Job Posting Reveals Ken Levine Working on AI for New Mystery Game

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BioShock creator Ken Levine is looking to hire a new senior programmer for Irrational Games with experience in developing artificial intelligence, giving us a little insight into what his new mystery game could include, which has previously been teased as an open-world sci-fi RPG with a “re-usable LEGO narrative”.

The job posting for the new role, which recently turned up on Gamasutra, shows that Irrational Games is seeking programmers with experience of Unreal Engine 3 and 4 – the former was used to build BioShock and BioShock Infinite – and three or more years “working on current generation AI.” Artificial intelligence seems to be a key component of the position, since it is mentioned numerous times in the listing: the programmer’s duties will include “design, schedule, document and develop AI behaviors and systems,” so the candidate should have “extensive experience crafting AI for different game types.”

Back in 2014, Levine stripped Irrational Studios down to a small company of just 15 employees, laying off 75 staff in the process. “I’ll be starting a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavour at Take-Two,” he said at the time. It seems that, in the build-up to its new game, Levine is looking to grow his studio again.

Since finishing work on BioShock Infinite DLC Burial at Sea, Levine has been talking about his next game, which he describes as a “thought experiment”. “I’ve been working on a concept I call narrative Legos [sic] which is how do you take narrative and break it down,” Levine said. “What are the smallest part of narrative that you can then remix and build something out of? Mix and match.”

Thank you Polygon for providing us with this information.