Ken Levine’s Next Game – My Best Guess

Ken Levine has recently taken to Twitter to reply to various questions, with too many teasers, for what his next game will be. In sadder news, the new studio he built is still unnamed. I’m hoping they call it Kenny Loggins to the Game Developments — if they do call it that, I would be very surprised, and unhappy (because that is one terrible pun).

RT @SGuergachi: @IGLevine still deciding on studio name? –we think we’re close on that.

— Ken Levine (@IGLevine) January 27, 2015

Tweeting Frenzy!

So by the tweets what are the almost solid facts we know?

@SGuergachi Doing it in parallel. Should have a prototype in next few months.

— Ken Levine (@IGLevine) January 27, 2015

The Lego narrative structure is a new concept, where the team is trying to do away with the traditional three-act structure, and instead allow players to build they own narratives.

RT @deadlybit: @IGLevine Had Mordor impacted the project? mostly in that it validated that people would care about narrative replayability.

— Ken Levine (@IGLevine) January 27, 2015

They are using Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor for the inspiration on the emergent gameplay, and then adding the Lego story structure.

RT @deadlybit: @IGLevine Still sticking to 3 act structure? –no don’t think that’s relevant in what we’re doing. i think more like chapters

— Ken Levine (@IGLevine) January 27, 2015

Evidence of the removal of the three-act structure, and in its place to have a focus on chapters, closer to how Telltale work.

RT @tweetyericsson: @IGLevine Telltale Games style? –No.

— Ken Levine (@IGLevine) January 27, 2015

The chapter structure is similar, but replication of Telltale’s style is a big no.

RT @braxton_wheeler: @IGLevine what is the game about? will it be first person or third? -Current thinking is first.

— Ken Levine (@IGLevine) January 27, 2015

It will likely be first-person, but this can change.

RT @Trey_Tice: give us a hint as to what this setting is? Or is that confidential? –We’re playing with something sci fi. Or sci-fi ish.

— Ken Levine (@IGLevine) January 27, 2015

If Ken Levine is taking on Sci-Fi, I cannot wait!

RT @TheOmnomnomicon: @IGLevine Strictly being developed for PC release or multi-platform? –As of now, developing for pc.

— Ken Levine (@IGLevine) January 27, 2015

Sorry, console gamers, no version for you at launch. But that does not stop the game coming to consoles post launch. This is, however, good news, as the PC platform will get an optimised version.

Is he giving me evils (or the evil eye)?

Enough Tweets!!

After bombarding you all with a hail of Tweets, let’s analyse and guess.

…experience the story is any order. Like with Lego…

To go into more detail about the Lego narrative style, what this allows you, the players, to do is experience the story is any order. Like with Lego, you don’t need to attach each block in a specific order — except for the stuff in the middle. So you start by building a solid foundation, which for a sci-fi world is most likely all the physics of how it works and different species — the lore. Then the player will be able to experience the story chapters in any order. With queues being taken from Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor this can mean some emergent gameplay, which is the dynamic experiences a player has within the world, in this case the enemy system called Nemesis.

Look, even Ken is excited about the new game… ignore the BioShock Infinite backdrop.

The latter of which does an amazing job of making you feel like a proper mage…

Let’s look at the gameplay, we know it will likely be a first person game, but will it be a shooter? Well, judging from the previous work Ken Levine has done, yes. But will there be a ‘plasmids’ style system like in BioShock? This has not been said, and we all know the pros of this system. You get to lob fire or other awesome magic powers. But in a sci-fi world, and in first person, does this work? Well, in fact, yes, it does. Other sci-fi games, such as Mass Effect, which uses Biotics to allow for the manipulation of things, or gain epic abilities. And magic powers in first person have been proven with Skyrim or Lichdom Battlemage. The latter of which does an amazing job of making you feel like a proper Mage, with spell crafting and no mana/magicka — so no cooldown system.

Who will write this?

Judging from Ken Levine’s work with BioShock, and many other titles, he will most certainly be co-writing the game with his colleagues. And with his strong physics background and amazing writing I don’t see any reason for this to change.

Because I’m happy!
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth!

What are you thoughts on Ken Levine’s new project? What are you hoping for? Are you even hoping for anything, or will just be content with whatever comes your way? You know where the comments are (I hope).