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.’”

Just after the launch of System Shock 2, Irrational Games had the opportunity to make its first console game, and the team had something just in mind. The Lost was Irrational’s new adventure being built for the PlayStation 2, and eventually the XBox, incorporating influences from across the spectrum. “The Lost was a bit of everything,” Gardner recalls about the adventure/horror project. “It was Silent Hill meets Zelda meets Devil May Cry in the sense that it was a series of levels in linear fashion, but within the levels, there was freedom.”

In the summer of 2003, the small team finished production on The Lost, but it was never published in North America. In the end, Irrational decided the game wasn’t up to their quality standards.

In 2005, things changed for The Lost when Irrational’s Creative Director Ken Levine met the CEO of a development studio in India called FXLabs. This fellow was hoping to bring more of the gaming industry to the Indian market. The pitch was to take the final finished version of The Lost, port it to PC only, and repurpose the game for the Indian market. The idea was approved, and localization of this port was under way.

“They spent about a year or so after we gave them all game assets and they periodically checked in,” says Gardner. “Finally, someone sent around a link to this YouTube video of the trailer for the game, and it had a bunch of Bollywood actors in it. There was this really well known Bollywood actress in the lead role, and just to see their spin on the game was a bit of cross-culture shock.”

*Disclaimer: We don’t speak the language, so we have no idea of what’s being said in this video. We apologize in advance if this is offensive to anyone in any way.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A few months later, The Lost was released and a few team members managed to get copies for themselves. Gardner recalls how surreal it was to the western eye, as the game was more or less the same when it came to the design. Beat for beat, the game was the same – the flow, the level structure, the weapons remained unchanged, but it was repurposed and redubbed for a different market. “You’re playing this game, this otherworldly version of a game you spent a couple of years working on, and it’s just weird,” comments Gardner. “You can’t wrap your head around how bizarre this is.”

With all the considerations and frustrations involved, this hasn’t turned the team off in the slightest. In fact, Gardner has found the upside to it all. “We wouldn’t have been able to make BioShock if it weren’t for The Lost. In a lot of ways, it was what BioShock wound up becoming. We had said with The Lost, we wanted to take a lot of what made System Shock 2 successful,” says the design director. “We learned so much from it, and learning to interface on a console game, while accounting for the tech aspects and considerations on all sides was, frankly, helpful.”

If you keep up with our blog and podcasts, you’ve heard about how we throw a lot of work away. Some pitches, like Monster Island, never make it past the documentation stage. Others, like newly-rediscovered RPG/RTS hybrid Dungeon Duel, get more than a handful of assets developed before being ultimately consigned to Irrational’s own dustbin of history.

Dungeon Duel was in development back in 2002, so it took some asking around to find Irrational staffers who still remembered working on it. As it turns out, technical director Chris Kline dug up a folder full of ancient email attachments showing game materials in various stages of completion. A lot of the folks listed in those decade-old CC lists still work here–art director Nate Wells, lead artist Shawn Robertson, concept artist Robb Waters, and creative director Ken Levine–not to mention Kline, of course.

As described in the pitch, “Dungeon Duel combines fast-paced RTS strategy with the addictiveness of card game trading in a unique fantasy setting–a true RTS game built specifically with consoles and their controllers in mind.” You can download the whole document as a PDF, including numerous pieces of artwork and mockups.

The concept art seen above was created by Robb Waters. Here are some more pieces we dug up while researching this forgotten bit of the studio’s past:

Sketched concept of what a built-out scene might look like.

Party and inventory sheet concept.

Fighter class concept and in-game model.

Environment concept created by Nate Wells.

In-game mockup based on Nate’s map concept.

We have to commend Chris Kline for somehow failing to lose track of these materials after nearly a decade. That’s why he makes the big bucks.

The Irrational audio department is hiding a secret—trying to keep the details of a certain incident hidden from the rest of the team. What they didn’t count on was the public release of a telling sound recording.

The story begins with a bizarre, arcane device: the Master Violet Ray. Marketed in the early 20th century as a miracle device cure for just about any ailment, the Violet Ray is little more than a handle that powers a glass tube attachment filled with neon, argon, or helium. Touching a powered Violet Ray creates a tingling sensation whose intensity can be increased with a power dial.

Audio team members Jeff Seamster and Pat Balthrop acquired the device from senior designer Forrest Dowling. They were hoping simply to record some unique electrical sounds for BioShock Infinite, but the evidence shows they got more than they bargained for:

If the audio player doesn’t work, please refresh the page.

