Entire Levels Were Cut From ‘BioShock Infinite’ During Development

BioShock Infinite writer Drew Holmes had a lot to say about the game in his recent interview with us. 

As I wrote in a previous article, the development of the game has been an iterative process for the studio. It’s a game which has remained in development for over four years, and one that has gone over a multitude of phases since its inception. 

The amount of time which BioShock Infinite has spent in development is an anomaly in the game industry, where titles—especially those in mainstream franchises like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, are pushed out with regularity and enjoy only an 18 to 24-month development period. 

In contrast to other titles, the developers at Irrational Games can afford to create, experiment with, and subsequently dispose of content they regard as superfluous to their vision of BioShock Infinite. 

“I think we play around with a lot of different systems at Irrational,” said Holmes, who explained why the studio decided to get rid of the game’s multiplayer components. 

“I think you're always experimenting with what elements are going to make the best possible game experience and I think we were clear from the beginning that nothing was going to go into the game if it didn't reach a certain quality bar. It wasn't bringing anything new to the table,” he said.

“We toyed around with multiplayer, we also toyed around with lots of other things in the game: different weapons, different systems and full levels that got cut, so it's been interesting to see the focus of one aspect of the game when there was so much other stuff that we also tend to remove over the course of game development.” 

Irrational Games released an art book chronicling the development behind the original BioShock. With any luck, BioShock Infinite will be given the same treatment for those of us interested in how its world, characters, and gameplay mechanics came about.