We posted a Flickr gallery with shots from throughout the show, including evidence of one of the strangest contests we’ve ever run. Many attendees were given invitations to the fan event at random, but some got their passes by winning the sticker contest. Thousands of BioShock Infinite stickers were distributed during the show, and the fans with the most elaborate or impressive sticker-constructed costumes were rewarded.

This fairly terrifying sticker contest entrant is also modeling Irrational’s Gamescom-exclusive t-shirt, starring Elizabeth with her Lincoln mask. The back is proudly emblazoned with Booker’s immortal line, “Keep looking, Lincoln!”

This impressively sticker-clad woman won a ticket to our fan event for this thorough getup.

Irrational’s Keith Shetler, Stephen Alexander, Kate Baxter, and Joe Faulstick proudly show off a Best of Gamescom award from GamingXP. Everyone in this photograph agrees that Keith looks weird without his glasses.

See you next year, Gamescom!

Browse through the full set of photos at our Flickr gallery. Next up is PAX Prime–check out our plans.

Ken Levine and Irrational’s senior art team packed the house at PAX East 2011 with an hour-long discussion about the studio’s approach to creating video game worlds. Art director Nate Wells, lead artist Shawn Robertson, and senior effects artist Stephen Alexander joined Ken with moderator Julian Murdoch to show the evolution of BioShock Infinite’s flying city of Columbia–starting from, essentially, Rapture in the sky. Newly-revealed concept art and Sky-Line prototype videos accompanied the presentation.

Video of the panel is available from GameSpot and G4. The GameSpot version includes the Q&A section at the end.

One image that appeared several times throughout the panel was this simple guide, created by BioShock art director Scott Sinclair and given to Nate as he took over art director duties for Infinite:

The image pokes fun at the notion that creating the game would be as easy as moving the city up to the clouds, but it also serves as a reminder that at one point Columbia really was a lot like Rapture. This concept image shows a scene that’s so dark and constrained by clouds that it might as well be underwater. Even the Art Nouveau architecture is reminiscent of Rapture’s Art Deco:

“This is a lie we tell ourselves every time we start a game,” Nate said, referring to early assumptions about the straightforward BioShock-in-the-sky approach. “I think it’s evolutionary. If you go to the dawn of man, there’s a cave with elders sitting around going, ‘Today we’re going to hunt a buffalo. It’s pretty much a big raccoon. We’re just going to do what we do in raccoon hunting, like, more.’”

Of course, he added, “if it really was like this, we’d be so fucking bored that we wouldn’t know what to do.”

The bright Fourth of July Americana look that Infinite had adopted by the time it was announced came later–but once it did, it became obvious to the team that it was the right approach.

Throughout the panel, the crew showed pieces of period reference photography, much of which was drawn from the excellent Shorpy Historical Photo Archive. It’s an invaluable source for those interested in past eras (including Ken, who describes himself as a big documentary nerd). Nate also called out Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City, which simultaneously chronicles the creation of Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair and recounts the story of Dr. H.H. Holmes, America’s first serial killer. Many Irrational team members read the book while developing Infinite’s setting and concept, and it helped to crystallize the optimism, ambition–and darkness–that characterized the era.

Later, the panel audience was shown a proof-of-concept video showing a player leap from Sky-Line to Sky-Line armed with a rocket launcher. While visually primitive, the footage was an important step in development, as it gave the team a glimpse at the kinds of gameplay Sky-Lines could support. That video was followed up with a test from the art team showing how audiovisual presentation could help sell the experience to players. Both videos can be seen in the GameSpot and G4 footage.

Ken summed up the ultimate goal for Sky-Lines in BioShock Infinite: “It’s like being on a rollercoaster, but you’re hanging in the air and you have a fucking gun.”

Finally, during our PAX fan event, we were presented with an unexpected mashup of the Art Director image and Robb Waters’ take on Dog in a Wheelchair. Apparently, community member Japester sketched this remarkable Dog in a Balloon Harness during the panel:

Key Irrational developers will answer that question during an in-depth panel at PAX East in Boston this March, with BioShock Infinite materials ranging from concept sketches to fully formed scenes. Creative director Ken Levine, art director Nate Wells, lead artist Shawn Robertson, and senior effects artist Stephen Alexander will show not just how Columbia was created from a technical standpoint, but how it was originally conceived and how it became a key character at the heart of BioShock Infinite.

“From Background To Center Stage: Building Game Worlds As Main Characters” will be held at 5:00pm in the Manticore Theater on Friday, March 11.

Plan the rest of your PAX East schedule with the official show schedule, and check out how you can pick up some free swag courtesy of Irrational Games!

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.

iTunes Link

Direct Download Episode 7: Part 2

Irrational Podcasts RSS Feed

Podcast music provided by:

• Signal Hill
• Taxpayer
• Cathode Rays

Ten Things, as the name implies, gives you ten opinions from ten different Irrational employees, each time on a new topic.  It could be cookies, or albums you should own, or things to do at a picnic… any and every subject is fair game.