The following interview was conducted following the incident to shine further light on the matter:

Sarah Rosa: What were your impressions of the device?

Jeff Seamster: There’s a manual that tells you what it’s supposed to be for, but when you pull it out of the box it looks like an implement of torture or something meant to hurt a cow.

Chris Remo: It’s definitely a machine that does something to another thing. It is definitely an active verb.

Jeff: Electricity is such a difficult sound effect to get real material for, so every time we get the opportunity to record some electricity, we say, “Yes, get that!”

Chris: So before you recorded it, you had never turned it up that high?

Jeff: No. We were totally noob about this device. We had no idea what we were doing and yes it had a manual and no we did not read that manual.

Sarah: Kristina [Drzaic, narrative designer] told me she warned you to wear rubber gloves.

Pat Balthrop: Lies.

Sarah: And she said she told you guys to keep it turned down.

Jeff: No way.

Sarah: Are you lying to me?

Jeff: Obviously the first thing we’re going to do is turn it up to the max and see how much juice we can get out of it.

Pat: Scott [Haraldsen, audio lead] was smart. He wouldn’t even go into the booth. He ran the recording session.

Jeff: It’s not very high-tech. It’s just got a two-prong plug. Important: not grounded.  There’s a knob with no indicator; you don’t know how high you’re turning it. You can keep turning it and you have no idea what’s happening. It’s just a weird thing with a black handle and something is happening with electricity on the inside.

The attachments were very exciting, because they have the cool purple light inside the glass like one of those plasma balls you put your hands on.

Pat: And it hurt a bit.

Chris: So you did start to get a warning of what it could do.

Jeff: We heard you could put it right up to the skin, but it was just a low hissy buzz, so we decided, “Let’s pump up the jams!” Then we were getting some nice arcs. You could hold your finger a couple inches away from it and get some good “zot!” sounds.

So we were like, “What else can we shock? Let’s shock the mic stand, let’s shock the back of your hand, let’s shock everything! There’s a piece of sheet metal in here! Maybe we can do something with that!”

Pat picked up the sheet metal, and I think my knee was resting against Pat’s leg at the time…

Sarah: So you were both conducting.

Jeff: …Yes. We got the mic really close to the sheet metal, then there was a huge spark. It must have been a four-inch long spark. Then it arcs over to the metal, I feel a huge jolt, and my leg seizes up. Pat flings back because he’s been completely electrocuted. We’re both yelling and trying to see if we have any burns or permanent damage, we can hear Scott laughing at us through the headphones, and Pat is still sitting there with this sheet metal going, “Get this shit away from me, man!”

At that point we pulled the plug.

Pat: But it was worth it, because it sounded awesome.

Chris: Are you going to use the sound? It’s a pretty amazing sound.

Jeff: Of course we are.

“Stop, you fools! Your puny weapons won’t stop that monstrosity…they’ll just make it stronger!” –Dr. Von Eckhardt, Scientist

Many game ideas never make it to store shelves, and Irrational Games has its share of discarded pitches. Among those is the destruction-happy Monster Island, as described in a recently-unearthed document penned by Ken Levine nearly a decade ago.

Inspired by mythological creatures throughout history–but most significantly Godzilla and other Japanese film monsters from the 1950s on–Monster Island would have allowed players to control either a giant rampaging beast or the forces trying desperately to keep the monster at bay.

The pitch promised some 20 monsters, a living city, heavily destructible environments, and a dynamic civil defense network. Its premise and mechanics actually date back to a pen-and-paper game Levine wrote a further 10 years prior. Along with The Lost, Monster Island would have been an early foray into console development for Irrational, which had already developed System Shock 2 and Freedom Force for PC.

• Download the Monster Island PDF file here.

To add some color to the pitch, current Irrational artist Jorge Lacera (the subject of our latest employee feature) illustrated a few formidable monsters for retroactive inclusion. We’ve also uploaded those images in much higher resolution below. They’re even suitable as widescreen desktop backgrounds!

Mauricio Tejerina–one of Irrational’s earliest employees, and now an artist on BioShock Infinite–was an environmental artist on The Lost. He dug up his nearly decade-old portfolio of entirely hand-drawn level and character concepts to be scanned in and annotated.

As in Dante’s Inferno, the final level of The Lost’s Hell was a vast lake of ice, overseen by mythological giants. Mauricio sketched the level’s layout by hand.

