Recently, we released a handful of alternate covers for our fans to download and print, but we thought we could go one step further. We asked Robb to create a one-of-a-kind piece, and after distilling his vigor, he’s created the amazing custom PlayStation 3 inlay seen below.

Yes, that is the Handyman with his little pet (Bella), and this is the only one that will exist, ever. This is not a photocopy or a lithograph print—this is an original graphite-on-paper drawing, and Robb even signed a certificate of authenticity denoting this as the only one in existence. Created within the same dimensions as a PlayStation 3 inlay, this will be trimmed and placed inside a US PlayStation 3 version of the game for shipping.

We’re spinning this web of a story because one of our lucky fans will become the only person in the world to own this unique artwork. For your chance to win, post a comment below, and tell us about your favorite moment with the Handyman from BioShock Infinite.

See the full official rules below.

All entries must be posted by May 20th, 2013 @ 11:59PM ET to be considered. Irrational Games will pick one (1) random commenter from all entrants to win the listed prize. Only one entry per username is permitted for this giveaway, and each individual may only have one IrrationalGames.com account. You must be aged 17 and older, and not a Take Two / 2K Games / Irrational Games employee, or affiliated with an Irrational Games employee to be eligible. Winner will be contacted via private message on their registered IrrationalGames.com account to claim their prize.

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.

Update: The contest is over! Thanks to everyone for participating, and congratulations to our randomly-selected winner @equustel. She’ll be walking away (Sky-Lining away?) with the NECA-made Sky-Hook prototype.

We’re collaborating with NECA to create high-quality, life-size models of BioShock Infinite’s Sky-Hooks, the devices used by citizens of Columbia to travel along the city’s Sky-Lines–and we’re giving one away before they go into production. There will only ever be a few of these early resin-cast prototypes. We’re keeping one.

For your chance to have your very own, just follow the @IrrationalGames Twitter account and retweet the contest announcement. You too could move as fast as the devil through the heavens! (Please do not attempt.)

The Sky-Hook’s design was a collaboration between Irrational’s Robb Waters, Mauricio Tejerina, and Adam Bolton. It was built by NECA, which will also produce the official line of BioShock Infinite models. The Sky-Hook will be shipped in a custom-built box designed by Robb and inspired by the cases used to hold dueling pistols. This unique case won’t ship with the eventual production Sky-Hooks–it’s prototype-exclusive.

If you walked into the main lobby of the Boston Convention Center during PAX East, you saw Him–Elizabeth’s massive guardian and jailer in BioShock Infinite. He was the cornerstone of our PAX presence, serving as both a photo booth and a de facto meeting place for various gatherings throughout the weekend.

The project began with a target image by artist Robb Waters, who has inked many concept images of Him for internal use on BioShock Infinite. Construction was handled off-site, and over the course of several weeks we received ongoing photographic progress reports chronicling His construction.  Each delivery was received with anticipation and followed by some measure of relief, as the creature’s considerable frame became increasingly recognizable.

Initial Concept

Once the idea to build a diaroma into a booth was pitched, the final concept fell into place almost instantly. Robb sketched out his idea of Him bursting through a brick wall to grab PAX attendees, and added some notes for detail. The physical form of the piece ended up almost exactly as he first described it, with minor exceptions like the removal of the side wall.

Day 2

The second day of production consisted mainly of rough shapes and small details that only hinted at what was to come.

Day 8

Only a week later, the huge hand had largely come together in its basic form.

Day 9

…And the following day, the same was true of the head.

Day 17

When we got these shots, the scale of the project finally became truly apparent. Seeing Him assembled and upright, even in this rough form, was a stirring moment.

Day 31

Roughly a month after construction began, the piece was essentially assembled with a basic paint job–it was clear at this point that Robb’s vision had come together.

Completion

And here He is on the show floor, menacing Elizabeth and a PAX attendee. I spent most of the weekend on the opposite side of the wall, manning the less imposing half of the booth–and every time I crossed that middle divide, I did a double-take.

The big guy is actually such a big guy that there’s no room for him in our humble Irrational office. He’s going on the road to other gaming events where Irrational has a presence. Next stop? We’re actually not sure–but expect to see Him again.

Revealed last year, the covers are the work of Irrational artist Robb Waters. They evoke the early-twentieth-century style of landmark publications like the Saturday Evening Post, which frequently featured illustrations by the influential Norman Rockwell and J.C. Leyendecker. The two designs that comprise the double-sided poster depict the BioShock Infinite characters Him–Elizabeth’s hulking guardian and jailer–and Charles, the crow-keeping crony seen in the extended gameplay demo.

According to Game Informer, the posters will only be available for a limited time.

Happy Valentine Day from Irrational Games!

Artist Jorge Lacera put this year’s image together based on the Game Informer cover artwork by Robb Waters. Download the full-sized image here, and check out last year’s image here.

Illustrated by Irrational’s own Robb Waters, the covers are unique in the history of Game Informer in that they dispense with the magazine’s standard layout and logotype in favor of an entirely “in-character” design. The look directly evokes period publications like The Saturday Evening Post, whose early 20th century cover artists included legendary figures like Norman Rockwell and J.C. Leyendecker. These three beautiful covers depict key characters from the world of BioShock Infinite: the massive porcelain-fisted Handyman, Charles and his crows, and–most crucially–the imprisoned woman Elizabeth and her imposing protector and warden.

The back covers,  by artist Michael Swiderek, are fictionalized advertisements for various products offered to citizens of Columbia, including Sky-Hooks to traverse the soaring Sky-Lines that facilitate combat and movement in the city; a piece of patriotic piano sheet music; and the mysterious Murder of Crows. A bit of the effect of Murder of Crows can be seen in one of the new Game Informer-released screenshots, but it is also featured more fully in the upcoming gameplay video.

