy of Sophie’s Choice within a 50 mile radius (for the third time) because the team needs it for a review session.

His MacGyver skills with most things IKEA are a wonder to behold, as is his willingness to stay until 2:00 a.m. assembling previously boxed furniture to hit a deadline. Phil has managed more office moves and flood-related chaos than should be legal, and he throws a hell of a holiday party.

His dedication to the well-being of the team is as clear as his love of all things Gaga.

Your title is “Team Support” What does that mean?

It means that it’s my job to keep people happy and healthy. That can mean running their errands or ordering food for the whole office. I coordinate flu shots in the winter and fun times year round. Basically my job is to make sure everyone has what they need to get the job done. I also have some administrative duties and sometimes like a good boy, I even answer the phone.

What games have you worked on?

BIOSHOCK!

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

Wicked Pissah kid

What is your favorite game of all time?

I have many and could never pick a favorite of all time. I’m a huge fan of the Mario franchise so I’d have to go with Double Dash, but lately it’s been Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

PINBALL, especially the Lord of the Rings table.

What is your favorite movie?

Cry-Baby

What are your hobbies outside of work?

My dog Cooper, my cat Fattouche, my fish, sewing, geocaching, playing video games, and of course singing my heart out in the shower.

You have become quite the practiced tailor, and I know you even make dog clothes. What’s your main inspiration for your fine canine fashions?

My dog Cooper has really short hair and he’s only 15 lbs., so he gets really cold in the winter and he hates rain. I always hate trying to buy him something for 40 bucks that is totally ugly and not comfortable. I decided to merge my love of sewing with my superb taste and my love of dogs and voila, a star was born. Oh, and Lady Gaga, of course.

Jeff Seamster mentioned Geocaching also. Have the two of you ever run into each other while on the hunt for a cache and had an epic battle? More realistically, do you have any awesome stories to share about the hobby?

Do I? In fact, I have the most epic story about Geocaching EVER! It all started when Jeff and I first met, which was due to Geocaching. Jeff was traveling by bus to a remote destination when due to an unruly passenger, the bus crashed and flipped over an embankment and landed on some train tracks. Thankfully, Jeff managed to get out just as a train came by and smashed the bus to pieces, causing the train to jump the tracks.

The next thing I know, I am the head of a team of U.S. Deputy Marshalls, and we are doing everything we can to find Jeff and get to the cache before him. He proved to be quite difficult to find though, avoiding our every attempt and concealing his identity along the way. At one point, after he stole an ambulance, we trapped him in a tunnel inside a dam; I chased him through the drainage system, fought with him at gunpoint, and eventually cornered him near the end of a spillway. He kept insisting that he “didn’t kill his wife,” but since my job was to find him and get to the cache before him, this information was completely irrelevant. So I told him again and again: “I don’t care.”

Then without notice he took a swan dive off dam into the freezing water below. Jeff hid for months eating oranges and making fake ID’s, during which time he went to work at a hospital as a janitor in disguise and even helped a few patients. I looked for Jeff and the cache and chased every lead I could, since I needed to find that cache before Jeff did. Jeff, however, needed to find the One-Armed Man, since it was his only chance at ever being a free man again. Finally Jeff figured out who the one-armed man was and it turned out he was working for one of our colleagues, Jim Bonney, who was also a Geocacher. Jim had cleverly planned this scenario from the beginning. Knowing that Jeff would get there first, and that I would stop at nothing to find Jeff , he had organized the hit on Jeff’s wife to keep us distracted long enough so he could find the cache first.

Well, when Jeff found out about this he was livid! He stormed the hotel at which Jim was giving a speech, and called him out in front of everybody. This led to a chase through the hotel, with Jeff and I in hot pursuit all the way to the hotel roof, where they crashed through a skylight and onto the top of an elevator. I followed again and we ended up in the laundry room. Jim almost shot me, but to my surprise Jeff stopped him, even though we had been fighting over this cache from the beginning.

Once we left the hotel, Jim was detained but Jeff and I were given police escort away. To his surprise I handed him a small bag containing the cache.

“I thought you didn’t care,” said Jeff.

“I don’t,” I said.

And that, my friend, is my very epic battle Geocaching story. Or maybe it was the plot from The Fugitive.

Tell me your favorite story about life at Irrational.

There are too many, but I think I will pick the sad irony of Valentine’s Day 2007. It started like any other day, except it was raining and snowing. We were in full crunch mode for BioShock and that meant a lot of random errands for me, as I was doing my best to keep everyone in-house and working on the game. I’m not sure how many people know what it’s like to work 16 hours a day, but it means you pretty much don’t have a life outside of work. More accurately, you have a life outside of work, you just can’t use it and you miss lots of important things. So being a hard worker and a nice guy I volunteered to take money from people and make a list of gifts and cards to pick up for significant others. I ended up with about $800.00 in my pocket and I hit the road.

Now, I have already mentioned that it was raining and snowing, which is super important because what happens next will blow your mind. I was driving on the highway and without notice my car dies. Literally dead, nothing I can do, all hope is lost, dead and stuck on the side of the highway with no breakdown lane. I called AAA and they told me that based on my location it was an EMERGENCY. Well, duh! So I sat in the car long enough to freak out because I could just imagine someone flying down the highway and not seeing me stopped and plowing into my car and killing me. I had to get out and stand a safe distance away and wait for AAA. So that’s what I did. I stood there and waited, and waited, and waited. Two hours later they came and towed my car. By then I was soaking wet and just about frozen all the way through, and, oh yeah, I still had the money that everyone had given me. Needless to say it wasn’t a very happy Valentine’s Day for some of the peeps here who went home empty handed. You know what they say about good intentions.

Ever wonder how games get on the cover of Game Informer magazine? From the exploration stage to full out execution, editors Andy McNamara and Andy Reiner explain how games go from a phone call to 4.5 million readers in this candid talk about how game journalists work with game companies to reveal gaming’s biggest hits. To share the developer perspective, director of marketing Leonie Manshanden, and lead artist Shawn Robertson join us to discuss landing the October cover, which will be revealed on stage for the first time.

When: Saturday, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Where: Unicorn Theatre

Who: Andy McNamara [Editor In Chief, Game Informer], Andy Reiner [Executive Editor, Game Informer], Leonie Manshanden [Director of Marketing, Irrational], Shawn Robertson [Lead Artist, Irrational]

In this episode of Irrational Behavior we let you look behind the scenes of the creation at the BioShock Infinite trailer.  Some of the people responsible for directing and creating the trailer discuss the constant evolution of the material as well as the hurdles that had to be overcome along the way in order to get to what you see released.

WARNING: This episode of Irrational Behavior is filled with spoilers.  Watch the trailer at http://www.BioshockInfinite.com before listening to the podcast.

• Part 1: The Creative Vita-Chamber
• Part 2: Infinite’s Horizon
• Part 3: Listen Up!
• Part 4: Days in the Dark

This completes the first season of Irrational Behavior.  The show will be going on a break but stay tuned to IrrationalGames.com for the latest news and content on BioShock Infinite as well as the return of Irrational Interviews starting September 1st.  Continue to discuss this episode of Irrational Behavior and BioShock Infinite in our forums.

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Podcast music provided by:

• Signal Hill
• Taxpayer
• Cathode Rays