“The whole thing was basically the Antarctic,” he says. “I still remember working on it and seeing it in the game. Everything was all white. The ‘Titanic’ part of the level had a huge ship frozen halfway under the water. The entire thing was encased in ice.”

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The giant guardians themselves were concepted by Gareth Hinds, one of Irrational’s artists at the time. “As soon as you would get close to the giants, they would come alive and try to grab you,” Mauricio recalls. “The dynamic was great–you were walking through this humongous ice cavern, and you’d see this massive thing eight times your size. The visual was impressive, but they got cut from the level. There were technical concerns.”

The 3D technology of 2001 wasn’t quite up to the task of bringing the design to life. “We were trying to do something amazing, which we always try to do here,” Mauricio says, “but we were pushing it too far for that time.”

This internal design email shines a light onto actual team interaction during the game’s development. The guidelines range from the incredibly specific (“Hole for door is 216 x 128″) to the open-ended (“Any other cool shit you can dream up”). Mauricio, whose work on cables and ducts for System Shock 2 earned him the reputation of “the pipe guy,” printed the email out and began preliminary studies right on the page. That included some basic measurement calculations.

“I used to have to do math,” he now muses.

Although his primary role was creating levels and terrain, Mauricio was also given the opportunity to work on some of the game’s enemy characters, including the cyborg-turret-guy “Doughboy.” The experience was a key moment in his Irrational career.

“When you go to art school, you’re drawing and painting all the time,” he explains. “When I came here, I was in a junior position, so I didn’t have complete freedom to just go invent stuff–there are people with so much more experience. The fact that I was able to go work on these characters was so exciting.

“It’s something every kid wants to do, if they’ve ever wanted to make video games. I get up every day, and my brain starts thinking about what I’m going to be working on.

“Well, not every day is like that,” he says.

This page of concepts for a money-related pickup serves as a visual explanation of the design and refinement process. Although two elements–the skull and gem motifs–persisted in all incarnations of the object, they became increasingly integrated as they were reduced down to their most iconic forms.

“You can see how I used to think,” Mauricio says. After a moment, he adds, “Maybe I still think the same way.”

We just dug up a particularly precious artifact:  a sketchbook from System Shock 2. We’re talking original artwork on honest-to-goodness paper – no Wacom tablets or Cintiq monitors, but  paper with the original coffee stains still intact.

We are pleased to share with you some of the contents of this archaeological find.  Enjoy the art in this installment of From the Vault, while we look for more treasures in long-abandoned boxes and dusty storage closets.

In the next few installments of From the Vault, we will divulge the myriad departures BioShock took from its original vision, but also show our readers just how much the game’s heart and soul stayed constant.   You will be made privy to our very first design concepts and original drafts of back-story.  You will read about game modes and features that fell by the wayside during the many years of production.  And you will stand in awe of visual interface mockups crafted by Mr. Ken Levine himself!

Read on, and enjoy this insider’s look at the way we sold the core concepts of the award-winning BioShock.

Man-Bot is one of the most beloved characters from the Freedom Force games.  Struck by an errant bolt of Energy X, the erstwhile playboy Ted Taylor had no choice but to don a steel suit in order to contain the massive surges that would otherwise devastate all those around him.  Thus was the Man-Bot born – a metal-plated warrior and tragic hero for the ages.

The Original Man-Bot

Robb Waters tells the story behind this inking:

“The black and white Man-Bot picture is the first I ever drew of him.  I drew this before I even started at Irrational.

“Way back in 2000, I cold-called Irrational when I was looking to get back into the industry, to see what project they were working on.  I spoke to Ken and he told me they were making an original superhero game called Freedom Force. He rattled off a few names of potential characters he had in mind to give me the flavor of the game.  When he said “Man-Bot” I instantly envisioned this guy in a metallic  Snuffleupagus suit and faxed the drawing over along with my resume.  Ken loved it.  I think seeing my take on the character and potential vibe of the project secured me a seat at Irrational.  Of course I cringe looking at the drawing now, but the design of the character ended up more or less the same.”

Man-Bot Inking

This image of Man-Bot is a combination of hand-inking and watercolor work.   The purple and black outline indicates the explosive potential of the Energy X always building inside his body.

MAN-BOT

This classic Freedom Force image shows Man-Bot in his in-your-face pose of the pugilist.  No tribute to the long sufferin’ man in steel would be complete without it.