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.

Artist

So your title actually gets to be “Artist?” In the videogame world what does that entail?

I guess that entails putting pencil to paper and defining the face of game being created.  I’ve always been drawn to character concepting work.  I know this comes from growing up loving the larger-than-life characters of the movies and comic books.

How is the art you do here for work different from the art you may do for yourself at home?

The art I work on at home is not all that different from the stuff I work on at Irrational in that, once again, it mainly revolves around characters.  The one main difference is that I work in traditional mediums at home.  I really enjoy large-format painting as well as sculpting.  I hardly ever fire up my home computer to make artwork.  Currently I am finishing up a toy portrait series I’ve been working on for a while.  The series is composed of several large oil paintings of some of my favorite vintage character toys.  Most of these portraits are pretty whimsical. They range from a soulful-looking Ben Grimm to a shameless, bubble headed Darth Vader knock-off.  I also really enjoy sculpting little campy characters in clay and then reproducing them in resin.  I’ve always been fascinated with schlocky hit-and-miss qualities of cheaply manufactured character toys.

What games have you worked on?

System Shock, Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri, Flight Unlimited, Thief, Akuji the Heartless, Freedom Force, Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich, The Lost, BioShock.

Describe Life at Irrational in three words or less.

Barrel o’ fun.

What is your favorite game of all time?

Tron the arcade game!  Light cycles!  Electric blue, light up joystick!

Name a game everyone should play once in their life.

Freedom Force.  Ha!

What are your hobbies outside of work?

Art, candlepin bowling, terrible B-movies.

What is your favorite movie?

Alien.  Nothing beats the stark horror or design work in that movie.

I hear tell that you might be something of a collector or fan of classic comics and figures? Any truth to that? If so, what is it that you love about them?

Um, maybe?  Yes, with comics books it’s the nostalgia, the four-color printing, the crazy characters, the classic artwork and the ridiculous stories.  I even love the smell of vintage, yellowed, slightly musty pulp!  And yes, I have a few old dusty, vintage plastic figures.  I love poorly-realized characters the best.  If it’s from the 70’s, goofy looking and of questionable quality, I probably need it.

What’s your favorite Irrational story?

Some friends of mine from work and I used to hold band practice after hours at our work space. Our old office in Southie [Editor's Note:  nickname for South Boston] was a cool three-story building that used to be a school house.  We were on the second floor playing late one evening and we had left the fire escape doors open.  Suddenly a bottle came flying through the open doors and landed at our feet.  We all stopped playing and looked at each other, dumbfounded.  We heard a nasty, bellowing voice coming from the dark below.  “Shut the f–k up!” We took the hint and closed the doors.  We were pretty sure who the voice in the night belonged to as we were familiar with a Whitey Bulger wanna-be that lived across the way.

See, on several occasions, from our birds-eye vantage point, we had witnessed this guy getting ugly and threatening people that were trying to park in front of his house.  People in Southie are notorious for defending their self-proclaimed street parking spots.  This guy used to put out an orange pylon to keep prospective parkers away.  One day, me and another friend I worked with had seen enough of this guy’s chest beating. I dared him to run down and steal the guy’s pylon.  My friend actually went down and snatched it!  He brought it up laughing and we threw it in a closet.  Whitey ended up replacing the pylon with a sad lawn chair.

Getting back to my story… the next morning after the flying bottle incident, Whitey came over to the office and threatened a random secretary in the building, proclaiming if he heard any more music coming out of the office he would torch the place.  A day or so later my friend, the guy that stole the pylon, found his tires had been slashed.  The parking lot was directly behind our building and in direct sight of our ornery neighbor.  He must have been singled out because he often brought his guitar to and from work.  Old Whitey must have figured this was one of the punks making such a racket a few nights before. 

Anyway, on behalf of Dracula 2000, we are sorry about your tire’s misfortune.  Or maybe, just maybe, it was just a little bit of Southie-style karma for the kidnapping of an innocent pylon.

Here’s why we think Robb is swell…

Robb Waters is a fixture at Irrational.  He has worked on numerous titles and has over 15 years of experience in the industry. If you have played the Freedom Force games, you’ve frolicked in Robb’s sketchbook.

Robb’s love of retro comics and vintage toys gives him a unique style that breathes life into every game he works on.  He gave Andrew Ryan a face, lent Sander Cohen his unmistakable panache, and (despite Tenenbaum’s protestations to the contrary) was the real creator of the Little Sisters.  When he’s not raising the ire of the neighborhood restaurants’ wait staff, Robb continues to bring his brilliant and bizarre vision to our (for now) unannounced title.

Irrational was once a tiny team that made games on miniscule budgets. Today we’re much, much bigger and the budget’s grown along with the ambition of the group’s games. This month’s episode of Irrational Behavior explores what these changes have meant for the studio’s culture and the individuals who’ve been on board as the industry itself has had to adopt the professional practices of big business. Episode highlights include an insider take on the making of Thief, designers Dorian Hart and Alexx Kay waxing nostalgic on the days when they were allowed to do voice over work for Freedom Force, as well as the story of a mysterious onanist who secretly used artist Shawn Robertson’s office for forbidden self-pleasures.

Stay tuned to IrrationalGames.com for more content related to this months podcast.

Discuss this episode of Irrational Behavior over in the forum.

iTunes Link

Direct Download Episode 2

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Podcast music provided by:

• Josh Rathbun
• Matt Grimm
• Geoff Graves
• Rich Vreeland/DisasterPeace
• Signal Hill

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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