With E3 behind us, we’re kicking off Ten Things with the topic:  “Impressive products at E3 in 2010.”

Stephen Alexander – Senior FX Artist: Portal 2. Looked very pretty, gameplay seemed like what made the first great with lots of new ideas, writing seemed to have maintained its really high bar.

Dan Johnson – Quality Assurance Tester: Dance Central, using Kinect and creating a real game that has the same infectiousness that pervades Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

Kristina Drzaic – Designer: Epic Mickey blew me away, more over Disney’s decision to play with Mickey’s brand image in an interesting way than actual demonstrated gameplay, which still looked great.  I’m looking forward to that one.

Sarah Rosa – Assistant to the Creative Director: There was a lot of awesome at E3.  I must say that the 3DS is definitely worth molesting and worked as described!

Mike Syrnyk – Associate Producer: I was impressed by Bulletstorm just because I love the idea of literally booting the crap out of every enemy in sight.

Chad LaClair – Level Designer: RAGE.  Best looking game I’ve seen on the 360.

Adrian Murphy – Associate Producer: Ghost Recon.  I didn’t pay too much attention before E3, but after watching the videos, I was pleasantly surprised.  It doesn’t seem to be taking the Modern Warfare/ Battlefield route of “ZOMG everything is exploding all the time I am Rambo.”  The cloaking looked cool, and the joint takedown sequence was rad.

Ben Lo – Concept Artist: The most impressive one was Gran Turismo 5 to me. Even though I’m not a big racing gamer, the in-game graphics alone will be able to get me going at it for hours and hours. It is just gorgeous.

Joe Faulstick – Producer: Civilization 5 has me excited. They seem to be finding the perfect balance between keeping what worked well and improving upon the original core experience.

Jorge Lacera – Concept Artist: Metal Gear Solid: Rising fucking blew my mind. I’m ready to slice some shit up!

Sharks, spiders, the dark, and chemistry exams.  These are just a couple of the things that we are scared of.  In this episode of Irrational Behavior we look at the things we are scared of and how it affects the way we make games.  Guest Andrew Weaver of Indiana University explains why we enjoy fun and the staff shed light on the challenges of making a game scary.

• Part 1: What Are We Afraid Of
• Part 2: Why Fear is Fun
• Part 3: The Art of Fear
• Part 4: The Feel of Fear
• Part 5: The Sound of Fear

Stay tuned to IrrationalGames.com for more content related to this month’s podcast.

Discuss this episode of Irrational Behavior over in the forum.

iTunes Link

Direct Download Episode 5

Irrational Podcasts RSS Feed

Podcast music provided by:

• Signal Hill
• Walking Sleep
• Geoff Graves
• The Happy Hollows

Telemarketer Ken Levine. Playboy illustrator Scott Sinclair.  This month’s episode of Irrational Behavior explores what we did before we began developing videogames.  This months episode highlights include the commiserations of former game store clerks, an artist who accidentally concealed a Satanic message in a Christian comic for children, and a confession from the man who claims to have created the deer in Golden Tee Golf.

Stay tuned to IrrationalGames.com for more content related to this month’s podcast.

Discuss this episode of Irrational Behavior over in the forum.

iTunes Link

Direct Download Episode 3

Irrational Podcasts RSS Feed

Podcast music provided by:

• Signal Hill
• Josh Rathbun
• Patrick Balthrop
• Justin Schwenk
• Fillipo Beck Peccoz
• Giancarlo Feltrin

In any game development studio, you’ll find a bunch of inspired and imaginative people who have a lot to get off their chests. To save on counseling fees, we decided to sublimate these repressed feelings about their gaming lives by sticking a microphone in their faces and creating a series of podcasts that offer an insight into what makes us – and our games – tick.

Each podcast will explore a particular theme in what we hope is an entertaining and insightful way, and this theme will also evolve throughout the month on the Irrational Games website itself. Visit regularly and you’ll find content on the site that helps illustrate what we’re trying to describe in the podcast, or expands and explores the theme further.

Please contribute to the discussions about the podcasts in the forums and if you have a great idea for a future theme then let us know! We might even send you something to say thanks. But don’t hold us to it.

So to kick off, we chose a brutal theme – “ideas that died”. We explore what happens when creativity runs into technical restrictions, a lack of clear consensus, and – at times – its own convolution. You’ll glimpse abandoned BioShock tidbits, as well as an as yet unrevealed game from four years ago when Irrational Games backed away from a zombie invasion. And much, much more.

Oh, and you’ll understand why ‘dog in a wheelchair’ is the answer to just about any question…

Irrational Behavior podcasts act as tables of contents for stories that appear here on IrrationalGames.com each month. January’s content continues to explore dead ideas with the following features:

Discuss this episode of Irrational Behavior over in the forum.

iTunes Link

Direct Download Episode 1

Irrational Podcasts RSS Feed

Podcast theme song, “Luna Park”, provided by Signal Hill from the album, “More After We’re Gone”.