Lil’ Man-Bot

Drawn jokingly by Robb, this piece could have been the inspiration for an adorable sequel,  Freedom Force vs. Chibi Preschool Happy Fun Time. “For Freedom …and Juice Boxes!”

Unmasked

Don’t all tragic superheroes need a moment where they take off the mask and reveal their all-too-human faces?

The Final Sacrifice

This image is taken from Freedom Force vs The 3^rd Reich. Once again the ravages of a superhero’s life have caused Ted Taylor to doff his mask at the risk of cataclysm (and note the effulgent Energy X glowing through the cracks in his armor).   Man-Bot is older here, and sporting a beard remarkably unsinged, given the circumstances.

Yam Hand

The “Yam Hand” character went through many iterations during the early development of BioShock. Artist Robb Waters had this to say about his creation:  “One thing I liked about the character was his strange and unique head shape.  It kind of made you wonder what the heck was going on under that dingy burlap sack.”

Thug Aggressor

During one early stage of BioShock’s production, oversized and disproportionate limbs were all the fashion.

Jelly Man

Perhaps the Jelly Man shows some long-term side effects of ADAM abuse.   Maybe he’s showing why humans and jellyfish aren’t as genetically compatible as some Rapture scientists had envisioned.    Or possibly this is what happens when a Splicer decides to mutate into a delightful breakfast spread.  Who knows?   Regardless, this guy melted before he could be incorporated into BioShock.

Monster Bug

This is one of the more gruesome pieces of concept work to emerge during work on BioShock – a huge insect slowly growing from within a human being and taking over the physical form.   And as sickening as this image is, its true power comes from what’s implied:  what was it like for the original person transitioning to this state of organic fusion?   And what mash-up of man and bug is hidden under that cloth?

This visual was of great help in selling BioShock to publishers.

Grub Mutant

Another take on the fused-parasite idea – different bug, same revolting results.   This one is perhaps even more disturbing, when you realize that having a grub as thick as a telephone pole growing through the guy’s chest isn’t preventing him from having his gun locked and loaded.   You have to wonder what’s going through his head.

Funkenstein

Robb made this oil painting in his spare time. Art Director Nate Wells liked it so much, that he built a pinball machine in SWAT 4 inspired by the piece.

Crabby Sculpt

Robb sculpted this statue to help solidify the BioShock vision. With a small pitch document and the Crabby sculpture in hand, Ken went out to pitch BioShock to various publishers.

Freedom Force Inking

This piece was hand drawn by Robb during the development of Freedom Force. Back then, a lot more concept art was created with pencil and paper.

Freedom Force Comic Excerpt

Here’s an excerpt from the Freedom Force comic book.

Exorcism

And here’s another Freedom Force image.

Dog in a Wheelchair

Before BioShock’s “gatherers” became Little Sisters in an artistic process characterized by false starts and filled garbage bins, they were sea slugs. Nobody empathized with the creatures enough to care whether they lived or died. When the call went out to come up with a character that players would pity, Lead Artist Shawn Robertson submitted this insipid image of a Doberman in a wheelchair. The illustration is now infamous at the studio, although Shawn insists that fellow artist Scott Sinclair’s “frog with the funnel in its anus” is more embarrassing by far.

Frog with a Funnel in its Anus

Before BioShock’s “gatherers” became Little Sisters in an artistic process characterized by false starts and filled garbage bins, they were sea slugs. Nobody empathized with the creatures enough to care whether they lived or died. When the call went out to come up with a character that players would pity, Art Principal Scott Sinclair submitted this insipid image of a toad with a funnel and sun tea jug attached to its anus. Scott insists that fellow artist Shawn Robertson’s “dog in a wheelchair” is more embarrassing by far.

Gatherer

The original BioShock “gatherer” — based on a sea slug — was later replaced by the Little Sister.

SloProFum

SloProFum, the studio’s internal name for this prototype Big Daddy variant that mauled players with an enormous hook and fired iron bearings from a barrel, stands for “slow projectile/fucked-up melee.” Hear how the design didn’t work on this month’s Irrational Behavior podcast.

Stay Puft Bouncer

Initially reluctant to add a drill arm to the Bouncer Big Daddy variant at Creative Director Ken Levine’s insistence, artists Nate Wells and Robb Waters started exchanging a series of images in which they attached marshmallows, human butts, and other items to the character’s hand.

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